This coming Saturday could be the most exciting weekend of the off-season for Big Blue Nation.  

Rich Brooks’ gridiron Cats will be wrapping up a successful spring practice (no season or career-ending injuries translates into successful football during the spring in the college coaches’ eye) with the annual Blue - White spring game at 1:00 p.m. in Commonwealth Stadium, and then if that’s not enough you can drive down I-64 to Louisville and catch what could be the newest Wildcat for Billy Gillispie in the annual Adidas Derby Festival All Star game at 7:30 p.m. in Freedom Hall.  

Going into the last week of spring workouts, not many surprises have developed at the Nutter Training Center. The quarterback situation going into the spring was between Jr. Curtis Pulley and RS Soph. Mike Hartline, nothing seems to have changed. According to my sources that have witnessed all spring workouts to date. However, as the spring football season draws to a close it will be interesting to see if Brooks names a starter at QB going into the summer workout season. Remember two years ago when coming out of the spring season Brooks all but named Pulley as the heir apparent to the QB position over Andre Woodson and we all know how that turned out, don’t we? This time around I’m betting Brooks takes a more wait and see approach between Pulley & Hartline which should lay a strong hint to Pulley what his coach expects from him during the lazy hazy days of summer. A mild surprise on the offensive side may be the emergence of former Jr. DB E.J. Adams & RS freshman Anthony Mosley at the WR position, which is in severe need of help with the graduation of three solid receivers. It is way to early to speculate but one can’t help but feel with the depth and quality of running backs UK has we may be looking at a 70% run and 30% pass type of offense in the fall and maybe even more on the run side if things don’t click early in the non conference games between the new QB and young receiving corps.  

Defensively the Cats return several players at all positions but will need to find a new linebacker to take the place of Wesley Woodyard, however that is one position that the Cats have much experience and depth at. Former Belfry star David Jones enters his senior season this fall and reportedly has been turning in impressive workouts at defensive back and looks to be the starter across from All-SEC Jr. Trevard Lindley who normally draws the assignment of the opponent’s top wide receiver. Talentwise and depthwise UK is approaching the quality of defense that Jerry Claiborne had in the 80s; now if they can just execute and perform this fall like those Claiborne teams, Big Blue Nation could possibly look favorably toward a third straight bowl season.  

Even with the Internet & technology age that we live in, it has become somewhat of a difficult task in getting accurate info and tracing UK’s Billie Gillispie in his recruiting efforts. According to a couple of college basketball’s top recruiting services Rivals.comScout.com,this coming weekend’s Derby Festival Classic will showcase three possible new recruits that UK is courting. a 6′ 10″ 220 lb. C/PF from the Heat Basketball Academy in Martinsville, Va. will be taking an official visit to UK early in the week then travel on to Louisville to participate in Friday & Saturdays Derby Festival Classic fest-ivities. Majok reportedly has narrowed his choices to U-Conn - Kansas - Baylor - UK. Other Cat recruits expected in this all-star gala are a 6′ 10″ 215 lbs./PF prospect from Largo H.S. in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Sutton is said to be leaning toward a UK commitment over Boston College. The third and final UK recruit expected in Louisville is Paul McCoy a 6′ 0″ PG from Grant H.S. in Portland, Oregon who is said to be excited about his visit to the Bluegrass as well as the Adidas Derby Festival Classic. McCoy has reportedly narrowed his choices to UK - Washington State - Virginia - SMU. UK’s November signees Deandre Liggins & Darius Miller will be joining the above mentioned recruits on the Black team in Saturday night’s Derby Festival Classic tip off at 7:30. Plenty tickets remain available by going online at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling toll free at (800) - 487 - 1212. None of these recruits rate very high on the radar with any of the gurus in the recruiting services, none expect to be impact players as freshman but all are solid Div. 1 players who will have an impact in time.  

Roderick Flemmings a 6′ 7″ P/F out of a junior college in Texas is the most highly rated recruit left on UK’s list, Flemmings originally signed two years ago with Oklahoma State as a 4-star recruit out of high school and played one year for the Cow-boys averaging 4.1 ppg. and 1.9 RPG. Playing 11 minutes a game then became dis-enchanted with his role in the Cowboy program and transferred to a JC in Texas played a year and now is ready to return to Div. 1 basketball. Flemmings was to have taken an official visit to UK this past weekend.