UK strength coaches surprised by stir over weight room poster
Last week when ESPN's Rece Davis visited Kentucky he tweeted a picture of a weight room poster that had Kentucky on one of the four lines.
Corey Edmond and Mark Hill, the two men who head the UK football strength and conditioning program, didn't back down from their decision to put that poster up.
CatsIllustrated.com had an opportunity for an exclusive interview with Edmond, who rarely does interviews, and Hill, who was hired before last season to bolster UK's strength program.
Naturally, one of the first topics to arise in the conversation was the poster, that generated a lot of support from Kentucky fans but some snide comments from rivals.
So, about that poster and the stir it prompted.
"Why is there a stir over the pursuit of excellence and why is that stepping on somebody's toes?" Edmond asked when the topic arose. "We want to pursue excellence."
Hill doubled down and said it shouldn't be a surprise that Kentucky's staff is pushing its players to win at the highest level. He also pointed out that the players coming into the UK program didn't have low expectations when they signed.
"These are top-notch recruits," Hill told CatsIllustrated.com. "You think they come here not wanting to win a championship? With the people that we have on campus, we didn't have to put that sign up. That sign (shows) the expectations of people. For us, we wake up every day at four in the morning. We don't wake up with attitudes to be mediocre. That's just not in our DNA. We try to be successful in everything we do."
Hill said Kentucky's players and coaches are striving for an SEC championship and the best win/loss record possible is the goal.
"We're not going to accept anything less," said Hill, who was hired from Indiana more than a year ago.
Edmond has been at Kentucky since the start of the Mark Stoops era and he tied in the changing expectations to changes that have already happened on different levels.
"Do you not agree that we're pursuing excellence in recruiting?" Edmond asked. "Now we're going to change the game by bringing Coach Hill here. You get better at development, you get good recruiting, you're changing the game. What's the next step? We've got to change the perspective."