It’s time for Mark Stoops to address Kentucky Wildcats Football’s areas of needs

Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning Big Blue Nation. Normally we start the “Morning 5” with basketball and let it guide us, but today, football seizes the day.  . In just a few hours, Mark Stoops will hold his first media days and his players will put on pads and practice will commence. It is officially football season in the Bluegrass and the WBN will have you covered today. Jason Marcum and Lyndsey Gough will be at Media Days and will have tons of pictures, interviews, and insight for you. Make sure you cover the WBN Twitter @wildcatbluenatn as we will be posting video and insight to the twitter before it is posted on the site.

In a way, the talk stops and the work starts for Mark Stoops and he has the task of  getting results from a 2-10 team that went winless in the SEC last year.  Kyle Tucker of the Courier Journal does a good gob of breaking down UK’s strengths and weaknesses and as you can expect, UK does have a few areas of need.

"Wide receiver: There’s no bigger question for the Cats, who return just four scholarship receivers. It’ll be difficult to make the “Air Raid” fly unless some newcomers are ready to contribute. UK adds JUCO transfer Javess Blue and freshmen Ryan Timmons, Alex Montgomery and Jeff Badet this week. Junior Demarco Robinson is the top returning wideout with 28 receptions last season. Secondary: Stoops’ specialty is his new defense’s weakest. The one guy who looked like a leader in the spring, junior safety Ashely Lowery, is trying to bounce back from a horrific car accident and his status with the team is unclear thanks to a related DUI charge. Sophomore corners Cody Quinn and Fred Tiller are penciled in as starters and need to take their games up a notch after being pressed as freshmen.. Offensive line: An underplayed storyline is center, where three-year starter Matt Smith is gone and UK’s options are two redshirt freshmen (Zach Myers and Jon Toth), a walk-on (Louisville native Max Godby) or a position switch for starting left guard Zach West."

IF you read Kyle Tucker’s link, you will notice that the QB position was not an area of need as UK has three very capable QB’s in the fold. And the biggest question of fall camp is “Who will be the starting QB?”  Mark Story takes a look at the three contenders and gives us three pros and cons for all three QB’s.  On Friday, we had a poll on the WBN asking you who the starting QB would be and Max Smith won in a landslide with 69% of the vote.  Jalen Whitlow had 16% and Patrick Towles 15%.  Let’s look at the pros that Mark Story had for Max.  

"1. In the three full games he played last season before injuries wrecked his season (and earned him a medical redshirt), the 6-foot-4, 218-pound California product averaged 322 yards a game passing and completed 68.5 percent of his throws. 2. Smith is the only QB on the UK roster with the experience of starting an SEC game that Kentucky won — he threw for 283 yards and two TDs as a true freshman making his first career start in UK’s 30-13 win over Mississippi in 2011. 3. Smith’s quick release and ability to make snap reads should be perfect for an Air Raid quarterback."

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Garrett Johnson will not be a Wildcat until 2014 but he says that fellow Floridian and current UK player Jeff Badet helped influence his decision to become a Wildcat. Garrett also says that UK fans are going to love watching Badet.

"“I could also see that Kentucky has a need for players at my position. I definitely knew the number of receivers they have. When I heard they only had two or three on scholarship when they got here, the light went off in my head. It’s a great opportunity for me to come in and play early.” Freshman Jeff Badet, who he calls a “close friend,” told him UK’s lack of depth at receiver was a “perfect” opportunity for them both. “He even sent me a (newspaper) article about coach Brown,” Johnson said. He became friends with Badet after they competed against each other. “We just got closer and closer and now that we are both going to Kentucky, we are even closer,” Johnson said. “I think, as a player, he is kind of like myself. He can go get the ball and make things happen. Fans are going to enjoy watching him a lot and I think he’ll make a big name for himself this year.”"