Full Broadcast Info for Where to Watch, Stream and Listen to Kentucky vs. Southern Miss (2024)

Steve Holley

“Talking season” is officially over and it’s time for the first full college football Saturday of 2024.

The Kentucky Wildcats will begin Year 12 of the Mark Stoops era in Lexington when Southern Miss visits Kroger Field Saturday for a 7:45 p.m. ET kickoff. The game can be seen on SEC Network.

While Kentucky is a heavy favorite (26.5 points, according to the latest odds from FanDuel Sportsbook), there’s no room for overlooking any team in Week 1, where crazy upsets have been known to happen on an almost annual basis.

As for what to expect from Kentucky this season? Most preseason rankings have the Wildcats in the top 30-40 of FBS teams entering the season. Fox Sports’ preseason Top 25 has the ‘Cats at No. 28, while CBS Sports has them at No. 32. Various bowl projections have Kentucky playing in second-tier bowl games, including the Liberty Bowl (ESPN) and the Las Vegas Bowl (CBS Sports).

Kentucky will be entering a new era at quarterback with the offseason addition of Brock Vandagriff, a former five-star quarterback out of high school who committed to Georgia and spent three years as a backup to Stetson Bennett and Carson Beck before entering the transfer portal.

Receiver and return specialist Barion Brown is back on offense, and Kentucky features two players that made ESPN’s Top 100 list of the best college football players entering the 2024 season: DT Deone Walker (No. 21 overall) and cornerback Maxwell Hairston (No. 84).

Brown was separately ranked the No. 46 best player in the country in CBS Sports’ preseason rankings, while Georgia transfer linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson ranked No. 113.

Saturday’s meeting will mark the fifth all-time head-to-head meeting between Kentucky and Southern Miss. The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 3-1. The two teams last met to open the 2017 season in Hattiesburg, a 24-17 Kentucky victory.