Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - After The Gold Rush Edition

SEC Media Days are finally over, the orgy of sports journalism has subsided. Today, we're picking up the pieces.

Tweet of the Morning:

Congrats to @UKCoachCalipari & @KentuckyMBB on recognition from NABC - only team awarded in the SEC. #WeAreUK | http://t.co/HKUmemsFXV

— Eli Capilouto (@UKYpres) July 18, 2013

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• The pool of offered WRs keeps getting smaller for the Cats. See also here. [Hank]

• In my Friday Night Blue Lights article two days ago, I reported that ATH Stanton Truitt will be attending. Scratch that. He committed to Auburn yesterday. [Hank]

• That's the bad news. Now for the good news that one of my sources asked me not to publish in the same article. Of course, KSR broke the news, but they left off one (Cleveland) Glenville HS (5.8) 4* Safety target that I still feel obligated not to mention by name. [Hank]

• Here's an excellent piece by Patrick Loney, owner/operator of Kentucky Blue Sports News who also is a front page contributor for Varsity Preps. He has a complete list of those who should be in the UK camps this weekend. It is a pretty impressive list. [Hank]

• The UK staff is working hard on the 2015 class. Check this one out. 4.4 speed! [Hank]

• More on the 2015 class. Names you should've already heard. [Hank]

• Question for our readers: Is this a fair assessment? [Hank]

• Looks like Alvonte Bell won't be enrolling this August. [Hank]

• Raymond Sanders and his dad are happy campers (very telling about the differences between last year and this year). [Hank]

• Please, God, let Donte Rumph have a year where he plays without significant injury. Please.

  But there he stood Wednesday in The Wynfrey Hotel with a record 1,239 media members. After surgery in the spring, UK’s medical staff put Rumph on a rigorous rehabilitation plan that clearly has worked. He said he’s 95 percent healthy, recently bench-pressed 335 pounds and expects to start the opener against Western Kentucky on Aug. 31.

  "It was a must," he said. "You know, time is not exactly on my side, it being my last year. Just to get back and get in the groove of things, it’s a blessing from God. If (the injury) would’ve been any later, I probably would’ve missed my first game."

• Kentucky felt dissed by Western last year. Well, whatever motivates them. I think this is overblown, and frankly, Western Kentucky had a right to expect more from Kentucky than what they got last year.

  My advice? Shut up and prove it on the field.

• Why would Mark Stoops "dis" the Georgia Bulldogs? He wouldn't, and didn't. Georgia fans and sportswriters, get over your bad selves.

• Stoops Survives Biggest Test -- Following Johnny Football. Well, some of the shiny has worn off of Johnny Manziel after some pretty silly public behavior this past summer, so that wasn't quite the challenge it might have been if Manziel were more like Tim Tebow and less like Steven Garcia.

• "Smooth" is not the adjective that comes to my mind when watching Stoops' performance. "Calm," either. I guess it comes down to beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

  Honestly, I thought Stoops did fine, rather better than some of his public appearances. He's young, and learning.

• Mark Stoops diplomatically deflects questions about brother Bob's comments about the SEC.

• SEC Media Days: Q&A with Kentucky football players.

• Interesting comments from ESPN's director college football recruiting service. Mandatory disclosure: He went to school at Eastern Kentucky.

• A pretty nice, if non-committal article at the Orlando Sentinel about Mark Stoops and Kentucky.

• Kentucky depth chart released in the media guide.

• Did you know that Commonwealth Stadium has rafters? Neither did I:

  Would Cat fans continue to support a football team — even in October and November — if it’s in the race for an East Division crown? Probably. But there’s no proof of that. First, because we haven’t seen Commonwealth Stadium packed to the rafters late in the season and, second, because Big Blue Nation hasn’t been given a title-worthy team to watch in decades. [my emphasis]

  Well, we are known as a basketball school, so I suppose any such confusion with Rupp Arena is understandable.

Kentucky basketball

• John Calipari was in Washington D.C. yesterday to evaluate recruits at the Nike Global Challenge.

• Kentucky one of six schools to be recognized by the NABC for academic excellence. Awesome. More over at CoachCal.com.

Other UK sports

• Kentucky senior golfer Ben Stow was +5 on his first round of the British Open.

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• Best of SEC Media Days -- day 2.

• Ohio St. turns in Florida for a secondary violation, and Will Muschamp takes a shot. Funny.

• Want a free college football preseason guide? Here's one.

• SEC 2013 preseason poll. Kentucky, of course, is picked deaad last, even behind Missouri. Tennessee gets picked behind Vandy. that has to sting.

• James Franklin faced with a lot of off-the-field questions. Is Vanderbilt becoming the new Florida in terms of lawlessness?

• Coordinator of officials for the SEC talks about "targeting" and "dangerous contact fouls."

College basketball

• Tony Barbee must stop the off-the-court drama that has consumed his program at Auburn.

• In case you missed it, Ryan Harrow was granted a waiver by the NCAA to play immediately at Georgia State. That's good news, and I'm really happy for him.