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Kentucky has made some hay early in the 2025 recruiting cycle. Vince Marrow and Jay Boulware have logged significant commitments. New assistant Daikiel Shorts has been impressive, overshadowing the work Eric Wolford has done in the shadows. There’s more evidence the Kentucky offensive line coach is fishing in the right waters.

On Monday night Dontrell Glover narrowed his list of schools to nine and the Wildcats made the cut. In addition to Kentucky, the talented interior offensive lineman is also considering Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami, Missouri, and Tennessee.

“It was about the interest from these schools and the communication I have with them,” Glover told On3’s Chad Simmons. “I have relationships with head coaches, offensive line coaches, and some offensive coordinators at these schools. The relationships are important to me.”

Glover has an extensive relationship with Eric Wolford. He committed to play for Coach Wolf at Alabama before Nick Saban announced his retirement. Glover reopened his recruitment but has still kept in close contact with the Kentucky offensive line coach.

Wolford will have his work cut out for him this go-around. The 6-foot-4, 310-pound offensive lineman is from Fairburn, GA and Kirby Smart is determined to keep Glover within the Peach State. Glover visited Florida State, Auburn, and Miami prior to the dead period, which ended on Monday. He’s been a frequent flyer to Auburn, visiting the Tigers’ campus three times already.

Glover is ranked as the No. 165 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He’s the tenth-ranked interior offensive lineman in the country.

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Bruce Feldman of The Athletic revealed his updated ranking of the Top 25 college football coaches, and he joined Paul Finebaum’s show to elaborate on it.

One of the coaches who made their way up the list was Kentucky’s Mark Stoops. He’s up from No. 18 to No. 14 after last season, Feldman heaping some respect on the Wildcats leader’s name.

On Tuesday, Feldman joined Finebaum to discuss why Stoops continues to rise, and why he admires what the Kentucky coach has accomplished throughout his tenure in Lexington, with a football team who’s school is better associated with basketball.

“I just have a lot of respect for what he’s done,” Feldman said during his hit on the SEC Network program. “It’s Kentucky football. I mean, obviously that’s a basketball school. You know, you look at the sustained success, over a century of playing football, they’ve only had four ten-win seasons. He’s had two of them. I just think it’s really amazing what he’s been able to do consistently there. If you take out that pandemic 2020 season, when they didn’t have non-conference games, they went 5-6. That was the only losing season they’ve had, going back now, coming up on eight years. That’s a really you know, remarkable run, just in the regard of, previously, before he got there, for about 70 years, they didn’t have a longer stretch of winning seasons of four years.

“So I think you have to consider where he’s doing it, the place he’s doing it at. Like, it’s Kentucky football. It’s not Vandy, but in terms of what he’s done there, I just don’t think he gets enough credit.”

In 2024, there will be a lot of pressure on Kentucky, as Mark Stoops and the Wildcats look to enter the upper echelon of their conference. The SEC is borderline wide open at the moment, and Stoops could take Kentucky to places they’ve never been if he’s as tremendous of a coach as Feldman believes.

Bill Connolly disagrees with Kentucky being a preseason top-25 team

When ESPN released its updated way-too-early top 25 for the 2024 college football season, Kentucky debuted at No. 23 overall. An interesting offseason has already unfolded in Lexington with a ton of turnover occurring inside of the program. Especially on the offensive end with quarterback Brock Vandagriff coming in from Georgia.

If things are going to work for Kentucky this year, Bill Connelly believes the offensive changes will have to be the reason why. Vandagriff will carry expectations with him but who his offensive coordinator will be is a mystery at the moment. Mark Stoops has built up a solid defense but there are holes to plug on offense.

“I think you have to believe the changes they made — that they’re probably making at coordinator, that they did make at quarterback with Brock Vandagriff coming in — you have to believe that’s really going to fix that offense,” Connelly said via The Paul Finebaum Show. “The defense should be good, there’s no question about that. They improved a little bit offensively last year but most of the reasons why are gone.”

