The Road Goes on Forever and the Party Never Ends...

Fayetteville Was A Blast The Essentials The Locals The Stadium Cats Make it 4-0 Helluva road trip. Fayetteville, Arkansas, as evidenced by the above pictures, is a very underrated SEC town. Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium is the nicest football facility in the SEC and the Arkansas faithful may be the nicest fans in the SEC. I'd also rank the girls in Fayetteville among the elite in the conference. Let's put it this way, there weren't many hogs to be found on Dixon Street. True Story. Big shoutout to the boys at 1338 Cleveland Street for letting us park for free just a few blocks from the stadium, feeding us great barbecue, and offering up their kegs of beer for our consumption. Best hosts for a road trip I've ever been on. Hopefully, we can return the favor next season if they make the 10 hour trek to Lexington. As welcoming as their fans were, I didn't feel the least bit of guilt soaking in the scene of my beloved Wildcats sapping the air out of an SEC stadium and sending the home fans walking out in disbelief wondering how a nine point lead had been eradicated in a mere 11:40 and in it's place stood a 12 point defeat and an 0-2 record in the SEC. As the final seconds ticked off, the gorgeous stadium had been completely evacuated save the 1,500 or so blue clad faithful cheering vociferously in one corner of the visiting sideline. Major props to the entire team who came over to slap hands and celebrate with the die hards who had made the journey to support them. It certainly felt great leaving Razorback Stadium with my head held high as opposed to quietly exiting listening to Hey, there's always basketball season from the opposing fans. Yeah. There is. We're gonna be pretty damn good at that too. I opined in one of my very first posts on this board that the Kentucky Football Fan is a battered fan and I still believe that. Despite everything that has gone so amazingly well this season I still feel in the back of my mind that to start predicting victories over seldom vanquished foes from Columbia or Knoxville or Gainesville will spell certain disaster. Therefore, I will not be revising my 6-6 prediction any time soon. Hell no. No way am I gonna risk angering the football gods. Extinct? Anyone seen one of those Ditch Mitch & Rich bumper stickers lately? No? Didn't think so. Bet you probably can't find a single person who had one on their car or wore one of those ridiculous shirts to Commonwealth Stadium either. They're probably too busy out scouring the Woodford County countryside hoping to catch a glimpse of the Ole Ball Coach tending to his horse farm. Florida Atlantic Game Hopefully this will be a chance to gain a relatively easy W for the Cats and get some young guys valuable experience. A few of the regulars are showing a little wear and tear and it's always good to get them some rest before the short week leading up to the South Carolina game. I think we come out solid and score on our opening drive and don't look back. Probably have a sizable halftime lead in the neighborhood of 28-3 or so. Rest some guys. Give up some meaningless second half points late. Move on. Focus on the SEC. Prediction: UK 48 FAU 17. Big Blue Madness Tickets are distributed this Saturday at Memorial and via the internet. As has become the norm of late excitement is tepid and expectations are tempered under veteran coach Tubby Smith. New coach Billy Gillispie has the program buzzing and expectations soaring for the first time in a few years. Pretty good chance the days of hearing Billy Packer lament about just how untalented the UK roster is are behind us, at least for the foreseeable future. That's a change that I'll gladly welcome. Sitting in the United Center watching a much superior Kansas team dismantle us last March wasn't exactly what I had grown up expecting out of Kentucky Basketball. (Rick Pitino's first team that got hammered in Allen Fieldhouse obviously doesn't count so Tubby Apologists can save that statistic) We Don't Rebuild...We Reload Guess the Cards must have reloaded with blanks. Seriously as a Kentucky fan, second to our own success, the most enjoyment I've had this season is watching Louisville come crashing back to earth. People can pretty much can the it cheapens our win talk. I don't care. We play in the SEC and we have a plethora of opportunities to pick up quality wins and strength of schedule will never be a problem for us. Mitch Barnhart took a ton of heat for hiring Rich Brooks, a guy he was familiar with from his Pac-10 days, after he'd exhausted several other options, but the same criticism hasn't been publicly leveled at Tom Jurich for considering no other options and hiring one of his good buddies as coach. Funny how that works. Have fun in Toronto Card fans. Exposure The nation saw us defeat Arkansas on ESPN2 Saturday night. Next Thursday the nation will see us face South Carolina on the Worldwide Leader in a critical Eastern Division matchup. The following week CBS has picked up the LSU game as its 3:30 SEC Game of the Week. If we manage to defeat South Carolina chances are more than good that the Florida game will be picked up nationally as well, because it will most assuredly be for first place in the Eastern Division of the SEC. Yeah. Moving the UofL game completely screwed us. The moral of the story: If you play in the SEC and you are good you will be on television. A lot. Exposure 2.0 Welcome to the Jungle. Coach Rich Brooks will be a guest on the Jim Rome Show this afternoon. Unfortunately, the show isn't available in Lexington, but you can stream it online here: Jim Rome Show Game Day Forecast from the Action News 36 Storm Team: A great day to head out and enjoy some football! For the next day or so we'll be dealing with some scattered showers and thunderstorms. Behind this system cooler air and plenty of sunshine will set up shop for the weekend. Highs Saturday will only top off around 77. So an absolutely wonderful morning for tailgating and afternoon to watch the #14 ranked KENTUCKY WILDCATS!!! GOOOOO CATS!!!! Sherry was a waitress at the only joint in town...