It’s been a while since Northern Kentucky has contributed to UK football. But all of a sudden, two local prospects will be calling Lexington home. Simon Kenton 6-foot-4, 295-pound two-way lineman Aba Selm came first. But then after a strong recruiting pitch from Selm and the Wildcats, Covington Catholic tight end Willie Rodriguez followed Selm to the Southeastern Conference Friday.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Rodriguez is the fourth in-state recruit for UK’s Class of ’24 joining Lexington Catholic quarterback Cutter Boley and offensive lineman Hayes Johnson.
Rodriguez, also a wrestler and linebacker, is the No. 41 tight end in the nation and No. 5 player in Kentucky according to 247 Sports and had visited Purdue and Virginia Tech earlier among the dozens of schools offering him. He is the 11th commitment for UK’s 2024 class that is ranked No. 44 in the nation by 247.
• HERE’S A WISH FOR UK SCHEDULERS: Unlike the Big Ten which opened up its nine-game conference schedule to accommodate new members USC and UCLA next season all teams playing games against all 14 current teams in the conference the next two years starting in 2024, UK is locked into the SEC way of doing things. That means keeping an eight-game conference schedule despite an “expanded footprint” opening with three walkover guarantee home games, never playing some SEC teams and UK fans not knowing until the fifth game of the season against Florida whether the Wildcats are worthy of preseason rankings as high as Nos. 22 and 27, although there’s a No. 36 in there as the college football magazines start to hit the stands.
How will UK fans know the answer to that against the likes of Ball State, Eastern Kentucky and Akron to open? Even Vanderbilt in Game 4 (although the Cats somehow lost to the Commodores last season) shouldn’t be much of a test. And yeah, UK can make the case that they will play Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama – with Florida, Tennessee and Alabama all in Lexington, but an intersectional game early would be cool. Always seemed a shame that the UK-Indiana game was discontinued. Easy drive for each fan group. Similar programs. Good for everybody. The Wildcats do get to go to new SEC member Texas next year for a game-day experience in Austin is something UK fans should not miss.
• BELATED CONGRATS TO KHSAA HALL OF FAMERS FROM HERE: Sorry we missed this but better late than never for recognizing the five Northern Kentuckians named to the KHSAA Hall of Fame this spring. Hard to come up with a better group. Newport Central Catholic’s Dave Cowens tops the list and we guess that winning an NBA MVP award, two NBA championships, a membership in the Boston Celtics Hall of Fame and the Basketball Hall of Fame would be plenty of qualifications for the 1967 Thoroughbred.
Also calling Northern Kentucky home were a pair of Highlands’ multi-sport stars who also starred at UK – the late Jared Lorenzen, who still owns the passing yardage record of 10,354 yards for the Wildcats and a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants, and tight end teammate Derek Smith, also a great basketball player for the Bluebirds, who was All-SEC in football at UK before playing with the Bengals and the Colts in the NFL.
Then there are a couple of high school coaches who did great work here – Dan Goble at Lloyd Memorial and Randy Reese at Ludlow. Goble’s 12-1 record at Lloyd in football was just the start for a coach who went on to 37 football seasons and 14 in baseball as well as multiple state championships at Shelby County, Louisville Atherton and Christian County. Reese got his four decades of coaching into high gear with a 1975 Class A state football title at Ludlow before winning two more at Paris.
• NORTHERN KENTUCKY HIGH SCHOOL OFFICIALS STRIKE OUT? So here we were, checking out the KHSAA’s list of No. 1 officials for 2022-23 named for every sport – well, 10 sports and the top supervisor statewide – and thinking that the shutout of local officials must mean they just weren’t considered, you know, us being so far north and all. But then we read closer and saw that there were actually 25 officials listed and that Walton’s Daniel Brummer in football and Burlington’s Donchez Martin in baseball were runners-up. Congrats to them. The officials here do a great job but if you’re going to name the No. 1 officials around the state, from places like Russell Springs, Central City and Paint Lick, there must be someone from Northern Kentucky worth the top spot.
• DON’T MISS NKSHOF GOLF OUTING: Saturday, July 15 is the date for the annual Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame Golf Outing at the Kenton County Golf Course. This is the major fundraiser for the NKSHOF college scholarships and a great day to get together with so many of the folks who have made sports special here.
There’s a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start for four-member teams open to all but limited to the first 36 teams. Cost is $80 per golfer which includes two persons per cart, 18 holes of golf, beer/pop, burgers, brats, hot dogs all day with a golf outing shirt.
All signup information is here at this link: Golf Outing – Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame (nkyshof.org).
Dan Weber writes a sports column for the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Contact him at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him @dweber3440 on Twitter.