The Big Blue Daily Mail -- The Deep Breath Before The Plunge
by Glenn Logan on Aug 31, 2009 7:22 PM EDT
in Kentucky Wildcats News
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PrintThis week is the deep breath before the plunge into football season. It is time. It is here.
The greatest thing about football season for Kentucky fans is that it means basketball season is only about six weeks away. To football fans in the SEC, that may seem like blasphemy, but to most of us here in the Commonwealth, it is bliss.
But Kentucky football will get its share of attention, and this football team looks like one of Brooks' best, at least judging by what we are hearing in practice. There has been very little controversy, and even less rulebreaking that is hitting the public airwaves, like this Michigan story. I feel for the Wolverine fans, because this is the kind of one-sided, more-opinion-than-fact reporting UK has seen all summer regarding Calipari. I agree with Dave that this must cease, but it will not -- sadly.
Today was a half-day of golf today (which is why I am so late getting a post up), and I had my best game this year -- 43 (with a snowman on one hole) on the front, 37 on the back (with an untimely double-bogey) for an 80. The only disappointment is that it could have just as easily been a 75. Oh, well, maybe next time.
Now, for the news.
Top Stories
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RTC Babe Meets P-Pat and Wall…
Thank heavens all three of them look a lot better than Billy Gillipie did in his late-night photo op the other day. -
Darius Miller Q&A: Kentucky swingman thinks 'Cats can be really good - Mike DeCourcy - College Basketball - Sporting News
SN: You've had a chance to be around coach Calipari for about five months—when he's been here. Is he different than your perception might have been?
DM: Before he came, I didn't know a lot about him. I knew he was a successful coach, but that was pretty much all I knew about him. But I was surprised with how he was. He's a real fun person, has a lot of fun with everything. He really wants us to grow as a family.
Love it. -
Stock Report: Matthews, Evans, Cobb climbing
I think Chris Fisher is right on the money in this analysis. - SEC 2009 // The Lexington Ledger - Team Speed Kills
UK Basketball News
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UK notebook: Calipari restoring players' swagger | KentuckySports.com
After two seasons of boot camps, bleeding feet, broken noses, concussions and a bullheaded emphasis on toughness, Kentucky basketball enjoys a renaissance. - The Immortals: UK's 25 'Legends' #8
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"It's all about John Wall. If he's the guy then Kentucky is for real. They've got everything else."
Nice work by Paul Jordan at Wildcat Blue in a Sea of Orange. - Kansas, Connecticut looking like UK’s prime competitors for 2010 targets
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Rivals.com College Basketball - Monday tip: An early Final Four prognostication
I love this:
Kentucky: After watching the Wildcats practice last week, I'm convinced they're the most talented team in America. I'm not sure it's even close. Everyone talks about John Wall and rightfully so but, folks, DeMarcus Cousins is a beast. If John Calipari's squad puts it all together, there won't be a better team.
UK Football News
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Prediction time for the college football season
Crawford goes with the safe bet -- 7-5. -
Bowl awaits 6-6 Cats | KentuckySports.com
But not everyone agrees. -
Trevard Lindley profile | KentuckySports.com
Trevard Lindley is about to put the finishing touches on what could be the best-ever career by a University of Kentucky defensive back. -
Kentucky maintains connection to LaGragne High football - Sports - Ledger-Enquirer.com
LAGRANGE, Ga. — The resurgence of Kentucky football has been in part due to a growing number of LaGrange High products. Former Grangers have been a fixture on the Wildcats’ roster in recent years and played a key role in three straight bowl wins for the once struggling program. -
Kentucky team preview - USC Football 2009 Season Preview
Why USC Won't Win: Rich Brooks. The legendary coach has turned Kentucky from the league's laughing stock to one other teams fear to play against. That won't change in 2009, as Brooks looks to lead the Wildcats to a fourth consecutive bowl victory. Kentucky's players know that they haven't played up to their abilities against the Gamecocks lately and seem determined to get the proverbial monkey off of their back in Columbia this season. All streaks must come to an end, and the Wildcats and their veteran coach feel certain that they'll notch their first victory over Carolina this decade come October.
Brooks is "legendary?" I love me some Rich Brooks, but I have never heard him referred to as "legendary." But I guess I'm okay with it, especially if he manages a fourth winning season in a row.
Other UK Sports News
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Around Kentuckiana: Cats beat Cards 1-0 in women's soccer
Nice to beat the Cardinals in anything
NCAA Sports News
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UNLV Looking for Big Things from Derrick Jasper
Always nice to check in on a former Wildcat. -
Meyer tops SEC coaches' rankings
I suppose we can thank all the new guys that Rich Brooks isn't last.
Other News of Interest
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Stage Money: They're not Scalpers: They're Ticket Brokers
Personally, I never had any problem with people scalping tickets -- it's just free trade and commerce. Nobody is being forced to buy anything, if you want tickets to a sold-out event, you should be able to sell it for whatever someone is willing to pay. -
Legal experts: Convicting former PRP football coach will be tough | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
Prosecutors face huge obstacles in trying to convict former Pleasure Ridge Park High School football coach Jason Stinson when he goes on trial Monday in Jefferson Circuit Court, say former prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and law professors.
Huge. This case, in my humble opinion, should never have been brought.
The Daily Schadenfreude
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It's third and long for Coach K | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
He has an 11-13 record at U of L and has yet to take the team to a bowl, the first time since 1996-97 that the Cardinals have let consecutive seasons pass without a postseason appearance.
It will take some coaching job to get the Cards bowl-worthy this year.
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Comments
I smell football in the air.....
Saturday can’t come soon enough! I can’t imagine how jacked up those players will be to play a game at PBS. Let’s do this!
Slower Traffic Keep Right!
Speak for yourself Tru
I’m way excited for football to start. Can’t wait to see if there is a big dog we can pull down in the SEC. We have a backbreaker of a schedule but we will get some looks at some top teams. Can’t wait to see if Hartline and the offense are as good as billed!
We are building a football program in Kentucky of all places, against all odds in the SEC. it’s fun to watch.
schedue
if it weren’t for the ill-placed bye week, i would be inclined to think this is a pretty decent schedule. no ole miss or LSU to worry about, the SEC East is as open as it has been in quite some time, and a not-too-tough nonconference slate. no bye week might hurt us as we run the late September-early October gauntlet, but hopefully we pull through
I'm lookin forward to myself
from all the talk, things seem to be going well, guess we’ll see
Brooks press conference today
http://www.kentucky.com/817/story/916567.html
He is anxious for the season to start as are the players. Per Brett Dawson at the CJ after Saturday’s scrimmage, Brooks is tired of talking and replying to the same questions repeatedly. He is ready to play ball!
For what it's worth, my take -
He know this team isn’t covered well or deeply by the press and must be whispering sweet nothings to Story, Clay and Crawford while Crawford presents the daily grind that is “football camp”. (Meanwhile, Vaught provides some input but his heart is in basketball.) Any non-local reporter in town the last couple of weeks has been sidetracked into the “Coaches Gone Bad” events and given cursory coverage so Brooks and company are ready to take the field, kick butt and give notice.
By halftime on Saturday we could very well see something we haven’t seen in quite a few years – a team with an offense and a defense. Sure it’s MiamI, a team that doens’t exactly enduce fear. By the time the game is over the national press will at least raise one eybrow and say “Huh?”.
Well......I guess all the waiting is almost over....
And we thought football would never get here. OOOOOOOO…lol….I am so excited :-)
Go Big Blue ! !
Plus the rivals.com quote sounds, well let’s just say, it sounds so extremely good for our b-ball team. I am so excited.
Go Cats ! !
:-)
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
Thank the maker that
the summer doldrums are coming to a close and college sports is alive with the smell of tailgaiting and jailbaiting!
Pigskin and bareskin will be all the rage for the next few weeks. The first conference tilt, the ultimate rivalry and the tawdry affair are soon to grace our screens while we swill some brews, take some chews, maybe a lil wine, either way we are all fine. Why? cause there’s some boys in tights and pads smacking the crap outta each other and creating havoc on the turf while thousands of fans try to reenact their favorite play with a nerf.
aaaaahhhhhhhh nothing like college football season.
GO BIG BLUE!!!!! 10-2!!!
I LOVE COOKING WITH WINE
Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Hartline ∼ Woodson
If Michael Hartline is to be a QB to be remembered now is the time.
"[O]f those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1
It's FOOTBALL time in the Bluegrass
I’m soooo pumped for Saturday. It’s going to be a beautiful day great for tailgating and watching the CATS!!!!! I really hope the CATS have a good year from all the talk it sounds like the CATS will be just fine!
GO CATS!!!! Cincinnati will be a “Sea of Blue” Saturday! GO CATS!!!!
I'm setting the over under at 12
That is the number of bums that will beg for money outside of PBS…….
First time I shot her, shot her in the side.
Hard to watch her suffer, but with the second shot she died...
I'll take the over!
You hit the wrong side street around that stadium and you can quickly get in some NASTY neighborhoods.
