A couple of major announcements were released Thursday in the form of the official football hires of Rick Minter as co-defensive coordinator and Steve Pardue as running backs coach, in addition to the announcement of the new Big East/SEC Challenge.We’ve got both covered in full detail on the homepage. There isn’t too much to add on to the detailed releases other than a couple of quick hits I want to point out below:- For anyone skeptical about the Minter hire, look no further than the big-name coaches Minter has helped groom into head coaches at the pro and collegiate level. At UC, Minter had current UK coach Joker Phillips on his staff in addition to New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, Baltimore Raves head coach John Harbaugh, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher. That’s as impressive of a staff as you will find at any level. – One has to wonder how the hiring of Steve Pardue will affect the LaGrange pipeline. As most of you know, LaGrange High School in Georgia has been a football factory for the Kentucky football program. Over the last several years, UK has signed the likes of Quentin McCord, Wesley Woodyard, Braxton Kelly, DeMoreo Ford, Mychal Bailey, Randall Burden, Tristian Johnson, Qua Huzzie, Joe Mansour and Patrick Simmons, all from LaGrange. I’m not saying it could have a positive or negative effect one way or the other. Honestly, I don’t think anyone knows. Part of the reason UK has been so successful in finding gems from LaGrange is because of the relationship between Phillips and Pardue. Now that Pardue is at UK, does that hurt the pipeline? Or with Pardue’s connections in LaGrange and the community’s knowledge of him, will that persuade even more LaGrange products to journey to UK? We’ll have to find out.- For those of you confused about the new SEC/Big East Challenge, allow me to point out the differences. The SEC/Big East Invitational of the past two years, which included this year’s UK-Notre Dame game, only eight teams a year were featured with doubleheaders at neutral sites. That won’t be the case with the new SEC/Big East Challenge. Instead, the new format, which will begin in 2011, will feature 12 games over three days beginning on the Thursday after Thanksgiving of each year. The format will resemble the current ACC/Big Ten Challenge, plus all games will be held on campus sites. – With the addition of the SEC/Big East Challenge for next year, the Kentucky men’s basketball schedule in 2011-12 is shaping up to be one of the best in recent memory. In addition to home games with Louisville and North Carolina, Kentucky will play Indiana on the road, Kansas in New York and a Big East opponent.