Kentucky Wildcats

Tim Couch: University Of Kentucky Finally Embracing Football

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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1998 SEC Player of the Year and former Kentucky football star Tim Couch is ecstatic to see the school finally embracing something other than basketball.

The University of Kentucky is a basketball school. Kentucky football has fought to create a more balanced situation, but its inconsistency has paled in comparison to the glory of the basketball program.

Tim Couch, who made progress towards change during the late 1990s, believes the latest development in Lexington could complete the process.

Arguably the biggest knock on the Kentucky football program has been a lack of allocated resources. While the facilities for the basketball team have long been empowered, the same can’t be said for the football team.

According to Jon Hale of The Courier-Journal, Couch believes that Kentucky has finally shown a commitment to football by improving the facilities.

“We finally see the commitment to football. We’ve always talked about we want to be an elite football school as well, not just a basketball school, but you have to put the money into it. Now we’re finally doing that with the facilities that we have. We’re up to par with anyone else in the conference. So when it comes down to a recruit saying, ‘I went to this place because facilities were better,’ we’re not going to lose that battle anymore. Our facilities are as a good as anyone else’s in the country. It’s going to level the playing field for us, in my opinion.”

That’s a gigantic commitment that should pay dividends.

As Couch alluded to, the Wildcats have finally invested in giving their players top-flight facilities. That’s appealing to any and every player and recruit, especially those who have NFL dreams.

Kentucky has done a quality job of producing NFL players, which implies that this development will only help the program grow.

At the very least, it should help the recruiting process.

Kentucky has produced the likes of Randall Cobb, Danny Trevathan, and Stevie Johnson. Tennessee Titans linebacker Avery Williamson and Pittsburgh Steelers pass rusher Bud Dupree are standouts who played for Mark Stoops in specific.

The fact that Stoops can now offer recruits top-tier facilities could make Kentucky a powerhouse sooner than later.