Nice score, Tru.
Sorry ’bout the 8, but impressive to still shoot 80.
If I can break 85 this fall, I’ll be happy. I play my best golf in the cooler weather, so perhaps that’s not out of reach.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
--O.W.
It really helped ...
… that I didn’t have a single 3-putt all day, and I got up and down at least 5 times for par, but the up-and-downs were less impressive when you figure that they were all really close to the green. My putting is streaky, but I think I missed one put inside of ten feet all day. Nobody could be unhappy with that, and I was one under on the back until 16, where I got into trouble and double-bogied.
Ball-striking wise, it was not a particularly good round, and I predictably hit one off the golf course which directly contributed to the snowman. The wind was up a lot, so that made a couple of good shots turn bad.
But my last 3 rounds have all been sub-85, including an 80, 81 and 83, which are all acceptable to me. I am capable of shooting under 80 consistently if I could get in more than two or three rounds a month, but that’s just hard unless I am in Myrtle Beach or something. :-)
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Man Tru
You’ll be moving back away from the ladies’ tees in no time :) 80 is impressive from any tee, I’d like to see you do it at Vettiner.
I didn't know ...
… that the blue tees were for the ladies. :-)
I used to play Vettiner, and it is a tough track on the back side. I haven’t played there in many years now, but I used to shoot in the low forties and high thirties on the front nine, and mid to low forties on the back. I was playing much worse then, though, and rarely got out.
Yesterday, we played Shelbyville CC from the back — I grew up on that course, but it has changed considerably from when I used to carry a low single-digit handicap in my youth — it plays a bit longer and now has sand traps. In my day, it had postage-stamp greens and no traps.
We played Valhalla a few years back. I think I had an 85 from the men’s tees. One of my budies shot 72 out there, but he lives on Greenbriar Country Club in Lexington and is just way better than me.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Shelbyville CC
I played it once and I kept getting lost from one tee to the next, the course was confusing. Wessinger is pretty fun though. I didn’t start playing golf until about 4 years ago, thought it was lame until I tried it, now I can’t quit playing. Vettiner, to me, is the best municy course in Louisville. Seneca is longer, but the fairways aren’t quite as nice.
It used to make more sense.
They changed the routing about 20 years ago, and opened up a new par five on the other side of the lake. When I was a kid, that whole area was just a farm.
The way it’s laid out now is very confusing, I expect, to anybody who doesn’t play it a lot. #17 used to be, quite logically, #3, since you have to drive right by #17 tee to get to #4, which is old #10. #18 used to be #14, and #10 was #15. My brother’s hole in one was on old #17, which was a par three that used to use #8 green (the long par 5 over the lake). The tee was at the top of the hill where you hit your third shot from now.
It’s an abortion as far as cart path routing is concerned, but there was just no way to make the course work without some compromises.
Wessinger Hills is a fun little course, very easy on the front, a little tougher on the back. I usually shoot low eighties there, it has more birdie holes, I think, than Shelbyville has. If I remember right, Wessinger has only 2 par fives, both short, #1 and #18. There might be another one in there, but its been a while since I played there.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Tru beats UKFASTKAT, one up
Tru,
It only took you two days to beat my 81 from Hole in One Sunday.
I went out in 38 (an ace never hurts) but the adrenaline from the perfect shot finally caught up with me on the back (43). Like you said, coulda shoulda been in the mid-seventies.
Good on ya.
Now, get out there before the snowmen are actually real. Indian Summer is the best golf weather of the year in the Bluegrass.
GO KATS, whip Miami so bad in the first half they don’t come out for the second.
Heh.
I sure wish I could luck into an ace (God knows I’m not skilled enough to back one up into the hole like you did). All these years and countless rounds, and I’ve never had one. My brother and father both have, and so has my best buddy.
Maybe someday …
If I could just get some consistency in my iron play, I think I’d be fine. Yesterday, I hit long irons great, but one six iron cost me a double on 16, and that just bummed me. Normally, I’d be hitting pitching or gap wedge into that hole, but my drive was a little low and caught a tree, leaving me a long way from the hole. I hit it in a bad place and wound up with a six. :-(
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Good going Tru....
I am positive your hole in one is coming. I will admit I have never conquered the game, (putt-putt is more my style)…LOL…..but hey, blue is a really nice color…..The best color, I might add. :-)
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
It could be a detached retina
;-)
The screen is looking fine on my end.
Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."
Sounds like your monitor might be on the fritz.
Looks OK to me in Firefox for Windows and Linux, and IE.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
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