Mark Pope had football on the brain this week, but he still made time to put Media Madness in the spotlight.
Kentucky is trying to rebound from its loss to Alabama with a matchup against top-ten Texas A&M in College Station, yet Thursday will bring a different kind of event: Media Madness, where Pope and the Wildcats will open practice to the media and let the reporters see what happens behind the curtain.
Pope talked up the idea Friday on The Paul Finebaum Show outside the William T. Young Library, and he made it clear he’s looking forward to the whole thing. He said 60-70 media members have already RSVP’d, with that number expected to rise if Finebaum makes good on his promise to show up.
“Listen, there may be nobody who’s taken more shots from the media over the last several months than I have, but we’re still working in tandem to make this sport great,” Pope said. “And the truth is, we have media members who tell the stories of our players, and we’ll always be grateful for that.”
Pope also laid out what the event will actually look like. The media won’t just stand around and watch - they’ll go through a full practice, drills included, while players coach and teach. Then comes the twist: the reporters will be the ones facing questions when the press conference flips the usual script.
“The most fun part is we’re doing a full-fledged press conference where we put the media up on the podium, and our guys and staff get to ask questions,” Pope said. “Because I actually want our players to understand that there’s more that goes into this media process than just showing up and eating the hot dog and asking a question; there’s real work that goes into this.”
Pope had already been making the rounds before that. On Saturday, he stopped by Marty & McGee to hand Ryan McGee and Marty Smith some UK sneakers, and he did it while wearing Lance Heard’s No. 53 jersey.
“I can’t wait for this game,” Pope said. “I can’t wait for big No.
53, Lance Heard, to lead the Big Blue Wall to victory against the Tide. I’m talking about an epic win here.
I’m expecting Lance to have at least two pancakes today. Come on, baby!”
Later, Pope joined his team at the game and watched the horse named after him race at Churchill Downs on his phone. Coach Pope the horse picked up its first career win, cruising to victory by 12.5 lengths.
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