Kentucky Wildcats Football: Ridge Wilson Dismissed, Combine Notes

By now you probably know that Kentucky Wildcats' OLB Ridge Wilson was dismissed from the team following a drug related arrest in Louisville over the weekend. After allegedly giving an officer permission to search his car, Wilson was found to have nearly $2000 in cash and a number of Xanex, presumably outside of a proper container. It was not Wilson's first brush with the law after landing at UK. You might remember that he was charged with assault during his freshman season after allegedly punching a woman in the face. Football is probably the least of Wilson's problems right now, but his absence is now an additional headache Joker Phillips didn't need.

Without Danny Trevathan and Ronnie Sneed, the Cats' linebacking corps figured to be subpar in 2012 under the best of circumstances. The loss of Wilson leaves Kentucky without a returning starter. The only good news is the presence of Alvin Dupree, who was stellar at times sharing time with Wilson on passing downs as a true frosh. I expected both Wilson and Dupree to play the majority of defensive snaps this year, with some shuffling to get them on the field at the same time. That isn't going to happen. If the season started tomorrow, Avery Williamson and Malcolm McDuffen would join Dupree on the first string, our starting linebackers averaging just 225lbs. It may be difficult for Kentucky to play Rick Minter's 3-4, which requires linebackers to shed blocks to make plays, with this lack of size.

To compound matters, Kentucky has no experienced depth. While Wilson tries to get his life back together, he can do so with the knowledge that he has royally screwed his team as well as himself.

Speaking of Trevathan, he has had a tough time at this week's NFL Combine. The former Cat did not run the 40 yard dash, and in fact skipped the majority of the combine's drills. According to WLEX's Brent Carney's Twitter feed, Trevathan was suffering from a hamstring injury that led to his election to opt out of a number of workouts. Danny did test out in the bench press, vertical jump and the broad jump. Results were not particularly good. The SEC's leading tackler did eighteen reps at 225lbs., measured out at 111" in the broad jump and had 31.5" hops. For most human beings, those are great numbers. Compared to elite college LBs, not so much. Trevathan placed near the bottom at his position in all three drills.

Unlike Wilson, Trevathan did everything right while at UK. From All Star game snubs to this week's apparent setback, I hate that things aren't going well for him. We all know not to count Danny out. Some things can't be measured on a stopwatch, and he has them all.

Winston Guy is working out today, but as of right now, his only posted result is a rather pedestrian 4.65 in the forty. As a run stopping safety, he wasn't expected to post a blazing 40 time anyway, and we wish Guy all the luck in the world as the day goes on. (Update: Guy did not participate in either the bench press, broad jump or vertical in the measurable drills. I have not been able to glean whether this was part of the plan or due to injury. Also, his official 40 time was downgraded to a 4.70.)

Follow me on Twitter @AlexScutchfield