Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Football Is Finally Here Edition

Last night, the SEC held down the fort against the ACC, and against the weird idea of Vanderbilt becoming a threat in the East. But just barely.

Tweet of the Morning:

Kentucky wins 5 games this year , Mark Stoops will still be pissed after those 5 games

— Robin Picke (@Based_Rob) August 30, 2013

That's what I think as well. And he should be pissed. If not, he's not the kind of coach we need.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• This article by Jen Smith discusses how Neal Brown's versiion of the Air Raid is different from Hal Mumme's when it comes to running the football.

• The Kentucky Kernel looks at who has the edge in the Western Kentucky Hilltopers vs. Kentucky Wildcats game.

• Chris Diggs previews the Western Kentucky game.

• Heh:

  Matt and I have discussed this several times on radio this week and I’ll say it again here. We want our old Western Kentucky back. This trash-talking is heartbreaking and it bothers me to see us growing apart. We want the lovable little Western we root for 364 days out of the year back in our lives. I love Western Kentucky. I almost went to Western Kentucky. Several friends, colleagues, and family members went to Western Kentucky. But since the Hilltoppers’ upset win in Lexington last year, we hear a lot of mouthing and taunting from Bowling Green and we don’t like it. This isn’t a rivalry and it’ll never be a rivalry, so let’s lose this animosity before it goes beyond the point of return. Let’s be friends again on Sunday, okay? I want to cheer for Big Red and test drive Corvettes again.

  Say it again with feeling. Bobby Petrino's tenure at my alma mater can't be short enough for me.

• Davis brothers NCAA waiver appeal denied. This is absolutely no surprise. They didn't really have a reason that the NCAA was likely to accept. We'll definitely need them next year.

• Western's star running back Antonio Andrews talks about UK, and especially how much blue and white they see around WKU's campus. No real trash talk from him.

• KSR previews the Western Kentucky vs. Kentucky game.

Kentucky basketball

• James Blackmon Jr. visited UK unofficially yesterday. Steve Jones has a recap over at the Courier-Journal. I liked this (remember Blackmon's father, James Sr., played at UK):

  "My dad was real surprised at how things have changed, and he was kind of mad how the locker room looks so much better," said James Blackmon Jr., a former longtime Indiana University commitment who attends Marion (Ind.) High School.

  ...

  "They had his pictures on his wall, and he showed me where he used to be when we were around the campus, and he said he had a lot of memories," Blackmon Jr. said.

• So Dominic Magee doesn't have an offer from Coach Cal yet. But UK is clearly interested.

• Competition for playing time at UK doesn't phase Luke Kennard:

  Some rumors surfaced that Calipari "encouraged" Luke Kennard to make a commitment on his visit. Mark Kennard said Calipari "didn’t put any pressure" on his son to commit.

  Calipari doesn't need to put the hard sell on recruits. This is Kentucky

• Calipari wasn't willing to offer Emmanuel Mudiay's brother Jean-Michael to draw Emmanuel to Kentucky.

Other Kentucky sports

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• The death of Texas A&M's Polo Manukainiu has been much more of a distraction than Johnny Manziel's off-the-field issues. I think that's right. The untimely and sudden death of a young person has a profound effect on everyone.

• Louisville's coaches say they won't run up the score just to make a case for a BCS championship berth. Commendable.

• Ole Miss defeats Vanderbilt in Nashville 39-35. Perspective from Anchor of Gold about the heartbreaking loss. Team Speed Kills says the game was an "instant classic" and an early entry for best SEC game of the season.

• Garnet and Black Attack discusses the South Carolina Gamecock's win over North Carolina in Columbia last night.

  This game did not quite go the way the Gamecocks planned, and I thought the Gamecocks looked out of shape in the defensive front. The fast pace of Larry Fedora's offense seemed to really affect the Gamecocks, and this gives Kentucky some hope, although not much, when we face them in Columbia on October 5th.

  You can read the North Carolina perspective on the game here at the Tar Heel Blog. Team Speed Kills says the game turned out to be "less of a part than the South Carolina fans had hoped for," noting that Jadeveon Clowney was noticeably taking plays off.

• Team Speed Kills says that last night's performance by Clowney illustrates why defenders don't win Heisman Trophies.

• First ejection for the season for a "vicious hit." There will be more.

College basketball

• Dante Exum to skip college this year, perhaps play next August.

• Rush The Court — Morning Five

• All the top ten teams have concerns. I like ours, which mainly boils down to, "Can these kids play together?" better than teams like Louisville, which is that their tallest player is Montrezl Harrell at 6'8".

Other sports news

• Bright Side of the Sun does film study on Eric Bledsoe. Really excellent work.

More from A Sea Of Blue:

• Kentucky FootballTales from the Dark Side: The Charlie Bradshaw Years - Part Four
• Kentucky Wildcats at Western Kentucky: A Sea of Blue Round Table
• ASOB Week 1 Podcast: Kentucky Wildcats vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
• Football GOG 2013 #01: Western Kentucky
• Kentucky Basketball: Welcome To The New Age, Wildcats Fans