Freshman receiver Jordan Anthony is going to bring explosive speed to the University of Kentucky football team.

He just won the under-20 200-meter dash in 20.34 seconds at the USA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., to advance to the U20 World Championships in Cali, Colombia, in August.

However, is there any chance he could opt to strictly be a world-class sprinter and give up football?

His high school track coach in Tylertown, Miss., was Myron Sartin. He helped Anthony earn the title of the fastest high school sprinter in the U.S. Sartin believes Anthony is going to do just fine in both football and track at Kentucky.

“Every time something went wrong some people would tell him just to stick to one (sport). He definitely wants to play football,” Sartin said. “Personally I think the kid can do both at a high level if he can just handle the mental part of both sports and the physical schedule of football and going back and forth between sports.

“The track coaches won’t run him to death and put him in every meet. They will hold him out of smaller meets to preserve his body. Personally, I believe he has a really bright future in both sports.”

Anthony got to Lexington in May and already has adjusted to his dual-sport schedule. He has football workouts from 6-8 a.m., classes from 10 to noon, recovery time and lunch, rack workouts from 3-4 p.m. and then recovery time.

“Then I start over the next day,” Anthony said. “But I have been doing that since high school. I am used to it. I have missed playing football. The 6 a.m. workouts have excited me. I want to do those workouts. I am ecstatic to even play and practice.”

To play receiver in the Southeastern Conference, Anthony likely needs to put on weight. He weighs around 160 pounds now and Sartin knows a “little muscle” wouldn’t hurt Anthony.

“He told me they were not going to try and bulk him up (at UK),” Sartin said. “Maybe add 3-4 pounds of muscle because he is on the smaller side of most SEC receivers. Some of the track managers that called us about running had never seen him in person and when they did they would say, ‘That dude is going to play SEC football.’

“But (Heisman Trophy winner) DeVonta Smith of Alabama was not a lot bigger than Jordan. Jordan is learning how to take hits and how to fall, small details that can keep him from getting bruised.”

Anthony admits maybe adding 10 pounds would help him and also that he eventually thinks he can get to 180 pounds and maintain his current speed.

“Adding some weight and strength might even help me with track. Strength-wise it could help me in the 200 coming off the curve and with my top-end speed. The best is still to come,” Anthony said.

Even though he’ll be in Colombia with USA Track in August, Anthony believes he can “play early” at UK. He’s already been working on his relationship with quarterback Will Levis.

“Catching the ball from him is like having a torpedo coming at you and you have got to stop it. He doesn’t know that he has that much strength. When he throws, it is out there and on you,” Anthony said.

“He is a cool guy. You want Will on your team and leading your team. He is well respected. He wants greatness out of everybody. He has a great work ethic. He is just a phenomenal guy.”

Apparently fans in Tylertown viewed Anthony the same way.

“My family and myself attend edevery football game of his senior year and he was a joy to watch,” Tylertown fan Sherry Holmes said. “My autistic daughter loved to see him play.

“If he got one step ahead of the opposing team, that was a wrap. He is such a humble young man on and off the field.”

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Lyon County junior Travis Perry has created quite a buzz recently not only with his scholarship offer from Kentucky coach John Calipari, but also from coaches at Ohio State, Michigan, Missouri, Wake Forest and Bradley in the past few weeks and now has about 15 Division I offers.

However, he admits his father, Ryan, who is also Lyon County’s head coach, might be even more excited than him.

“My father probably has been more giddy than me. He says I don’t seem that excited. I am just taking it all in and having fun,” Travis Perry said. “It’s really great to have him as a high school coach and dad. I want to build relationships with the college coaches, but if they have a good relationship with my dad and me and my family, that’s the main thing for me.”

The 6-foot-2 guard has already scored 3,189 points in his high school career – and is easily within range of “King” Kelly Coleman’s all-time state scoring record of 4,337 points set at Wayland from 1953-56. He insists he’s not focused on becoming the state’s all-time leading scorer.

“I just play my game. As long as we are winning, I am happy,” he said. “My dad and I talk about winning a (state) championship and what needs to be done to win each game. If I need to get five points and 15 assists, I will do that. If I need 45 points, he will find a game plan to make it work. I really don’t worry about stats and points. I just try to stay humble and get to work every day.”

The pressure of chasing the all-time scoring record and having a Kentucky offer won’t distract Perry.

“People already heckle me and say I am not that good. I don’t let it get to me. Actually, any chants just fuel me and make me go harder,” the Lyon County junior said. “I have been hearing ‘overrated’ since the first game of my seventh-grade year.

“But I definitely have had a lot of people reaching out now and saying how proud they are of me. A lot of people have been part of my journey and that’s why I am so humbled and honored to get these chances.”

