Wednesday Quickies: DeWayne Peevy Edition

Kentucky’s Deputy AD was labeled as a top power player in the SEC

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Jul 29, 2020, 6:40am EDT

Anyone who follows Kentucky Basketball knows how integral a role DeWayne Peevy plays within UK Athletics, particularly within the basketball program.

Kentucky’s Deputy Athletic Director and former Sports Information Director is well-known and greatly respected within the university, but according to AL.com in Alabama, Peevy is also highly respected across the SEC and is nearly guaranteed to one day become an athletic director himself.

The website labeled Peevy as one of the SEC’s “Behind-the-Scenes Power Players.” Here’s what they had to say about him.

It is only a matter of time before the man who has John Calipari’s complete trust becomes an athletic director. The Birmingham native has worked his way up through the PR ranks, from the Gulf South Conference to his alma mater Montevallo to the SEC and, finally, to Kentucky. Peevy spent four years as Kentucky’s basketball SID, where he famously got Calipari to embrace Twitter (he now has 1.6 million followers), before transitioning to deputy AD in 2013. He currently handles a lot of the department’s day-to-day operations and oversees men’s basketball, among other duties. With relationships at every level of the conference, AL.com’s sources paint Peevy as well-liked as one can be in SEC circles. Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart has a terrific track record of developing future ADs — Alabama’s Greg Byrne, Florida’s Scott Stricklin and Oregon’s Rob Mullens, to name a few — and Peevy will be the next one to make the jump.

Kentucky fans know how well-liked and respected Peevy is, so it probably is just a matter of time before he takes a job as a school’s athletic director.

Honestly, the dream scenario would be that Peevy stays around Kentucky long enough to take over for Mitch Barnhart when he retires, but Barnhart is still viewed as one of the conference’s top ADs and seemingly no plans to retire in the near future.

Whatever happens in the future, the Big Blue Nation is glad to have Peevy around right now.