Afternoon tidbits

Posted at 4:22 p.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

I've put in some crazy hours the past two days so I'm taking off the rest of the afternoon. Before I do though, just a couple of news bits to run past you loyal followers:

• The UK football players report for fall practice on Thursday at the Nutter Training Facility, marking the official start of the UK football season. Defensive players have their first meeting at 3:15 p.m., followed by the offensive players at 3:45 p.m. Media Day, which is not open to the public, is Friday morning. I won't be there tomorrow when players report (I have a meeting at the same time), but I'll be there for Media Day of course. There will be plenty of features and blurbs leading up to the season from Media Day, but expect a few posts from Friday morning's festivities as well.
• CBS has had an ongoing vote for the top arena in college basketball called Arena Wars. Rupp Arena has made the final list but now it'll need your help to become No. 1. Click on over to CBS Sports and vote for the nation's best arena.

Live blog with Mitch Barnhart

Vitale preseason top 40

Posted at 11:26 a.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

As any college basketball fan can tell you, Dick Vitale can hardly contain his excitement for more than a minute during the broadcast of a college basketball game. So it should come as no surprise that when Vitale started to think about the 2009-10 season, he couldn't help but release his top 40 poll.

So without further ado, I give you Dick Vitale's preseason top 40. The Cats came in at No. 2, just behind Kansas. A little love for the Southeastern Conference, which had five teams in the top 40.  

Video: Brooks on ESPN

Posted at 11:07 a.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Rich Brooks and Kentucky football was featured on ESPN's "College Football Live" on Tuesday. Here's some video of the interview:

Morning Coffee

Posted at 10:46 a.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Don't forget, we'll have Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart on here at 1:30 p.m. EDT for the final live blog of "Wildcat Wednesdays." Today's format will be a little different as I will go one-on-one with Barnhart for a state of the athletics department-like address. We'll take questions from fans the last 10 minutes of the segment. If there are any glaring questions you want me to try to include during my segment with Barnhart, please send them to catscratches@email.uky.edu.

On to a few stories.

UK HIGLIGHT - 10 QUESTIONS FOR CATS: The always stylish and informative Chip Cosby has 10 questions facing the UK football team in 2009.

The questions:

1. Barring injury, can Mike Hartline remain Kentucky's quarterback for the entire season?

2. How much will we see the two freshmen quarterbacks this fall?  

3. Who will be the hardest player to replace from last year's team?

4. What is the key to an improved Kentucky offense?

5. What can be expected of Randall Cobb?

6. Which newcomer(s) are most likely to see significant time in the season opener?

7. Does the secondary have enough talent around cornerback Trevard Lindley to keep teams from totally avoiding his side of the field?

8. Trevard Lindley, Micah Johnson and left tackle Zipp Duncan were named to the pre-season All-SEC team. Are there any other darkhorse candidates?

9. Middle linebacker appears set with Micah Johnson. But what about the other two spots?

10. Will this be Rich Brooks' last season?

If you're asking me, look to Cosby's questions one, two, four, five, six and eight as the defining questions of the season. The quarterback role is always one of the most important on the team, the offense must improve this year if the Cats are going to make the jump in the Southeastern Conference, and someone other than Trevard Lindley, Micah Johnson and Zipp Duncan (you might as well throw Cobb into that mix) must step up for the Cats.

BONUS UK HIGHLIGHTS:

• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger says men's basketball head coach John Calipari continues to do and say all the right things. Except for maybe all those Papa John's tweets.

• Incoming freshman golfer Ashleigh Albrecht advanced to the match play portion of the U.S. Women's Amateur after shooting a 7-over-par 149.  

• Tony Neely, UK's sports information director, provides some football roster updates. It looks like signee Anthony Kendrick will suit up for UK after all while signee Donte Rumph will attend junior college.   

• Also, another great feature on former UK defensive end Jeremy Jarmon, this one coming from Tracee Hamilton of the Washington Post

SEC HIGHLIGHT - RESULTS FROM DEPARTMENT OF DUH: Columnist Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times writes that it's good to be the SEC.

Well duh, as Dufresne writes.

Still, interesting column worth reading about just how dominatant the conference really is. It's not just from a competition standpoint - it's everything. Whether it's winning national championships, TV coverage or marketing, no league, well, stands in the same league as the SEC.

NATIONAL HIGHLIGHT - THE 40 BEST PROGRAMS: ESPN had an interesting feature on Tuesday. ESPN's columnists Pat Forde, Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach conducted a college football mock draft to weed the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams down to the top 40.

Creative concept. Bad execution.

As Forde explained in his column, there was no set formula for the draft. The three writers drafted the most successful programs in the nation based on whatever criteria each one chose to use. But that was the problem with the draft. It seems like each one was drafting teams based on opposite formulas, which is why I don't think they captured the best 40 programs in the nation.

What do you think? Were you in agreement with the ESPN top 40 and the order of which they were drafted?

Oh, and as you surely guessed, UK did not make the cut.