Okay… so I had my son Sam on the air Saturday making his pick. He took Kentucky by ten.

I like the way he thinks… though I’m going to go a little closer.

24-17 UK.

I, like all true blue fans, have been waiting for this day since January 1st.

It’s football time in the bluegrass… let’s get it rolling!

One little aside, as a Missouri alum, I can’t tell you how much fun it was to watch Chase Daniel march that team up and down the field. In all my years of Missouri fandom… the expectations have never been this high. We’ve never had a real shot at a national championship. Pardon my departure from the world of blue… but GO TIGERS!

Back to UK-UL… don’t think my enthusiam has diminished one bit. So many questions answered today… the biggest… will the Cats start 4-0?

Absolutely…

I’ll be leaving the blogosphere for a few days… I am headed on an Alaskan cruise with my family and couldn’t be more excited. (except for when I return home and it’s only six more days until UK-Louisville)

But I will be making every attempt to keep up with the Olympics… especially when Tyson Gay runs.

The Olympics have been getting killer ratings this year and why not? It’s really been a lot of fun to watch. I’m sure Michael Phelps is a big part of it, but I have enjoyed watching swimming a lot more this year.

I can’t wait for track and field to start… and between hiking up glaciers and eating salmon… I’ll be checking it out.

Talk to you soon… GO CATS!

There have sure been some exciting moments so far… but they’re about to get better.

I was thinking, when I was a kid… I LOVED the Olympics. My whole family gathered around the tv and watched every minute of the summer and winter games. We loved your basics, gymnastics, skating, swimming, track and field, skiing. But it seems like Olympians aren’t the heros they were in days past.

The Carl Lewis’, the Mary Lou Rettons (by the way, did you know she had a clothing line right after her perfect 10? She did. I owned most of it and even cut my hair like her)

Where have they gone?

They’re still here. Michael Phelps is going to end up with more gold medals than anyone in Olympic history. Tyson Gay could be crowned the fastest man in the world. The US men’s Olympic team took the bronze medal tonight… that after losing their best two gymnasts, the Hamm twins, just before the games. There are wonderful and inspirational stories everywhere. We will all hear about them by the time the games are over… and we will remember them.

The more I thought about why I looked so fondly on past games and Olympians… I realized I didn’t know who Mary Lou Retton was before the Olympics. So just because you don’t know the athletes now, doesn’t mean you won’t. There’s a whole new batch of heroes to be made for kids today.

I hope they’re watching.

What a huge pick up for Rich Brooks and company. Recruiting two big time quarterbacks like Mossakowski out of Texas and Morgan Newton from Indianapolis… you’d like to think Kentucky would get one of them. But if you look at their offers and their lists… it was a very good possibility that neither would choose UK.

It seems almost like a foregone conclusion now that Newton won’t come to Lexington. Both QB’s want to play right away so it wouldn’t make sense. Either one would be great.

Joker Phillips had said that priorities in this class are a big time quarterback and a big time running back. Mossakowski certainly fills one of those spots.

You know that high school kids… especially those being heavily recruited… look at all the websites and the message boards and they pay attention to where other guys are going. So wouldn’t you think that some of the three and four star wideouts that may have Kentucky on their list might bump them up knowing what kind of QB they just picked up?

Kentucky beat out the likes of Auburn, Alabama and Texas A & M among others for Mossakowski’s arm… ranked the 5th best pro-style quarterback in the country by Rivals.com.

Here are some of his numbers:

He threw for 3,029 yards and 19 touchdowns last year and completed 57 percent of his passes with 13 interceptions. He also ran for seven touchdowns. In his career, he is 567-for-984 passing for 6,088 yards and 36 touchdowns. He has rushed for 539 yards and 18 touchdowns.

True Blue fans should be pumped… they are going to love this guy (so will I)

Check out this story… might give you a good laugh about former UK coach Hal Mumme.

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/8962/not_just_a_college_football_coach,_but_a_sensitivity_coach,_too

Over the past few days, two UK quarterbacks have been arrested for various things, Curtis Pulley and Will Fidler.
I don’t know how much you read message boards or listen to talk radio, but there are some out there questionning the media because of this.

I just wanted to make a few points in our defense.

We did not run with the story immediately on Pulley. There was a lot of research, checking and re-checking our facts and discussion before we ever put it on the air. The information we used came strictly from police reports. There was no conjecture or speculation, simply the reporting of what was on those reports.

If it’s proven at some point that the police made a mistake or Pulley or Fidler is cleared of any charges, we will report that, too.

Believe me, I’m as big a Kentucky fan as you are (which is not always great when trying to be objective) so it’s not something we relish reporting. But when you are trying to be the starting quarterback at Kentucky, you are a public figure. To be heralded for every touchdown you throw, you have to be prepared for a backlash when you make mistakes off the field.

