Kentucky Wildcats Basketball will lead the SEC Network into live coverage today

Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Everyone has been raving about Mark Stoops and his recruiting at Kentucky, yet no one really wants to go bold and project big things for Kentucky nthis year. That is the downside of playing in the SEC. The folks over at Athlon hosted a panel of experts to come up with the Top 15 Players in the SEC and Bud Dupree was the only Wildcat that got a vote and he came in at the unglamorous spot of #36.

In any other conference, Dupree is a consensus top ten player.

However, remember just last year when Vanderbilt was everyones darling? There may be a shift in power among the “emerging teams” and Kentucky can fill that void.

"’13 of 14 teams had a player receive a vote. Vanderbilt was the only team to not have a player receive consideration for the top 15. Two players who could end up on this list at the end of the year for the Commodores: Running back Jerron Seymour and linebacker Caleb Azubike."

Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

By virtually every account, the QB decision will be made soon, but it is unclear if it will be announced publicly. It appears that anyone will be hardpressed to keep Patrick Towles out of the job, but Mark Stoops is not looking at the eventual QB as the future. He wants a QB that can win now.

"“We’ll get it figured out, and there’s some guys that are doing some really good things in certain situations. We’re starting to see what the strength and weakness is from each quarterback, and really what we’re gonna be. What’s our identity offensively? So that’ll kind of fit and play into that decision."

"“We’ve really tried to keep it open to this point with being equal with reps, with the exception of Max because of his shoulder. But the other three are getting equal reps still at this point in time and got equal reps with the ones for the most part, depending on the drive. But let’s put it this way: Every time you think you might be close to making a decision, maybe somebody has a real good practice or that guy doesn’t do as well. So like I said, we’ll get it figured out.” While the upside of each player will factor into the decision, Stoops said talent is the key factor. “One of the reasons why we’re trying to be very critical of ourselves in making this decision is because it’s so important, and when we give that person the reins, we want them to go. Every time a year ago when we thought we were giving somebody the reins to the quarterback situation, something happened. Maybe they got hurt or maybe they didn’t play very good. So we want to make sure we’re very precise in our decision-making, and once we give them the keys to the car, we want them to drive it,” Stoops said."

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