Kentucky tight end Jacob Tamme is a finalist for the Draddy Award, signifying the nation?s top football scholar-athlete, which will be announced Tuesday in New York City at the annual awards dinner of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Tamme is in New York for the event and will give the acceptance speech on behalf of the 15 players, from all levels of college football, who were named National Scholar-Athletes by the NFF. Each of the 15 National Scholar-Athletes will receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship from the NFF.
Tamme (Danville, Ky.) completed his bachelor?s degree in Integrated Strategic Communications with a 3.82 GPA. He is now in his second year of study for his Master?s in Business Administration and has a 3.83 graduate school GPA. He already has been named first-team Academic All-America by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
On the field, Tamme has 53 receptions for 584 yards and five touchdowns this season. He has been a clutch receiver for the Wildcats, with key TD catches in the wins over Louisville and LSU. He also set up the game-winning touchdown at Vanderbilt with a 34-yard pass reception.
National Football Foundation Dinner to be Webcast on CSTV.com: The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame annual awards dinner will be a live webcast on CSTV.com from 7:15 to 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
As noted above, UK?s Jacob Tamme is a finalist for the Draddy Award as the nation?s top scholar-athlete. The Draddy Award is expected to be announced between 8:15 and 9 p.m. EST.
Wildcats Tie School Record for Network TV Appearances: When the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl is televised by ESPN on Dec. 31, Kentucky will tie its school record for network TV appearances in a season with nine.
Kentucky has had three games on CBS this season (LSU, Florida, Tennessee), will have four on an ESPN affiliate (Louisville, Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida State), and two on Lincoln Financial Sports (Mississippi State, Georgia). UK also had nine live network TV appearances in the 1999 season.
In addition to the televised games, the highly popular ESPN College GameDay show came to Lexington for the first time. Coach Rich Brooks says that the exposure is helpful in recruiting.
?When we go out and recruit in junior colleges out in California, those guys know our players? names,? Brooks said. ?The visibility of this program has risen a great deal, based in some ways on what we did last year, but more importantly on what we?ve been able to accomplish this year. (ESPN College) GameDay coming to Kentucky for football, I think is a significant step in visibility. The fact that we are playing Florida State in a bowl game on New Year?s Eve is significant enough for visibility.?
Bowl Officially Announces Sellout: The Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl announced on Monday that the game on Dec. 31 is officially a sellout.
This is the third sellout in the history of the event. The first Music City Bowl in 1998 was held at Vanderbilt Stadium (cap. 41,000) and the game between Alabama and Virginia Tech was a sellout. The bowl moved to the Tennessee Titans? stadium, now known as LP Field (cap. 68,798), in 1999 and since then there have been only two sellouts ? 2006 and 2007, both involving the University of Kentucky.
Kentucky fans have put up strong attendance numbers in UK?s four bowl games during the past decade:
Outback Bowl (Jan. 1, 1999): approx. 40-45,000 UK fans, first sellout in bowl history Homepoint.com Music City Bowl (1999): approx. 55,000 UK fans Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl (2006): approx. 50-55,000 UK fans, largest crowd in bowl history, first sellout at LP Field Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl (2007): second sellout at LP Field
