Anytime a head coach takes over a program, there’s a great deal of work involved. For new Kentucky track and field coach Edrick Floreal, the transition will be even more significant.Floreal is balancing tying up loose ends at his former job at Stanford, moving his family to the Bluegrass and serving as jumps coach for Team USA at the Summer Olympic Games. And don’t forget about getting to know his Wildcat student-athletes. Mark Maloney writes about that subject and others in a story in Thursday’s Lexington Herald-Leader:

Under his watch, 91 Stanford athletes earned 197 All-America honors. The Cardinal won three NCAA women’s cross country titles and finished among the top-five men’s cross country programs in three of the last four years. Add to that seven NCAA track and field finishes indoors, as well as outdoors.UK is coming off a seventh-place men’s finish and 12th-place women’s finish in the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships.“I have to have (UK athletes) buy in, and buying in means ‘wherever we’re at right now, we need to do better,'” Floreal said. “Can we do three or four spots better? I certainly hope so, and I certainly think so. But it might be two spots better; it might be six spots better.“I don’t know right now, and I just don’t want the kids to get discouraged. … Like my former A.D. (at Stanford), Bob Bowlsby, said, ‘you’ve got to eat the elephant one bite at a time.’ I’m not interested in trying to eat the whole thing together, so we’re going to keep biting at that until we eat the whole thing.”That challenge to build UK’s program and take advantage of a new outdoor facility are part of what lured him from Stanford, Floreal said. He cited the support of his UK predecessor — Don Weber — and the passion of Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart as factors.

Give Maloney’s full story a read to learn more about UK’s newest coach.Link: New Kentucky track coach Edrick Floreal has a full summer on tap