If the first six months of the Mark Stoops era and the Blue/White Spring Game are any indication, Commonwealth Stadium should be a popular place to be in the fall. And as always, buying season tickets remains the best and most cost-effective way to attend every game in 2013.

Season tickets cost $277 for sideline seats and $242 in the end zone. Paying single-game prices, you would spend $420 to attend all seven games, which translates to a savings of at least $143 per ticket plus getting to know where you will be sitting for every home game.

To purchase season tickets, visit UKfootballtix.com today.

Fans who buy season tickets before July 14 will receive them in new "All-In" books and those who buy before June 28 will have an exclusive first chance to select home and away single-game tickets by that date. Print this form to place your order.

If you're eager to see UK football in action as soon as possible, your first chance will be in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, August 31 when the Wildcats face Western Kentucky University. Tickets are $63 for club level, $43 for lower sideline, and $38 for lower end zone.  Order tickets online or by calling (800) 928-2287. Seats will be assigned according to K Fund points after the June 28th priority deadline.

This is the first of two stories on Erik Korem and the High Performance program he and Mark Stoops have brought to Kentucky football. Stay tuned next week to read about the international roots of the program and Korem's continual learning process.

Looking around Erik Korem's workspace, football isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

Other than a detailed report of a few pages he'll soon be presenting to his boss, his desk is clean. He scrolls through color-coded spreadsheets on the two monitors set up in front of him, but Korem talks of custom-built software that will eventually replace much of Microsoft Excel's everyday function. He uses phrases like "best practices" and "predictive models" sure to be repeated in board meetings inside skyscrapers in New York or Chicago.

But Korem works on the ground floor of the Nutter Training Center. His spreadsheets analyze the performance of Kentucky football players. His boss is Mark Stoops.

In essence, his office is the heart of the High Performance initiative taking over all facets of the program. With Korem - UK's High Performance Coach - leading the way, the goal is simple.

"What we want to do is make sure that, physiologically, they're at their optimal level," Korem said.

Simple as that guiding philosophy may be, putting it into practice is anything but.

To that end, Korem, his staff and his technology are involved in everything from strength and conditioning to developing practice plans to monitoring the sleeping and eating habits of UK student-athletes.

"What I am constantly investigating is: How do we get our guys ready?' " Korem said. "How do we monitor their state of readiness? Are they fatigued? Are they psychologically stressed? Are we overloading them? Where do we need to back off? Are we susceptible to injury?"

The program is the first of its kind in college athletics and even American sports, says Korem, but what's going on at UK didn't come together overnight. Korem began to apply sports-science principles when he was at Florida State and Stoops took note. When he was tabbed to become a head coach for the first time by UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart, Stoops knew he wanted to bring Korem with him.

But as important as Korem may be to its execution, he makes it clear that High Performance is Stoops' baby.

"It's his brainchild," Korem said. "He's made it all possible. He's just letting me and my staff roll, which is fun."

The installation of the High Performance program has not been without its challenges. Defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot is the lone assistant on Stoops' staff to have worked with Korem, which made spring practice a training ground for coaches as much as players as they learned how to interact with Korem and the information he provides.

"This doesn't really happen any place where you've got this guy explaining to you about practice and why we need to back off or push this guy harder," Korem said. "That's a new concept. At first, there's a learning curve."

Over the last six months, Korem believes the learning curve has been scaled.

"I think everybody's getting really comfortable and they realize, number one, that this is Coach Stoops' idea; this isn't Erik Korem's idea," Korem said. "And then number two, I'm here to support them. I'm here to help support their decision-making, I'm here to help make them better coaches in any way I can. It's more about a servant attitude than it is me telling people what to do. That's not what it's about. It's about serving our coaches and serving our players."

In many ways, Korem's primary function with the coaching staff is to be a funnel. He has a wealth of data at his disposal, but he knows there is such a thing as too much information.

"We just have very simple things so these coaches can make fast decisions," Korem said. "That's the whole deal: You can have all the information in the world, but if you can't make a quick decision off of it, you're wasting your time."

For example, Korem is developing a stop-light system for coaches to use in practice to protect against injuries. If a player is designated green, he's good for full-speed work. Yellow means the player should be treated with caution.

As for educating the players, Korem is taking a slow and steady approach.

"We don't want to overload our guys with questionnaires or things to do after training," Korem said. "We start with a couple things to get them really comfortable and have them master that. And then we move on and add another little piece."

During the summer, coaches are prohibited from working with players, but not Korem. Not everyone may like the NCAA rules that limit practice time, but Korem believes they benefit student-athletes.

"This is a superior model in my opinion," Korem said, referencing the international sports programs that have inspired much of what is being installed at UK. "They need a time where they can purely focus on biological development: power output, getting healthy."

Korem is certainly taking advantage of that time. He has devised 12 different training programs tailored to fit different positional groups. Beyond that, workouts are customized further based on individual injury history and a number of other factors.

"Our linebackers don't train the way our quarterbacks train," Korem said. "There's some crossover, but that's why we have all these different groups."