Mark Schlabach did the rankings for ESPN, with everything being his opinion at this point of the offseason. If it were Connelly’s way-too-early top 25, he would not include the Wildcats.

“Now, you’re looking at three or four years where you didn’t win more than seven games,” Connelly said. “And for Kentucky, that tells you the bar has been raised significantly but they still haven’t cleared that bar in a while. If I’m putting that list there, I don’t put it down. Mark and I are allowed to disagree.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this article.

OPINION AND COMMENTARY

Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.

Op-Ed

With Mitch McConnell stepping down as Senate leader, a new political era is beginning in Kentucky. As we embark on this new era, I believe it’s critical to elevate some key questions as we consider what it means to be “successful in politics.’‘

Are you “successful in politics” if you help implement a failed economic model that emphasizes market primacy, deregulation, privatization, and more, contributing to a decline in the quality of life for many Kentuckians, exacerbating inequality and undermining the foundations of social cohesion and democratic governance?

Are you “successful in politics” if you spent 40 years representing a state that is at or near the bottom of every major indicator of quality of life (per capita income, health, education, employment) and those rankings are basically the same now as they were when you started your political career 40 years prior?

Are you “successful in politics” if your main source of power is deeply intertwined with dark money and corporate influence, and all the deregulation that paved the way for unchecked corporate spending in politics, benefiting some industries, at the expense of the public good?

Are you “successful in politics” if the 2008 financial crisis, an opioid epidemic that ravaged your home state, COVID and other horrific, total systems failures all happened on your watch and which cost us trillions of dollars and, more importantly, racked up an unimaginable human toll, a cost measured in both millions of lives lost and in shattered dreams of tens of millions more?

You can say that all our leaders failed on economic policy, or blame the strife on other developments. You can say Kentucky is failing because of the individual choices and behaviors of our people, however incomplete, cynical and irresponsible that, from my view, may be. You can say that it’s naive to think politics can be different. And you can certainly attempt to identify the actions of a few individuals as the reason for these total system failures. But wouldn’t you just be repeating the worn out tropes and false narratives that keep us trapped in a broken status quo?

Along with this new era in Kentucky politics, as I see it, our world is shifting into something new and its true we live in “interesting times,” as the Chinese proverb goes. Although at times scary, this shift is the chance, I think, to embrace a new kind of relationship with ourselves, our neighbors and our politics, one based in loving grace, connection, compassion, empathy and understanding. And one that can help us break generational cycles.

I hope you will do your own research and ask the questions above of yourself, your family and your friends. The answers are no doubt critical to choosing a path to the kind of vibrant, healthy, peaceful, safe and prosperous future that is real and possible and that we, as Kentuckians, most certainly deserve.

Taylor Coots, from Taylorsville, KY, is a political consultant with national experience. He has developed and helped implement political strategies that resonate with voters based on his deep understanding of the political landscape.

This story was originally published March 5, 2024, 10:38 AM.

Martin Matisoff spent decades as the supportive husband to his wife’s art. When they were a young couple in Los Angeles, he would drive her to classes, built studios for her in each of their homes, gave her thoughtful feedback on her work, and provided emotional support when she was ready to quit.

“Marty has always supported me in my art all the way back from when we first met,” painter Sharon Matisoff says. “He has always gone to all my shows ... Even when I gave my demonstrations, he was always there supporting me.”

But Sharon always thought it would be wonderful if Martin’s involvement went to a different level: As an artist in his own right who could share the experience.

It was not a far-fetched desire. Martin was an avid art enthusiast and had his own interests, drawn to fabric art created by a Chinese technique he once saw called the blind stitch or forbidden stitch, so called because it was so small and intricate that, according to legend, embroiderers who made that stitch would go blind.

In retirement, Martin became an embroiderer who has not gone blind and will be joining Sharon this weekend as an exhibitor at the Kentucky Crafted Market in the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena. The annual market, presented by the Kentucky Arts Council, boasts hundreds of arts and crafts exhibitors as well as music, demonstrations, hands-on activities, and other attractions.