I just want to assure our viewers that we take great care in making sure we don’t go on the air until we have confirmed our story through several stories, which is exactly what we did… including UK.

I hope both players get another chance… but their mistakes are not the media’s fault for reporting it after the fact.

Thanks, I’m off my high horse now

You have to wonder… how many chances does a player get with Rich Brooks? Taken by themselves, nothing that Curtis Pulley has done has been off the charts terrible. But as a whole, it’s an unmistakeable pattern.

Is Pulley ready to lead UK on the field if he can’t be a leader off of it?

Brooks is a no-nonsense coach who probably didn’t like getting a call after LEX 18 called UK to tell them of Pulley’s troubles. My guess is he likes it even less that Pulley isn’t the one who told the coach about it.

As my dad always used to tell me… I will be more upset if you lie to me than I will be about what you actually did wrong.

After going through what he’s gone through, you would think Pulley would have learned his lesson. He loses out on the starting quarterback job two years ago because he couldn’t get his act together. Then he left UK all together, not knowing if he’d be back, because of academic problems.

Most true blue fans thought that if given another chance to win the starting job, Pulley would make the most of it and not make any missteps.

Unfortunately, they were wrong.

The quarterback dilemma has been on-going since the last down Andre Woodson played in the Music City Bowl. It went on through the spring and continued into summer. The heated battle was expected to carry over into fall camp. But Pulley may have made the decision an easier one for Brooks and his staff. Brooks said Pulley is facing disciplinary action, possibly loss of playing time. I would be surprised if he wasn’t suspended a couple of games at least… depending on conversations Pulley will have with Brooks, it could be more.

So, for now at least, many true blue fans will be jumping on that Hartline train.

For those of you who weren’t at Applebee’s Park on Sunday… I was fortunate enough to be the guest PA announcer for the game and it was a blast.

But I have to toot my own horn. Jonathan Fixler hit three homeruns in the game. After two… as he was walking up to the batter’s box… I called out number three. I said it would happen and the guys in the booth looked at me like I was crazy! They thought I had jinxed him and after I thought about it for a minute, I thought I had too. But on the 3-1 pitch… Fixler went yard again! Redemption!

Of course, Fixler did have another at bat in the game and this time I didn’t want to push my luck. He did hit an RBI single, so that finished out an amazing day for him… and for me.

Just want to thank everyone out there for making me feel welcome… it really is a great place to bring the whole family or some friends to watch the game.

Just when I thought nothing could quell my desire to talk football 24/7… Billy Gillispie speaks! I believe the guy is a straight-shooter and listening to him… I am now jazzed for the basketball season. (that excitement will be tempered if Deandre Liggins and Kevin Galloway are not cleared to play) Gillispie sounds optimistic that the two will be on the bench this season. I don’t think he would have said that if it wasn’t true… I think he would have just avoided the question.

I think it’s the right move not to replace Bill Keightly, at least not this year. Other staff members will pick up the slack, but that seat just can’t be filled.

As for Mark Coury, I wish him the best. I would imagine he took a lot of heat last year for starting… which wasn’t his fault at all. He just worked his tail off in practice and it didn’t always translate to the game. But he is a good kid, very smart, and deserves to be on scholarship somewhere, which is what he’s trying to do. I wish him the best, as does Billy Gillispie who said he would welcome Coury back to the team if things didn’t work out for him elsewhere.

Does it surprise anyone that Patrick Patterson is healing faster than expected? After all, the guy has been superman… and could very well end up being the SEC player of the year.

Gillispie sounded thrilled with the progress of Josh Harrellson. He’s brought his weight down from 272 to 262 since getting on campus… and has a target weight of 255. Gillispie praised his soft touch and said he will be a big part to the puzzle.

One thing that excited me… and I know true blue fans… is that Gillispie said his team wasn’t going to play the way it did last year. Last year’s style was more due to necessity than anything else. Gillispie sounded confident this would still be a team focused on defense and rebounding, but they were going to score a lot more points.

Bring it on!

Billy Gillispie will hold a “state of the program” news conference on Wednesday. I don’t expect any bombshells… he’s more than likely just holding this to appease all the media requests he’s gotten. You can believe questions will be asked about the state of Deandre Liggins and Kevin Galloway, and if they’ll be able to play this year. If neither end up qualifying… what a huge blow!

I would imagine we’ll also get a positive update on Patrick Patterson’s ankle and Jodie Meeks’ injury as well.

There has been rumors out there that Mark Coury won’t be returning to the team, but since he’s a walk-on, UK probably won’t make an announcement. We’ll find out on Wednesday.