For the second straight afternoon/evening Kentucky hosted a major camp event that drew in top players from Ohio to Florida and everywhere in between.
CatsIllustrated.com was there and here's some of what we saw and heard.
-- Class of 2019 quarterback Paul Tyson was front and center during most of the drills. He was right in the middle of the crowd of quarterbacks after the camp, when players broke down into position groups and met with their position coaches. Standing right in front of Darin Hinshaw, he listened to the parting message and exuded a confidence that will serve him well throughout the camp.
Tyson had a good rapport with the wide receivers at the camp. During the one-on-one portion at the end he would communicate with receivers on routes that were to be run, and after wide receiver Marlin Mayo made a fantastic catch on a deep throw in the corner of the endzone, Tyson sought the receiver out and enthusiastically said, "Nice job making something out of it. Nice job making something happen."
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-- Sebastian Sainterling has been on Eddie Gran's radar for months but one question about the Chaminade Madonna offensive lineman has been his build. He has been listed at around 370 pounds, but he looked like he had lost some weight at the camp. One of the coaches that accompanied Sainterling and his travel group told CatsIllustrated.com that he was down to around 340.
-- Lamar Thomas headed off into a tunnel during one of the breaks at the camp and could be overheard saying that he needed a refill on Skittles, which, as everyone knows, are his favorite snack.
-- At the very end of the camp, as receivers and defensive backs were going head-to-head in intense competition, an animated Mark Stoops, next to Eddie Gran, Dan Berezowitz, Josh Estes-Waugh and others, seemed to shout out that he wanted to see in-state receiver Terez Traynor compete against "the best" defensive back there.
That pitted Traynor against four-star Oklahoma commitment Miguel Edwards. The rep was somewhat of a dud, but apparently Traynor had showed enough to earn the offer anyways. Immediately after the post-camp position meetings Edwards was escorted off the field by John Schlarman and offers, which is when he obviously learned he had the Kentucky offer.
-- One of the coaches who accompanied Kentucky wide receiver commitment Marvin Alexander and his group from Florida told CatsIllustrated.com that the Wildcat pledge once worked with Kevin Beard as a trainer. Beard is now the wide receivers coach at Tennessee. Alexander worked out at Tennessee, along with the rest of Team Tate, before going to Kentucky.
The coach told CatsIllustrated.com that Alexander, who is new to Chaminade Madonna, had limited production at his last school because they didn't have a prolific passing offense. But now that he's transferred, the expectation is that he's going to have much better numbers in 2017 as a senior.
That coach also shared his thoughts on 2017 signees Joshua Ali and Chris Whittaker.
Early in Whittaker's high school playing career he was impressive in terms of his stature and potential, but he seemed to leave a little something to be desired in terms of effort. "But then it was like a switch went on," the coach said, "and I don't know what happened but everything changed." He turned into a force, putting up huge numbers as a senior, and has now been transformed into a freshman at Kentucky that a lot of people in Lexington are excited about.
Ali, the coach said, was a big-time player for Chaminade-Madonna as a senior. "If I had more players like him ..." he said, obviously wishing that he had more players like Ali.
-- Tyrell Ajian, Jamin Davis, Cedrick Dort, Clevan Thomas, Tobias Gilliam, Gunnar Hoak, Joshua Paschal and Ali were among the Kentucky freshmen who made appearances at Kentucky's Sunday Night Showcase.
Hoak was there with his mother and father, obviously showing support for his brother, Griffin Hoak, who landed an offer from Youngstown State recently. Although the younger Hoak is a bit of a tweener he's a productive player who will have a future in the sport.
Paschal appeared to be a bit bigger than he was last year, and that's obviously a good sign. Gilliam has gotten significantly bigger over the course of the last year.