Sharon has been a demonstrating artist at Kentucky Crafted several times before, but this will be both of their first times as exhibiting artists. If you go check them out, it will be easy to tell their work apart.

While they share a last name and modest home in Frankfort, Sharon and Martin’s art works are quite different from each other. Sharon’s paintings are drawn from reality with a growing focus on equine art since the couple moved to Kentucky, seeking a quieter life than L.A., around 20 years ago.

Sharon spent decades as an enthusiastic amateur artist, focusing on portraiture and animal art and growing her skillset both through classes and self learning. Her spacious studio in the couple’s modest Frankfort home boasts finished works and works in progress, including a portrait of her late mother-in-law taken from a photograph.

The focus of Sharon’s recent endeavors has been equine art, a particular challenge for the painter who prizes precise dimensions in her work. She notes that many equine artists also own and work with horses. While she does not have that kind of proximity to the animals, she has found Central Kentucky provides a variety of opportunities to be around and study horses, including the Kentucky Horse Park and Keeneland. Her attention to craft has earned Sharon numerous accolades and associations, including artist membership in the American Academy of Equine Art.

Sharon often looks to Martin to help evaluate whether images are looking right and proportional as they evolve from sketch to completed painting. For her part, she marvels that, “he has an idea. He thinks about it. He sketches it, he embellishes it, he changes it, and then he’s got something magnificent, and he’s got this darkness captured perfectly.”

Martin’s embroidery results in fantastical images drawn from literature, religious works, and historical sources. Though he only “put needle to fabric” two years ago, he has developed a painstaking process that starts with planning out pieces in a sketchbook before bringing them to fruition with threads and other materials. Along the way there have been many challenges such as figuring out how to represent barbed wire in embroidery for a piece drawn from the Holocaust and victories such as selling a piece featuring the Biblical creature Behemoth to the Kentucky Artisan Center.

Now retired, the Matisoffs enjoy days of creativity in their studios across the kitchen of their brick ranch house from each other. They have entertained the idea of a joint show, and Kentucky Crafted brings them closer to that. Their living room reflects their excitement for Kentucky Crafted with a joint display of their work ready to head to the Horse Park.

“It feels fabulous to be doing this together,” Sharon says. “We will be supporting each other. And I don’t feel alone. I feel like my buddy, my soulmate is right there. I’m safe, so it gives me this feeling of complete freedom to just relax and enjoy the day.”

When: March 9 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and March 10 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Where: Alltech Arena in the Kentucky Horse Park, 4089 Iron Works Pike.

Tickets: Admission is free and the Horse Park charges $10 for parking.

Online: Artscouncil.ky.gov

This story was originally published March 5, 2024, 6:00 AM.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2024) — This year, due to ongoing renovations in Memorial Coliseum, the DanceBlue Marathon is moving to one of the most legendary locations in college basketball: Rupp Arena. Dancers will have the opportunity to dance all night long on the iconic floor where the Wildcats play.

Starting at 8 p.m. on April 6, dancers will take the floor for 24 hours to raise money for the DanceBlue Clinic. Friends and family are welcome to cheer their loved ones on from the stands of Rupp Arena or watch the DanceBlue livestream.

Not dancing but still want to experience DanceBlue in Rupp Arena? Consider volunteering!

Volunteers can sign up for one of twelve shifts. To sign up, volunteers must be 16 or older and purchase a volunteer ticket. Each general shift ticket is $30 and each meal hour shift ticket is $15. Discounts are available to UK students and staff with discount codes “UKSTUDENT” and “UKEMPLOYEE”.

All volunteers who sign up by March 11 at 8 a.m. will be guaranteed a t-shirt. Tickets and more information are available here.

DanceBlue is a University of Kentucky student-run organization that fundraises year-round and culminates in a 24-hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon. Over $20 million has been raised since 2006, making DanceBlue one of the largest student-run philanthropies in the South-Eastern Conference. For more information about DanceBlue, registration information, or to support its efforts, please visit www.danceblue.org and connect with DanceBlue on Instagram, FaceBook, and X.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.