OK, I'll finally admit it.
Following Kentucky spring football is a waste of time. There, I said it. Trust me when I say that I love all Kentucky teams, from the golfers to the women's table tennis team. But that does not make all of them equal. Especially when the best record the team has mustered in a decade is around .500.
That doesn't mean I'm not excited about recently improved recruiting and focus. It doesn't mean you shouldn't be, either. But after a lifetime of watching three miserable teams followed by a single good one and three more dogs, it's hard to see any chance of Kentucky breaking into the SEC's upper division on the gridiron.
I still fully expect UK to lose to Tennessee. I fully expect a slugfest with a MAC team that can go either way. I fully expect a lot of dumb mistakes on offense and a sketchy, tenuous secondary to blow a close game against a Florida or Alabama, negating momentum.
It's not that I hope for these, far from it. I've tried to get excited about it ... I read a little about who's faring well in practice, I follow the recruiting game ... I check in on the returning starters.
But after a lifetime's worth of dashed hopes and false starts and 10-yard losses, how realistic can one be about spring football in the bluegrass? The program hasn't won a bowl game since 1984. Hasn't been to one in 7 years. The current coach is 6-17 at the helm. His predecessor? 9-14.
I'll admit I like the talent level at the skill positions, and that the probation's end could hold promise. However, the games are still played on the field, and those are the games -- in the fall -- that matter.
Until then, you'll pardon me if I give short shrift to the football program. Show us some results, not more crushed hopes. Frankly, after a lifetime of waiting, I've about run out of blanket hopes.
It is, after all, still basketball recruiting season.