When you pick up a copy of a new college football yearbook, it’s going to be the same old story about the Kentucky Wildcats, who have struggled for years to be respectable in very tough SEC.
Like nearly all seasons in the past, the Cats aren’t expected to set the football world on fire this fall. Not surprisingly, the preseason yearbooks — Athlon Sports (athlonsports.com), Lindy’s Sports (lindyssports.com) and Sporting News (sportingnews.com) — have picked UK to finish near the bottom of the SEC East Division, just ahead of Vanderbilt.
While the Sporting News did not have the Cats to go bowling during the Christmas/New Year holidays, Athlon has them finishing at 6-6 with a lower-tier bowl trip.
While Lindy’s says good things are now happening in the UK program during the Mark Stoops era, the magazine mentions that two victories over SEC foes sound reasonable.
All three publications have listed UK at No. 6 with Vandy last in the division. Interestingly, all three have Georgia as the top team from the East with an improving Tennessee squad following at No. 2. As for overall national rankings, Athlon and Lindy’s have Kentucky at No. 55 and No. 59, respectively.
Nick Saban’s Alabama and Gus Malzahn’s Auburn, meanwhile, are the only consensus SEC teams to be ranked among the Top 10 nationally with coach Urban Meyer’s Ohio State squad the heavy favorite to repeat as the national champion. Mark Richt’s Georgia club, though, is mentioned in a couple of national ratings as the Bulldogs, led by running back sensation Nick Chubb, are placed at No. 10.
Kentucky, by the way, faces Auburn, featuring preseason All-American wide receiver Duke Williams, in a rare Thursday night matchup on ESPN in Lexington. Later, the Cats — who have eight home games this season — will battle Georgia in early November in Athens.
The only Kentucky players who received the preseason All-SEC honors from these three publications are sophomore placekicker Austin MacGinnis (first-team choice on all three yearbooks), sophomore running back Stanley “Boom” Williams and senior offensive lineman Jordan Swindle.
As a redshirt freshman last season, MacGinnis, a native of Wedowee, Ala., set six school records, making 21 field goals, the most in Kentucky history. He also had the most field goals in the SEC and finished with a school-record 104 points — equaling the SEC lead — and was one of only five kickers in the nation with three field goals of 50 plus yards.
MacGinnis, who made a UK record 41 extra-point tries without a miss in 2014, set another school mark with the longest field goal in school history, a 54-yard boot at Tennessee.
Williams, who was named to The Sporting News All-True Freshman Team last season, led UK in kickoff returns with 19 for 511 yards and a 26.9 average. He ranked second in the nation among true freshmen in kickoff return average, checking in 11th overall. A native of Monroe, Ga., Williams led the Wildcats in all-purpose yards with 1,159, averaging 115.9 yards per game. That total ranked him 59th nationally and sixth among freshmen.
The 6-7, 309-pound Swindle is a two-year starter from St. Johns, Fla. He is a vocal leader who had spent a lot time practicing against then-UK star defensive end Bud Dupree, who became a first-round NFL Draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Obviously, UK has other standouts such as center Jon Toth and linebacker Josh Forrest, but it’s not that easy to get a lot of preseason recognition especially since the program hasn’t had a winning season since 2009.
Kentucky will kick off its 2015 season against Louisiana-Lafayette of the Sun Belt Conference on Sept. 5 at the newly-revamped Commonwealth Stadium. The Ragin’ Cajuns are coming off four straight 9-4 seasons.
Nevertheless, these colorful yearbooks, as usual, are loaded with enjoyable feature articles, bowl projections, team previews, photos, statistics, among others. While I may not agree with some of their predictions, they certainly are a joy to have around at your home. It’s something that I have always had every year during the summer months since I was a kid growing up in the foothills of Kentucky.
Are you looking for a book or two for your summer vacation? Actually, it’s a very exciting summer for book lovers who also happen to be sports fans.
There is a good collection of recently-published books that you may want to take a look at your favorite bookstore or on the Internet. Here are some of my suggestions:
‣ “Kentucky Colonels: Shots from the Sidelines” (Acclaim Press, $34.95) by Mark Gordon and Lloyd “Pink” Gardner is almost a pictorial history of the popular pro basketball team in Louisville which played during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The stunning 224-page hardcover is loaded with over 400 color and black & white photos taken by Gordon, who was the team’s official photographer.
Most of the photos have not been seen before. Gardner, who was the Colonels’ trainer, wrote the captions for the pictures. This book definitely brings back fond memories for fans who loved the Colonels of the old American Basketball Association, which disbanded and sent four teams to the NBA. It’s a very nice addition to have in your sports library.
‣ “The Real McCoy: My Half-Century with the Cincinnati Reds” (Orange Frazer Press, $19.95) by Hal McCoy is an entertaining memoir about the Cincinnati Reds. McCoy, a longtime Hall of Fame sportswriter who is also legally blind, gives the fans an inside-the-dugout look that never reach the daily newspaper: the politics, the personalities, the hijinks, the x-rated scenes — all the classic ballpark stuff known only to those on the field.
‣ “The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball’s Power Brokers” (Little, Brown and Company, $30.00) by Jon Pessah is a fly-on-the-wall account of the men and events that truly changed MLB over the past 20 years. The author, a founding editor of ESPN the Magazine, spent hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 150 people in a five-year period.
The 648-page hardcover discusses high-stakes labor wars, remarkable athletic feats, back-room political deals, drug scandals and abuse of power in baseball. It’s a revealing book that you may want to check at your bookstore.
‣ “No Excuses” (Jeter Publishing, $25.00) by Derrick Coleman Jr. with Marcus Brotherton is an inspirational autobiography about the fullback for Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks because of his deafness. With his upbeat and positive attitude, Coleman has managed to overcome the obstacles put before him.
‣ “Pedro” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28.00) by Pedro Martinez with Michael Silverman is a bold memoir from one of the most dominant and colorful pitchers to ever play the game. Before Martinez was the eight-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series champion, he was just a little kid from the Dominican Republic who sat under a mango tree and dreamed of playing professional ball. He now opens up for the first time to tell his amazing story.
‣ “Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30.00) by Bill Pennington is a new biography about the controversial manager, who was known for his combative and intimidating personality.
The 530-page hardcover is written by an award-winning sportswriter who knew Martin well, working closely with him for five years of his life. The author interviewed more than 225 people from family and childhood friends to Yankees players and coaches to come up with a new insightful perspective on Martin. The former New York legend tragically passed away in a car accident 25 years ago.
‣ “Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty” (Simon & Schuster, $27.50) by Charles Leerhsen is a fascinating and authoritative biography of one of baseball’s most controversial stars. Nicknamed the “Georgia Peach,” Cobb — who still has the highest career batting average (.367) of all time after retiring in 1928 — was a fiery competitor.
After his death in 1961, Cobb’s reputation took a big hit as folks began calling him a racist, among other things. So who is the real Ty Cobb? After research and traveling to Georgia and Detroit, the author set the record straight and came up with a remarkable 449-page effort that shows the true Cobb.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime columnist in Kentucky, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is the editor of KySportsStyle.com online magazine and a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle. He can be reached via e-mail at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.