I was about 20 years young when I attended my first college football contest. It was at Commonwealth Stadium as UK was in the midst of a rebuild under Rich Brooks with Miss. State in town.
Ever since that night at Commonwealth, I have been a huge fan of this game and the love I have for it has grown with every game watched. The following year, I was in the stands for the Georgia game that saw the field goal post taken down by rabid fans as UK upset the Dawgs.
That experience would only fuel that fire of passion for both the Kentucky Wildcats football team and the sport as a whole. That interception by Trevard Lindley on Matthew Stafford was one of the first times I got that light headed feeling from cheering on the Cats.
Throughout the years I have seen a lot of great talent go through the NCAA and make waves in the NFL. Calvin Johnson from Georgia Tech, AJ Green from Georgia, Andrew Luck at Stanford, Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu from LSU, and countless others.
Speaking of Patrick Peterson this clip from Devin Booker kinda cracks me up!
One practice in & @DevinBook is looking to go up against @RealPeterson21. pic.twitter.com/na1x190QiP
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) August 26, 2016
Booker seems pretty confident here!
With all those guys who successfully played both in college and the pros, there are also those who showed promise and then fell flat. The names that comes to mind are JaMarcus Russell from LSU and Brady Quinn From Notre Dame.
Fast forward to 2013 and I now have season tickets for the first time and to say I was disappointed in my team would be an understatement. It was Mark Stoops' first season as a head coach and he inherited a less than stellar talent pool.
The very first game showed everyone what the absence of talent will do to you when we lost to Bobby Petrino and the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky. From there Kentucky battled but came up short in all but two games that season.
That season still lit a fire in the BBN for what Stoops could do for the program. He had success recruiting in Florida his first class and starting working Ohio in his 2nd class. That second class included Drew Barker, Dorian Baker, Blake Bone, Mike Edwards, Boom Williams, and Matt Elam. It was ranked 23rd in the nation by 247 Sports.
Now, I get to cover this wonderful sport and connect with the kids that will be the future stars in college and possibly even the pros!
Finding something that you are passionate about and can make a career of is the best feeling I've had in my professional life! I have grown from being a spectator, to fan/blogger at ukfansallday.com, and now to a writer at A Sea Of Blue.
I started contributing to ASOB this off-season, and it has benefited me immensely in my writing ability. I can't wait to see where this sport takes me professionally and can't wait for this sport to get started back up and entertain the masses again!