June 2, 2000

Perry, Wiggins Granted Scholarships: Continuing his philosophyof rewarding walk-on players, Coach Hal Mumme has awarded fullscholarships to quarterback Mark Perry and strong safety PatrickWiggins.

Perry, a senior from Chillicothe, Ohio, has been a reservequarterback for the last three seasons and earned a place on the SECAcademic Honor Roll last season. Perry is expected to see action onspecial teams in the coming season. He has played extensively for theUK junior varsity team. He was the starting quarterback at Wilmington(Ohio) College, an NCAA Division III school, in 1996, and transferred toUK in 1997.

Like Perry, Wiggins began his career as a small-collegequarterback, playing his freshman season for Cumberland (Ky.) Collegein the NAIA. He transferred to UK in 1998 and began working at strongsafety. Wiggins played in every game on special teams last season. Hegot his first defensive start for UK in the game at Vanderbilt, and herose to the occasion with a number of big plays in UK’s 19-17 win thatclinched bowl eligibility. He collected seven tackles, two tackles forloss, got an interception, made a key goal-line stop that forced a fieldgoal try, and knocked loose the game-clinching fumble with two minutesto go in the game. He was rewarded for that performance with SECDefensive Player of the Week honors.

Wiggins finished the season with 23 tackles, including three forloss, along with two pass breakups and an interception. He added threetackles in the HomePoint.com Music City Bowl and was a member of the SECAcademic Honor Roll.

Perry and Wiggins become the 13th and 14th Wildcats walk-onplayers who have been awarded full scholarships during Mumme’s fouryears at UK. Perry and Wiggins join defensive tackle Grayson Smith ascurrent Wildcats who came to UK as non-scholarship players.

“It’s just something I believe in,” Mumme says of his policy ofopportunity for walk-ons. “I’ve always had walk-on players be able tomake the team and contribute on the field. It’s one of the joys ofcoaching to be able to reward those players with scholarships.”

Mumme has had notable on-the-field success with walk-ons. Lastseason, for instance, tight end James Whalen was named first-teamAll-America and punter Andy Smith was first-team All-SEC. And, asmentioned earlier, Wiggins was chosen SEC Defensive Player of the Weekfor the crucial victory over Vanderbilt.

Players Return to Lexington: Most of the Wildcats will bereturning to Lexington this week for summer school, summer jobs, and/orstrength and conditioning workouts. The four-week summer school sessionends June 6 and the eight-week period runs from June 8 through Aug. 3.

Coaches Begin Summer Camps: The Kentucky coaching staff will beworking the UK youth football camps from June 7-27.

Louisville Game Time Tentatively Set: The University ofLouisville has assigned a tentative game time of 7 p.m. EDT for theSept. 2 season opener between the Cardinals and the Kentucky Wildcats atPapa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

Media and fans should note, however, that the game time istentative and will change if the game is selected for live networktelevision. Network TV plans for the Sept. 2 games will not befinalized until August.

Kentucky Football Calendar: Here are some key dates in Kentuckyfootball for the summer.

2000 Schedule: All times Eastern and subject to change ifselected for network television.