Saturday Reset

After another episode of the John Wall show I am sitting here watching Army-Navy. I am cheering for the Midshipmen since an Army win would knock UCLA out of the Eaglebank Bowl in DC. In any event, there have been some developments over the past week, particularly on the recruiting front.



A note first about the new wrinkle that Twitter adds site. I resisted Twitter for a long time. My assessment was that unless you were someone a great mass of people wanted to hear from, Twitter added nothing to Facebook use. Twitter does allow you to follow whoever you want, and the relationship doesn't need to be reciprocal. That is important. Randall Cobb doesn't want to read what I have to say. Anyway, I use twitter almost exclusively for following sports. Here are the people I follow: sportswriters, UK athletes, a friend who happens to be running for the US Senate and the hilarious "Shitmydadsays". That's it. I have recently started posting on Twitter (I refuse to call it what they do) only because of a gadget that allows the posts to appear on this site. This way, I might impart some news and thoughts that don't merit a full post. I do have exactly one Twitter follower, an Auburn Football blog. Why, I don't know. Anyway, if you are on Twitter you can become a follower (not that I expect anyone to), or just feel free to check the posts out over there on the right.



On a related note, at least 2 UK players hit the town last night before this morning's practice. One professed to have a pretty good time.



Anyway to UK football.



1. Derrick Locke seems intent on testing the NFL waters. It started with a Facebook post after the disappointing loss to Tennessee "Should I stay or should I go". Frankly, I thought he was just letting off steam. The idea that he might leave school early never occurred to me. Locke has apparently submitted paperwork to the NFL to help assess his draft position. We know from last year that this doesn't mean much. I cannot foresee a scenario under which Locke doesn't return. He is a good back who would probably put up an eye popping 4o time in the combine. That said, at 5'9", 190 he is far from ideal size for an NFL tailback. Locke's future in the league is probably as a kick returner, speedy coverage guy and sometimes third down back. His only chance of being seen as something more is to come back and carry the ball 225 times while maintaining his health. Other than the possibility of career threatening injury, he risks little by returning. As it is, he is a late round pick at best. I'm all for Derrick doing what is best for him, I just think it would be a mistake.



2. If Locke does leave, would the staff consider moving Randall Cobb to tailback? The knocks are that he doesn't have enough size to take the punishment, and that he lacks the top end speed. I think it would work. Ole Miss made the move this with 5-8, 165lb Dexter McCluster in the middle of his career. They decided that getting the ball in their best player's hands as much as possible trumped other concerns. He had an All-SEC season.



3. This week brought a lot of great news on the recruiting front. I generally don't talk about recruiting because I don't keep up with preps any more and wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about. But right now there ain't much else to say, so here goes. Earlier this week we signed the first 4-star guy in the 2010, CB Anterio Sloan, a sub 4.5 guy from Arkansas. Yesterday came news of UK's first commit for the 2011, Jon Davis from my mom's alma mater, Louisville Eastern. Davis goes 6'3", 233 and is listed as an athlete. He played tight end this year, which has me wondering if he can catch a ball and if he'd like to come play football in Nashville on December 27th.



4. It looks like Clemson is not going to use its allotment of tickets, which as I pointed out earlier in the week isn't surprising. This is good news for me, as for all of my planning, I went braindead when I got on Ticketmaster and bought seats on the Clemson sideline. On the other hand, it end up making me mad because several people who waited longer than I did to get tickets are going to get better seats. I got screwed raw on this at the Liberty Bowl last year. Oh well.



5. For anyone interested, a quick rundown of my bowl game plans. This trip is going to be different from years past since we are bringing the kids. We'll head down the day after Christmas for a night at the Opryland. I've never stayed there, and it might make the trip more palatable for my daughter, who could give a crap about football. Sunday we'll move down to the Hermitage downtown and get checked in around 3. I have a parking pass, but the decision whether to tailgate or hit the bar/restaurant scene prior to the game will likely be made by the weather. If you are out having fun after midnight that night, you'll have to tell us all about it.