“The best thing I can tell you about this season is that we’re only about seven days away from the start,” Coach Hal Mumme told more than 600 fans Friday afternoon at the 2000 UK Football Kickoff Luncheon. “This first football game is really important to us because it’s the only game we play this week.”

The luncheon included welcoming remarks from UK President Dr. Charles Wethington and video highlights of last season as well as recognition of former UK football players in attendance. Director of Athletics Larry Ivy asked for a moment of silence in memory of the late Bill Harrod, whom Ivy described as a huge supporter of the University.

“This team has great character and work ethic,” Mumme said as he addressed the crowd. “I think our defense is going to play better than any year we’ve been here so far. People look at stats just the way we play offense precludes a lot of defensive stats. I don’t think the defense has gotten enough credit.”

Mumme added, “We have kind of a good scary and a bad scary situation in the defensive line. The bad part is that we’ve got two freshmen that might start. The good part is that those two freshmen are the two strongest guys on the team. They’re truly SEC caliber defensive tackles.” Mumme, who is beginning his fourth year as the coach of the Wildcats, finished by saying “Our goal is to win the conference championship.”

Note: Kentucky’s Friday afternoon football practice was cancelled by coach Hal Mumme in order to let the players rest their legs.