The Kentucky football season opener will have a unique feel for the 2011 season.

Instead of the program’s traditional weekend kickoff, UK will begin its season on Thursday, Sept. 1, against Western Kentucky in Nashville, Tenn. 

UK will play on a Thursday because Tennessee State, the priority college tenant at LP Field, the site of the season opener, already has a game scheduled for that Saturday. When UK scheduled the game with WKU, the contract stated that the game could be played on Thursday, Sept. 1, or Saturday, Sept. 3.

Game time and TV details have not been set.

The game will mark UK’s first weekday game since a Thursday matchup with South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., in 2007.