As the final year of his Kentucky career begins tight end C.J. Conrad has many personal marks he can try to eclipse.

He's coming off a campaign in which he caught 16 passes, good for 286 yards and four touchdowns. In what will be, in effect, a "contract year" Conrad will want to see those numbers go up. He's also trying to validate and improve on Phil Mackey's third team All-SEC selection.

However, the LaGrange, Ohio native is looking beyond his personal best for the good of the entire Kentucky team.

Conrad told Cats Illustrated on Media Day this past Friday that he wants to assume the position of team role model.

"I want to be the leader of this team and took that approach this whole offseason, just to be the leader on the whole team," he said.

The way Conrad said he saw it, he has always been a leader in the position room, but with the departure of Stephen Johnson and Courtney Love, he feels he owes a higher debt.

"I think that I owed it to the team to not just lead the tight ends, so I was going to take over this whole team. I did that during the summer, and I plan to do it during the fall," Conrad said.

So how does Conrad plan do this? Well, it starts locally in his position group with newcomers Keaton Upshaw and Brenden Bates.

"I told them right away that Justin (Rigg) is here as a resource, I'm here as a resource, we are here to make you better because this is for the future and you are going to play this year," Conrad stated.

The Cats' elder tight end admitted that the team will need both freshmen to step up this season because the team needs more than two active players at the position: an outlook worthy of a leader.

Perhaps the surest sign of Conrad's progression is his adoption of Coach Vince Marrow's first commandment: you have to be physical, or you won't play.

"We are all guys that caught a lot of passes in high school, and that hasn't necessarily translated here right away, and it will, but that's where I give Coach Marrow a lot of credit. We are all team-first kind of guys, and now we are guys now--my mentality--is that when I open a hole for Benny, it feels just as good as when I score," Conrad said.

Time will tell how the team leadership role works out, it sounds like he has the traits and the attitude to ascend to that role.