Always looking to put High Performance tenets into more accessible terms, Korem has a come up with a metaphor to describe what he wants to accomplish in the summer months.

"I tell the guys we're developing bigger batteries, so we're going to go from triple-As to Ds," Korem said. "And then we want to develop a bigger and better gas tank. June is more about the battery and July is about the gas tank."

The battery part of the process is about improving maximum outputs in terms of power, speed and strength. In July, the Cats will work on their capacity to repeat.

Korem likes the way the student-athletes have embraced that message.

"We want these guys to take ownership of it, because it's not really what happens in the two hours they're with us; it's what happens in the 22 hours they're not with us," Korem said. "I want them to be their own coaches."

"They've done an awesome job. I couldn't be more proud of these guys because we come in with all these sweeping changes and telling them we want them to eat this way and eat that way. They have latched on and they have carried the ball and done well with it."

By doing that, Korem believes the Cats are positioning themselves for improvement on the field.

"We're going to push these guys hard, we're going to work them very hard, but we're going to work them very intelligently," Korem said. "I think that's the beauty behind what we do: We're maximizing what we've got."

Accordingly, Korem sees himself as executing the latter half of Stoops' "Recruit and Develop" mantra, but his High Performance endeavors have been a factor in UK's unprecedented success on the trail too. Visiting recruits might not want to comb through spreadsheets with Korem, but they can't help but be impressed when they stop by his office.

"They love it," Korem said. "We offer something nobody else offers, we really do. They come in and we'll show them things we're doing and they don't see this anywhere else. It's exciting for them."

The book is closed on UK Athletics' 2012-13 season, but a record is still within reach.

On Friday, updated Directors' Cup standings were released and UK came in 25th. UK scored 120 points since the latest standings update on the strength of solid performance by softball (advanced to super regionals) and men's track and field (finished 18th at NCAA Championships).

With no more Wildcat teams competing, UK won't score any more points. However, if UK remains in 25th place, it would set a school record for the highest finish in the 20-year history of the Directors' Cup, making progress toward Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart's goal of finishing in the top 15 by the year 2015. The previous record is 26th, set in 1996-97.

UK also ranks sixth among Southeastern Conference schools in the latest standings. That would tie a school record also set in 1996-97.

The NCAA released new Academic Progress Rates on Tuesday and, once again, the University of Kentucky's 22 teams surpassed requirements and avoided any penalties.

This release has more information on the news and the APR - which the NCAA uses to measure academic eligibility and student-athlete retention - but here are some additional notes.

• As you can see in the chart below, 14 of UK's 22 teams exceeded the national average APR score for their respective sports, led by men's and women's golf with perfect scores of 1,000. Additionally, 15 UK teams exceeded the average public school APR for their respective sports.
• The emphasis on APR scores has increased in recent years and UK has responded. Seventeen teams have improved their scores since 2004-05 and 16 improved or received the same score compared to last year.
• APR requirements will become even more stringent next year. To maintain postseason eligibility will require either a 930 four-year APR or a 940 two-year average beginning in 2015. Even though the new threshold is a year away from coming into effect, UK's scores also exceed those tougher requirements.
• Below is a chart with UK's four-year APR scores by sport this year, last year and in the first year of the APR, as well as national averages.

Last week in Sandestin, Fla., UK's Megan Moir (women's golf) and Chelsea Oswald (track and field/cross country) were recognized at the Southeastern Conference's Spring Meetings.The two videos below were shown before Moir accepted the SEC's Brad Davis SEC Female Community Service Leader of the Year and H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. Take a look.

Moir



Oswald

Year in and year out Harry Mullins manages to field one of the nation's top rifle programs. He's been at Kentucky for going on 27 productive seasons and is responsible for building its rifle program into a perennial contender.

Then Mullins goes home at the end of each workday and tends to his real job: fatherhood.

During the season, both jobs become much more difficult, yet Mullins continues to have success in each. In season, Mullins spends more time at work and on the range with his athletes in addition to traveling to competitions. That time with his team means less with his wife and two children.

Now, many Division I coaches have families and children. Time away is a sacrifice that comes with the territory.

For both Mullins and his athletes, rifle season never truly ends. Currently, multiple UK shooters are competing abroad in international competitions as they continue to improve their skills and attempt to stay sharp for the upcoming season. Meanwhile, back home, Mullins is keeping tabs on his athletes and setting up his game plan for the 2013-14 season.

Ideally, Mullins would be traveling with his shooters.

"Typically I would be out there, but for family reasons and meetings here I wasn't able to stay at the nationals," said Mullins. "Typically I would be there for a lot of the matches."

Mullins takes seriously responsibilities he has as a father. And during the summer, he takes advantage of the additional spare time to be with his kids. His two children, Taylor (12) and Ethan (9), provide an escape from the job, but in several ways, he draws inspiration for his profession from the experiences with his kids.

