50,831 Attend Kentucky Spring Game

[WorkHorse]

Talk about a reinvigerated fan base. Over 50,000 fans turned out to watch the annual Blue/White spring game Saturday night. When you compare the attendance to last year's spring game, (less than 4,000) the turnout seems pretty amazing.

Kentucky, coming off a 2-10 season fired coach Joker Phillips and hired Mike Stoops (Oklahoma head coach Bob's brother) to come in and turn the program around. The Cats have been sky high ever since. Kentucky barely averaged 20,000 for its final two home games last season so the turnout for the Blue/White scrimmage was encouraging. Stoops hired young gun Neal Brown (Texas Tech) to run his high-flying air attack along with a solid group of assistant coaches.

The Cats have a long way to go to compete with Georgia, South Carolina and Florida in the SEC East but at least they should be intertaining and competitive this season.

Welcome your comments................................ .

[suicidekings]

If Stoops is able to follow through with his bold statements about pulling talent from Ohio, and be competitive with Petrino & Strong in state this season, he'll be setting himself up well for the coming years. He's already got a good number of young players that saw a lot of time last year due to injuries of older players, and the school is doing a great job of building excitement. Throw in a no huddle offense and a blitz-heavy defensive look, and UK will be an exciting team to watch that still probably goes 4-8.

Their big challenge will be to stay healthy while adjusting to the new coaching system. Week 5/6/7 for them are against the Gators / @Gamecocks / Tide, which will almost definitely be an 0-3 run, but after that, five of their remaining six games should at least be competitive (@Miss State/Alabama State/Missouri/@Vanderbilt/@Georgia/Tennessee). It's a tough, but well designed schedule for a team looking to build confidence in its players and in its fanbase.

[suicidekings]

If Maxwell Smith can hit the ground running for the start of the season, it would be huge for them, however the burden is going to be heavy for him to start the year. Hard to tell how ready he will be at this point.

[WorkHorse]

Kentucky opens against Western Kentucky in Nashville, then plays 4 of next 5 at home with an open date thrown in. It's a tough schedule but not too brutal for first year coach Stoops. The Cats get Florida, Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee at home and travel to South Carolina, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Georgia. The opener with Western Kentucky will be interesting with first year coach Bobby Petrino heading the Hilltoppers.

You're right about QB Smith. His problem is he can't stay healthy.