Perry said he has no timetable for when he might make a college choice.

“I would just say I am still in the early stages. I do not see a commitment coming anytime soon. When I find the best fit and relationship, that’s when it (a decision) will be made,” Perry said.

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Being from Kentucky, Jerod Smith admits he was not an Alabama football fan. Yet he knew what a great opportunity it was for his sons – twins Jacob and Jerod Smith – to get an invitation to go to Alabama for an unofficial visit.

The Smiths are both consensus top-200 players in the 2024 recruiting class. They played two years at Somerset High School before transferring to Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut for the 2021 season, where they reclassified to the 2024 class.

“A school like Alabama has athletes to dominate,” the elder Jerod Smith said. “Coach (Nick) Saban had a program that I did not know he had. He’s pretty strict on education and mental health awareness. My wife and I both really like that.

“You just kind of think he’s really going to hit the football aspect, but he was about the overall program and talked about a lot of things other than just football.”

The Smith twins have Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Iowa as their top four schools currently among the 20-some scholarship offers they already have.

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Former Kentucky basketball standout Maci Morris, who is still seventh on UK’s all-time scoring list with 1,692 points, once thought about being a basketball coach. Instead, she is in her second year of school to be a physician assistant.

“I always wanted to do something in the medical field,” Morris said. “Right now I am doing my general surgery rotation back home in Bell County. I will be somewhere different next month doing something else.”

Later this month, she’ll be hosting basketball camps with former UK teammate Blair Green at Pineville High School. Players in grades 9-12 will have camp from 6-8:30 p.m. on July 15 and grades K-8 will attend from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on July 16. Cost is $40 per person or $60 for two or more family members. Registration is at 5 p.m. on July 15 and 8 a.m. on July 16.

“We are just hoping we can influence kids around us in this area. We want to influence them to be better than the labels most people put on them. We want to give them hope and someone to look up to and know,” Morris said.

“We want to show the high school players how a college practice would be, so the girls understand the intensity and what it takes to make it through college practice or workouts. We wanted the high school camp to be more competitive so we could share our college experiences.”

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Wesley Woodyard had 395 tackles in his four-year career at UK and went on to play 12 years in the NFL for Denver and then Tennessee even though he was not picked in the draft. He’ll be back in Lexington to host the 16Ways.Org Golf Scramble July 15 at Thoroughbred Golf Club (go to https://www.16ways.org/golf-scramble-ky for more information).

There was no name, image and likeness financial incentives in Woodyard’s UK era from 2004-07, but he wishes there had been.

“I played with (quarterback) Andre Woodson, who would have benefitted in college a lot from NIL,” Woodyard said. “He sold millions (of dollars) in jerseys for the university and never got a penny.

“I love NIL as long as they are teaching kids how to use the money and helping set them up so when they are coming out of school they are not in debt. They are going to have a chance to be set up (financially) after football and not worry about that next check.

“They can focus on internships where they are not paid to get set up for jobs because they already have money in the bank from NIL. Those are life lessons I hope young men and women can take out of college now because of NIL that players my age never had the opportunity to enjoy.”

Woodyard laughed thinking back to when he got his first $18,000 paycheck in the NFL and was ready to go spend it all.

“You have to help athletes know how to handle money,” the former UK star said. “The only negative to the NIL is guys are jumping in the transfer portal just to get the money. You might make millions, but that’s not enough for a lifetime. Education still is important.”

Woodyard remembers when he played that then UK compliance director Sandy Bell was very vigilant to make sure athletes did not “take money and get in trouble” for breaking NCAA rules.

“I am still a little scared of her,” Woodyard said. “But if we had had NIL, I would have been so good. Me and Dre (Woodson), Keenan (Burton) and Jacob (Tamme) would have done very well and it would only have motivated us to be even more successful so we could get even more deals.”

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Quote of the Week: “You can easily see the growth in the UK program and it leaps into the professional world where you have got guys in NFL locker rooms talking about Kentucky. (Coach Mark) Stoops has created his own legacy. These young kids are seeing the success at Kentucky and how they are making players first-round picks every year,” former UK/NFL linebacker Wesley Woodyard, on the progress of the UK football program.

Quote of the Week 2: “We need her athleticism, her enthusiasm. She just plays hard and always brings that that defensive tenacity. She can also get to the basket and create for others,” Kentucky assistant coach Amber Smith, on freshman guard Amiya Jenkins, Kentucky’s Miss Basketball.

Quote of the Week 3: “I think we can play together. He is big and physical and I can move. We will be a good combination,” UK sophomore Daimion Collins, on playing with center Oscar Tshiebwe next season.{&end}