Ethan is spending his summer much like most 9-year-old boys. He's playing baseball, going fishing with his dad and hanging out with friends. He leads what most would call a "normal life."

His sister Taylor does not.

Taylor is a special-needs child. She doesn't speak. She struggles to grasp concepts that other 12-year-old girls understand readily. She is essentially a 2-year-old in a 12-year-old's body. Taylor also suffers from epilepsy, experiencing anywhere from one to 10 seizures a day. Some are very small while others are of a greater magnitude.

Both children, despite their differences, manage to teach Mullins something new nearly every day.

When he gets to go check out one of Ethan's baseball games, Mullins' mind is never far off from his rifle team, even though the two sports have little in common.

"The crazy part about it is, when you experience something in your personal life, nine out of 10 times you relate it back," said Mullins. "A prime example is my son's little-league team. I've enjoyed watching them play, and I've learned so much from them.

"As I watch, I sit there and watch them go through those dynamics and I'm like, 'We need to do this with our team and we need to do that.' "

The lessons learned from Taylor have been abundant as well as she approaches her 13th birthday in July. As often as he can, Mullins takes advantage of the opportunities he has with his daughter. His goal this summer is very simple: take time.

"It's fun because she starts to grasp concepts more and more," said Mullins. "To celebrate the time with her to take the nice and pretty days to go to the park or to do things like that, I look forward to that."

But taking time isn't always easy, especially when it comes to Taylor. Sometimes that fishing trip with Ethan takes two years organize between balancing a hectic schedule between Mullins and his wife and finding someone who can watch over Taylor, which is a difficult task on its own.

It's not easy, Mullins will tell you. Life with Taylor is a challenge. Mullins will also tell you that Taylor is his "best buddy" and that she has taught him some of life's most valuable lessons, which makes that time completely gratifying.

"She probably is the epitome of unconditional love and faith and trust to where it doesn't matter what you do, she's still going to love you because you're her dad," said Mullins. "The smile that she has on her face kind of makes a lot of the rough stuff go away."

She helps Mullins keep everything in perspective. While there are others out there searching for the cure for cancer or trying to devise alternate energy sources, Taylor is trying to learn to dress herself, for example.

"It makes you appreciate life a little bit more on the tough days and realize that we have the ability to lead what we would consider a normal life and to embrace that," said Mullins. "The things she goes through weren't choices. It wasn't the result of poor choices. It's just the cards that nature dealt her and she tries to make the best out of it.

"As a caregiver, as her parent, you have to make the best of it. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'I can sit here and feel sorry for myself and bury my head in the sand, or accept it.' Not that you necessarily want to. You constantly fight to try to make things better, find cures, whatever you want to call it, to make her life the best that it can be under the conditions. It's kind of acclimating her to the world and the world to her, and then creating a world around her within means to lead somewhat of a fruitful life in her world.

"Learning from that, I think, in the day-to-day operations in the thing that you do, I've learned that you can go to bed mad, but you better not wake up mad. You've got to start the day with some positive motivation. You can let some things drag you down, but at the end of the day, you refill your tank and get back to it."

Mullins lives out that philosophy as each and every year his Wildcats have a chance to be special. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they win the national championship as they did in 2011 or fall just short with a runner-up finish like in 2013. Regardless of the result, it's not long after that Mullins is refueling, looking forward and putting a plan in place for the following season.

Those lessons are entirely applicable to the range. The only problem is getting them across to the athletes. Without having to deal with those challenges, it's much more difficult to appreciate the concepts that Mullins hopes to convey.

That will be Mullins' next challenge in 2013.

"If you are having a tough day in the classroom, you have to leave that outside the training facilities," said Mullins. "Sometimes, I actually get frustrated and I try not to tell them, 'Woe is me. I just spent the morning cleaning up and caring after Taylor. Your life is not that tough.' I can't compare myself to them, though. I'm 50 years old. But to get them to understand and grasp that you have to put things behind you, but learn from them so that in the future great things can be achieved."

That is Mullins' hope for his returning group of shooters who just missed out on a national championship last season. Kentucky will need to be able to move on from the disappointment of not cashing in while remembering the lessons they learned along the way.

If there's been one aspect of Taylor's life that has inspired Mullins the most, it's her determination to get what she wants. Often Taylor will approach one parent when she wants something, and if she doesn't get the desired answer, she'll move to the next one. That's one concept that she understands quite well.

"We always strive to get better. Sometimes the scoreboard goes in your favor," said Mullins. "Now we're not going to be happy when it's not, just like when Taylor is frustrated and does things, she's not happy, but trying to get her to understand.

"To learn from her, to have to back up sometimes and look at the problem from a different angle or different viewpoints that aren't exactly in the norm, that I definitely think has impacted me because I study her when she wants to get things."

It's a simple concept, but determination and motivation are two keys to success in sports and life every day. Mullins wants to get another national championship, but more importantly, he wants his athletes to give their best effort and be hard workers, because as a father, that's what he values most.

That is why each and every season Kentucky has a chance to be great: because a great man - and a great father - is leading the way.