Wednesday marked the first official day that Division I schools could sign players for the 2006 football season. Click the links above for extensive coverage of 2006 Signing Day.

Press Conference Quotes – Feb. 1

Head Coach Rich Brooks

?I don?t think you ever hear a coach get up and say he?s not pleased with his signing class on signing day. But, I think this recruiting class stepped up to another level for us. There is an addressing of needs with this class.

?We wanted to sign two quarterbacks last year and we didn?t do it. We got it done this year and both of the quarterbacks we did sign are outstanding. Will Fidler is in school working out. We?re really excited about him graduating early. (There are) three other players in school. E.J. Adams was a grayshirt from last year. We were excited about him at that time and having him in the conditioning workouts, we see why we were excited. I think the four players that are here ? Will Fidler, E.J. Adams, T.C. Drake and Maurice Grinter ? will have a greater chance to be an impact on our team this next fall as true freshmen. I expect there will be others ? seven, eight, nine others ? that will also have an impact on our team this coming year.

?The other area we wanted to address totally was defense and particularly defensive linemen. I think you?ll notice one thing in common with this defensive line group. They are more of the stature of defensive linemen ? 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5. Most of them have good speed and a few of them are already physically of the size they can come in and have an impact. The addition of Corey Peters to that list makes it an especially strong group. You have to be excited about a guy like Micah Johnson., not only his physical abilities, but his leadership and his dedication in the recruiting process to help us by staying in touch and contacting other recruits. Two guys he spoke to long before he committed to us ? and he kind of wanted to see if they would join him at Kentucky ? were Josh Minton and Corey Peters and darned if they?re not all here. We also got some help in the secondary, where we need it.

?We got some physical players and three (junior college) players that will be coming in. J.D. Craigman is a defensive end who had 16.5 sacks in junior college last year. (He is) the old man in the group, 24 years old. He was a basketball player in high school, did not play high school football. He decided to go out to California and try football. He?s raw in technique and fundamentals, but he?s not raw in speed and size and that?s something we?re excited to see this fall. (Ahmad) Grigsby, a corner from El Camino (Calif.) is a physical guy as well. He?ll hit you. The term cover corner doesn?t go well in the SEC. If you?re not going to be physical and tackle, you?re going to have a hard time being a good corner in this league. Steve Johnson, a receiver, is almost 6-2. He?s a very strong, physical player. He comes in at a position where we need some experience. He will miss spring practice which won?t help us, but he should be a major factor in a receiving corps that was depleted by graduation. There are quite a few other freshman receivers coming in that will be in the mix. It?s hard to point out which one or two will be playing next year, but I?m sure one or two of the true freshmen will be playing at receiver.

?What we didn?t do this year is bring in a lot of offensive linemen. We recruited some. Justin Jeffries wants a shot at defense and we?ll do that. We?ll put him at defensive tackle but we know he?s (also) an offensive lineman. He wanted to try it on defense and we?ll do that, but we know he can play on the offensive side.

?We have some running backs with breakaway speed. There is just not much to not like about this class. We have some good tight ends as well. T.C. Drake being in school will be very beneficial and Chris Goode down in Dunwoody High School in Atlanta should help us.?

On Micah Johnson ?

We talked to him, in the recruiting process, about playing linebacker. We also talked about possibly using him on the other side of the ball in goal line and short yardage. I think it?s an awful lot to ask of a true freshman to come in and learn both offense and defense right off the bat. We want to start him on the defensive side and work him into situations at the running back spot.?

On Corey Peters ?

?Corey is at the physical size already that he has a chance to be a player next year, depending on how he adjusts and how he can get through the impact. Certainly, he went through the whole process. We felt pretty good about him the whole way, but you never know in this day and age. He visited Ohio State and Michigan the last two weekends after visiting Auburn as well. We were semi-confident, let?s put it that way. We were really excited to get the phone call late last night and wait for the announcement this morning. It was gratifying to not let another in-state guy escape to an out-of-state school.?

On Ricky Lumpkin ?

?I think sometimes the media runs with certain things that they shouldn?t run with at that point in time. There is always a little wavering in the recruiting process. It was about a three-day period of uncertainty he expressed coming off a Louisville visit. He was thinking about changing his mind and gave some reasons why, but he hadn?t sat down and discussed it with his family and thought it through. It was the newest and hottest thing. That?s what happens a lot of times in the recruiting process. Some players will go on one visit and they really like it. They say they want to go to that school. Then they go to the next school, they really like that school too and want to go to that school. Then they go to the next school. You have to let the dust settle. The people that cover recruiting don?t want to do that. They want to jump onto any little thing.

?The good thing in this recruiting class is, of what I perceived as two possible defections in the recruiting class, ended up staying with us. (Ricky) Lumpkin was one and Darrell Stevens was the other who was having second thoughts late in the recruiting process. Not only did we retain all the guys who committed to us, we got the jelly donut at the end in Corey Peters. Recruiting stories can go on forever, but that?s what recruiting is ? a story.?

On signing 10 in-state players ?

?I don?t feel great about it, I feel good about it. I?m a guy who would like to not lose anybody you want in state. We lost one to an out-of-state school that the gentleman that is now coaching our quarterbacks (Randy Sanders) recruited to Tennessee. We lost, certainly, one player that we really wanted in-state to Louisville and a couple others we were recruiting. You?re never totally happy unless you get them all. Certainly, we stemmed the tide of the leakage of some of the better prospects going out of state that has happened, particularly last year. When you look at a Micah Johnson, a Josh Minton and a Corey Peters for example, they had a lot of good choices — not only in this league but in other leagues as well. The fact that we were able to keep them in the state and get them to come to Kentucky is very encouraging.?