John Clay's Sidelines

Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express has a column in which he talked to ex-UK coach Billy Gillispie after Thursday’s news that the NCAA was vacating Memphis’ 2007-08 season.

Memphis coach then, John Calipari, is the man who replaced Gillispie at UK.

Yet Billy G. says he bears no ill will, and roots for the Cats, just as anyone would say who has filed a lawsuit against his former employer.

Excerpt:

But when asked, Gillispie denied even a hint of that body language. He said he still roots for Kentucky and that he hopes “everything works out for everyone there.”

This is both a mature and smart response. A year from now, Gillispie wants to be coaching again.

Until then, he’s living outside of Dallas without many cares. Seeing how his disputed contract with Kentucky is resolved is one of them.

Otherwise he’s an unemployed, unmarried man who wants to stay busy. “I plan to volunteer for a year doing anything,” Gillispie said Saturday. “I want to make the most of this time.”

Darrell Arthur dunking for Kansas.

Thanks to a loyal reader who passed along this Sunday column from Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News, questioning just exactly what good it does for the NCAA to “vacate” any team’s tournament appearaces, etc.

Tim also gets into the NCAA Clearing House issue that I wrote about this morning, but even better he draws a good, if ridiculous on the NCAA’s part, comparison between what happened with Derrick Rose and Memphis and what happened with Darrell Arthur and Kansas.

An excerpt:

And what does the NCAA have to say about the Jayhawks?

The team that remains the champion of that season, now so stained by Memphis’ presence, had a starter named Darrell Arthur. Maybe you’ve heard of him. He won a state title at South Oak Cliff in 2006, only the championship was later vacated by the UIL because he and others had failing grades changed to passing grades as reported by WFAA-TV (Ch. 8).

So there you have that fine line as drawn by the NCAA.

Passing high school but cheating on your college entrance exam? Not OK.

Failing high school but cheating in order to pass, stay eligible and go on to college? No problem.

Update: Rich Brooks canceled Sunday’s schedule practice to give the team an extra day or rest following 16 straight days of workouts.

We’re 13 days away from the Kentucky-Miami of Ohio opener Sept. 5 in Cincinnati.

Today’s countdown has to do with the race for No. 2 quarterback. Mike Hartline will be the starter come opening day. But holdover Will Fidler has played well this fall, while the two highly-touted freshmen, Morgan Newton and Ryan Mossokowski, are struggling with the adjustment.

Here’s video of head coach Rich Brooks talking after Saturday’s scrimmage about the battle to be the back-up.

Here is UK’s head coach for offense, Joker Phillips, talks about the good things he saw from the Kentucky offense in Saturday’s scrimmage.

UK quarterback Mike Hartline says offense played well in UK’s second scrimmage, if not quite as well as last week. Meanwhile, linebacker Micah Johnson says the defense was much improved over last Saturday.

There are only 14 days until Kentucky opens its season against Miami of Ohio on Sept. 5 at Paul Brown Stadium.

For today’s countdown, here’s video of head coach Rich Brooks commenting on today’s scrimmage, completed earlier this afternoon.

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Eloy Vargas

Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun reports that reserve Florida center Eloy Vargas has left the Gators and is visiting Kentucky this weekend.

An excerpt:

Vargas will be granted his release from his UF scholarship and is visiting Kentucky this weekend, according to a source close to the program. Vargas also posted on his Twitter page that he “will be takin a visit to Kentucky Wildcats this weekend.”

Florida coach Billy Donovan acknowledged before his Ocala tip-off club banquet Wednesday that Vargas was dealing with some academic difficulties. Another source confirmed Friday that Vargas would not have been academically eligible for the fall semester.

Brockway also reports that Vargas is close to UK assistant Orlando Antigua. The 6-foor-10 Vargas played just nine games last year as a freshman for the Gators.

Thanks to the New York Times, which links to my “Vacated NCAA tourney appearances, by coach” chart back on May 31.

But with Thursday’s ruling, time to update the chart.

I’m an AP College Football Poll voter this year. As Jerry Tipton did last basketball season, I’ll tell you how I voted. The AP released its first poll this morning, so here’s a comparison of how all voted, compared to how I voted.

Interview after Friday’s practice with UK’s pre-season All-SEC offensive tackle Zipp Duncan.