After weeks of speculation, Neal Brown will make a new home in Lexington, Kentucky. The Danville, Kentucky native played high school at Boyle County where he was an all-state wide receiver, baseball, and basketball player. He also played under Hal Mumme at the University of Kentucky before transferring and graduating from Massachusetts.

Brown started his coaching career at UMass as a graduate assistant. He had stops at Sacred Heart and Delaware before landing at Troy as their wide receivers coach and eventually was promoted to their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. In 2010, he joined Tommy Tuberville at Texas Tech as their offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. In his first season, the Red Raiders were 15th in the nation in total offense, and 6th in passing offense. In 2011, he was awarded National Coordinator of the Week award for his part in the Red Raiders upset victory over then #3 Oklahoma.

Until Tommy Tuberville bolted out of Lubbock, all the news about Neal Brown was pure speculation. He was reportedly interested in UK, but wanted to look at his head coaching opportunities. When the news broke that Tuberville was leaving Lubbock for Cincy, Brown had to go somewhere. TTU had already dismissed any chances of him being their new head coach, and all of a sudden Brown was on a plane to Lexington, Kentucky. New Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops reportedly encouraged Brown to look at all of his other options before deciding to come to Lexington. With Stoops’ patience throughout the process, Brown was able to establish a good relationship with his new colleague.

With new defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot and now Brown, Kentucky will have the DC of the #2 ranked total defense in the nation, and the OC of the #2 passing offense. Coming along with Brown, is former UK players Chad Scott and John Schlarman. Scott will become the running backs coach for the ‘Cats, and Shlarman will become the offensive line coach. Shlarman is a dynamite hire because he already knows every aspect of Neal Brown’s offense from being with him at Troy. Chad Scott has recruiting ties to Florida and Texas.

This core group of coaches at Kentucky has the potential to become a great mix for the ‘Cats. These coordinators are young, but have proven success at other stops. As the names keep coming in, you can’t help but get a little excited about the future of Kentucky football. In case anyone was wondering, the number for the UK ticket office is (859) 257-1818. Go Cats, see you in Commonwealth Stadium.

Late last night and into early this morning, rumors of Tennessee Wide Receivers coach Darin Hinshaw would likely join Mark Stoops in Lexington. Early reports are very promising that he can be another spark on the recruiting trail for the ‘Cats. He supposedly specializes in recruiting guys in Florida, Ohio, and Kansas. He has been a big part of Tennessee’s successes on the recruiting trail, and now he’ll look to make a new home in Lexington, Kentucky.

Hinshaw was important to the development of Matt Simms and Tyler Bray when they were making their debuts in 2010 for the Vols. The duo combine for over 3,000 passing yards and 26 TD’s in 2010. Bray eventually became the starter as the Vols went 4-0 behind him. Bray was also named SEC Freshman of the Week 3 times in that span. With a trio of quarterbacks with SEC experience coming back for the ‘Cats, Hinshaw looks to be a nice piece to add to Stoops’ staff because of his ability to teach quarterbacks.

Hinshaw is a 1993 graduate of UCF and played quarterback for the Knights. During his time, Hinshaw threw for 9,000 yards, 82 TD’s, and finished as the leader in every passing category. Following his college days, he had a brief stint in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and then spent two years in the Arena Football League with the Orlando Predators. As a coach, he started his duties at UCF as a graduate assistant in 1999, and then moved to quarterbacks coach in 2000. Afterwards, he landed at Middle Tennessee State as a running backs coach for 2 years before being promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2003. Under Hinshaw, MTSU was always at the top of the Sun Belt Conference in nearly every statistical category. In 2003, MTSU was the highest scoring offense in the league at 27.7 points per contest. In 2006, he landed at Georgia Southern for a season as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. Under his guidance, Georgia Southern ranked 27th in the nation in total offense with 359.9 yards per game. He then went on to Memphis, and then to Tennessee.

Bradley Dale Peveto was born in Beaumont, Texas but was raised on Orangefield. He played his college ball at Southern Methodist University between 1982-86. He began his coaching career at Trinity Valley Community College in 1987. Since then, he has had stops at Stephen F. Austin, Southern Miss., Arkansas, Northwestern State, Houston, Middle Tennessee State, and LSU. During his time at Houston, he was co-defensive coordinators with new UK football head coach Mark Stoops under Dana Dimel. While at Middle Tennessee State, he served with fellow new coach Darin Hinshaw. During his time at LSU, he coached special teams/linebackers from 2005-07. He was apart of LSU’s 2007 National Championship team. In 2008, he was promoted to co-defensive coordinator and stayed for one year before leaving to be the head coach at Northwestern State.

With Stoops adding Hinshaw and Peveto to his staff, this could be a dynamite group for the ‘Cats. Because of their recruiting ties alone is enough to make you get excited about the future of UK Football. Hinshaw has ties to Kansas junior colleges, Ohio, and Florida. While Peveto has ties in Texas and Louisiana. Those lands are extremely rich with talented guys that can help UK get to the top of the SEC.

No other words have come about the possible additions of FSU’s James Coley or Texas Tech’s Neal Brown. Coley is said to be staying with Jimbo Fisher at FSU, and Neal Brown is looking at head coaching opportunities. Brown is the most likely to join the UK staff over Coley at this point. Brown is already packing his bags after Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville left for Cincy, and TTU was not interested in him as their head coach.

The SEC offices announced on Thursday that UK freshman punter Landon Foster was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team voted on by the SEC’s coaches. Foster was one of the best weapons in the fall for the ‘Cats, and I’m glad the league recognized his superior first season.

Foster ranked 27th nationally, and 8th in the conference with a season’s average of 42.9 yards per punt. Foster ranked 4th nationally among freshman. He punted a total of 2,617 yards this season for the ‘Cats and 13 of his punts were directed inside the opposition’s 20-yard line. Foster booted kicks longer than 50-yards in nine of Kentucky’s 12 games, with a season-long 58 yarder against Arkansas.

During the season, Foster was placed on the National Freshman Performer of the Year Watch List by the CFPA, and was named Honorable Mention Punter of the Week 4 times by the College Football Performance Awards. Did I mention that he is only a freshman? Foster proved that the basketball freshman are not the only ones that can get some notoriety. Congratulations Landon, we look forward to seeing you dominate next year. #WeAreUK

via KyCatStats.com

via KyCatStats.com

via KyCatStats.com

via KyCatStats.com

via KyCatStats.com

via KyCatStats.com

ACC commissioner John Swofford made the announcement today in an official statement which indicated that Louisville will officially join the conference in 2014. Louisville follows Syracuse and Pittsburgh as the third Big East school to jump ship for the ACC in all sports in this era of conference realignment. Notre Dame counts as the fourth if you exclude football.