Mark Stoops is Fired Up and LeBron James sees “something special” in former Kentucky Wildcat Eric Bledsoe

After weeks and weeks of nothing but positives coming out of the Mark Stoops camp, the UK Head Football Coach struck a sour tone after Friday’s practice.  In fact, the ONLY buzz I heard about coming out of that practice is CB Nate Willis and everyone was showing him some love.  As you well know, we had more injuries to our secondary than some schools have players it seemed but this year could prove much better.  The staff have assembled a great amount of talent and will coach them up to succeed in the SEC.  Of that I have no doubt.  But after yesterday’s practice, it appears there is still much work to be done.

Defensive Coordinator DJ Eliot wasn’t exactly pleased either:

On the bright side, it appears that Coach Stoops will have at his disposal a weapon that no one else has had: Raymond Sanders.  The Senior RB has been turning some heads and with JoJo Kemp waiting in the wings, this is a win-win for the present and future.  Running Backs Coach Chad Scott is pretty excited about Raymond and seems to think the Big Blue Nation should be also.  Larry Vaught had a little “sit down” with the UK Coach at practice.

"If running backs coach Chad Scott is right, senior running back Raymond Sanders could flourish in UK’s new offense. Question: How has senior Raymond Sanders been as a leader for a newcomer like JoJo Kemp? Scott: “The biggest thing Raymond has done for him is teaching him how to perform, how to study. We do a walk-through before every practice, so Raymond has done a great job of teaching him how to do just that  and about how fast to do it, but also doing it right. When we go live, he knows what is going on. That’s the biggest difference here. They didn’t do walk-throughs in high school, so everything he did was full speed. Ray has been a huge factor for him.” Question: How much has Sanders’ leadership helped you? Scott: “It has helped tremendously. All the older guys see that Ray being the player he is taking time to help the younger guys, so all the guys on offense want to do that. Also from a coaching standpoint, it shows you the confidence he has in his ability. He’s a competitor but he wants to help those guys become as talented as he is.” Question: How well does Neal Brown’s offense fit Sanders’ skills? Scott: “Perfectly. You will see Ray doing a lot of things with this offense. You will see him in the backfield. We will line him up out wide. You will see him do a lot because it fits him perfectly. I think you will see a whole different Ray Sanders this year.”"

And as if the Mark Stoops recruiting circus could get any more fun, Defensive Tackle, Matt Elam, has scheduled his official visit for UK on December 14th.  This would be a huge get for Stoops and Co. as Elam is highly rated and ranked by all recruiting services and holds offers from the creme de la creme in the SEC and Big Ten.

"One of UK’s biggest football recruits has set a date for his official visit to Lexington."

John Hardin defensive tackle Matt Elam announced Friday that he will use one of his five official visits for a trip to UK on Dec. 14.

Elam has already visited UK several times, and he had previously said that he planned to wait until after his senior season to use the official visit. He’s also set an official visit to Notre Dame for Oct. 18 to coincide with the Irish’s home game against Southern Cal.

The other four schools on his list are Alabama, Ohio State, Tennessee and Louisville.

Elam is considered the No. 1 recruit in the state and No. 10 overall prospect in the Class of 2014 by 247Sports, which gave him a five-star rating earlier this summer. Scout.com and ESPN rank him as a four-star prospect. Rivals has him pegged as a three-star recruit and the state’s No. 2 player behind UK commitment Drew Barker.

Elam plans to make his college announcement Jan. 4 from the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio.