The views and opinions expressed within this post do not necessarily represent the views of the TGR Crew. The author (R.A.) of the post is solely responsible for the content.  In other words, holler at a Louisville fan!

It has been a long summer getting to this point.  I would like to thank Baby Jesus for allowing us to be able to follow and enjoy wonderful recruiting news from the Calipari camp, basketball from Canada, and the positive transition from the Phillips to Brooks staffs.  Other than half ass attempts from some media types to bring down Calipari, it has basically been a positive summer vacation for the Big Blue nation. Think of what the alternative could have been? We could have been talking about abortions, adulterers, de-commitments from our recruits, losing recruits to rivals, having a crap campus, being removed from the Big East by realignment, players being removed from the team for violence, and having to read daily about how great our rival and it’s athletic teams are growing and improving every single day.  In other words, though it was not a perfect summer, at least we ain’t them…

The silence around the Kentucky football complex has continued this week. Following last week’s announcement of Mike Hartline as the starting quarterback, I hoped to have received more information about the team and how the game plan is being inserted, but I was denied.  The only clear information that has come out in the past couple of days  is that mike Hartline does not care a bit about how the fans view him.  The young man has been the most hated on football player in recent history and is still having to defend himself against the scrutiny of the fans. Fans, who for the most part, have only played college football on their Sega Genesis or Xbox. Fans who have no idea the pressure of playing college football or quarterback in the SEC. Fans who are more interested in public comments a teenage kid says on local television and print than they are the young man’s record on the field. Fans who are more affected by a kid’s body language on the sidelines than they are the grit a kid shows on Saturdays.  I am with you Mike Hartline and the 3-0 record you ride back to Lex-Town with tomorrow night against the Red Rats in your time at Kentucky will be much appreciated in my home.

John Calipari is assembling what could become the greatest recruiting class in the history of college basketball in 2011.  Something he has done 2 of the last 3 years if you count the two recruiting classes he got for both Memphis and Kentucky in 2009. As of last week, he had commitments from Anthony Davis, Michael Gilchrist, and Marquis Teague.  All three are 5* recruits ranked in the Top 10 nationally by most recruiting services.  After Saturday night, you can add Kyle Wiltjer, the country’s fifth-ranked power forward to that list. In a surprising announcement last weekend, the Oregon native made it clear that he was going to Join the other three studs in Lexington in 2011. My favorite part of this commitment is that Kyle Wiltjer not only has never stepped foot in the state of Kentucky (at least Lexington), at the time of this commitment he had never spoken to John Calipari face to face in his young life. How crazy is that? Most of us won’t change tables in the break room without at least taking a glance at what we are moving to.  This young guy is willing to move across country to a place he has never visited in order to play for the greatest tradition in the history of college basketball!  I mean, he had only spoken to cal on the telephone!?! I have news for you other schools and recruiters trying to do battle with the Big Blue on the recruiting trails, good luck with that.  We are doing things on an entirely different level right now and there is no room for you at the top!

Finally, there has been no end to the trash talk between Louisville and Kentucky fans this week. Somehow fans of a team who has not beaten another team in 3 years have enough gusto to still feel the need to chatter away. It is strange to me how most Louisville fans have been denied the ability to win with class and lose with class. I am not sure if it his genetics or lack of chromosomes, or it is simply the malt liquor. Either way, the bulk of the fan base has been hit with this terrible affliction.  Maybe it is why they have all found one another. I guess it goes back to the whole, birds of a feather thing. I hate to group people together, it seems very 1950s to put people in with one another only because of a trait such as cheering for a certain college team. But, that is exactly what I am doing this fine afternoon.  Face it Cards fans, you are a bunch of turds. Your level of obnoxiousness can only be described as incessant. Your inability to recognize what is right and what is wrong is very sad. The world in which you live in does not recognize reality. This goes for all of you cardinal fans! You don’t have to have a Figaro chain, line beard, or a flat brimmed hat to be lumped in with the most worthless fan base in the country! Face it Tards, your football program got on a plane to Atlanta 2 years ago and now resides in Arkansas.  I hope you enjoyed it, if the Cats are able to fend off your pitiful excuse for a division 1 squad tomorrow, we may return to papa Joan’s dump riding high on a 6 game winning streak and looking for a seventh! You may look into that move to the WAC or a move back to Conference USA, it is the only way you will be able to avoid us!

Have a great long Labor Day Weekend!  Give ’em hell cats!