By LARRY VAUGHT
As soon as she became news director at WTVQ-ABC 36 in Lexington, Miranda Combs’ motto was to do big things and look for big personalities for the news staff.
The station needed a sports director and Combs had conversations with former University of Kentucky football player Jeff Piecoro, who is also the UK Radio Network football analyst.
“The talks were not too serious and then he said, ‘This is something that needs to happen.’ We could not believe it. It was a gift he was willing to do this,” said Combs. “He is known all over the state for what he does with Kentucky football and the Cincinnati Reds. We feel very lucky to have Jeff.”
Piecoro has been the UK football analyst working with Tom Leach since 2002. He also hosted pregame and postgame TV shows for the Cincinnati Reds on Fox Sports Ohio for 24 years. Since 2015 he’s also called women’s basketball and baseball for the SEC Network. If that’s not enough, he’s also worked both the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup.
Piecoro, 59, worked at ABC-36 in 1985 when he was hired by Kenny Rice. He was a receiver on the 1984 UK football team that finished 9-3 won the Hall of Fame Bowl for coach Jerry Claiborne.
Combs said Piecoro “took care” of making sure he could continue as UK Network analyst as well as work for the SEC Network.
“Obviously he will still be working with UK football and will be gone some for that,” Combs said. “Reporters Chris Bolton and Sara Cardona will anchor when Jeff is not available.
“He wants to spread out our coverage. He wants to cover EKU (Eastern Kentucky University), and cover a lot more sports in the state. We know there is more than just UK. Jeff will help us with some great UK coverage with his inside knowledge but he’s also going to help us with a lot of other great stuff. It’s just a match made in heaven for us.”
Combs said Piecoro immediately told her he wanted to learn how to edit video as well as shoot video.
“He’s going to do more than just anchor. He wants to be a total part of the team and to have a person of that caliber and experience coming in willing to do that is great for our staff and viewers,” Combs said. “I do worry he does not yet realize how big the job will be because we are committed to growing.”
Combs has made several other personnel moves recently and said more surprises are still coming.
“But getting Jeff lit my phone up like it has never been in my career. This is the biggest get we have gotten and he’s going to do so much not only for our Kentucky coverage but our overall sports coverage in the state,” Combs said.
Adou Thiero is the lowest rated and least known newcomer on John Calipari’s roster this season and knew he had to show quickly that he belonged at Kentucky.
“I’m surprised by how my teammates are very consistent with their shot. Everyone is fast. Everyone talks on defense,” Thiero said. “I didn’t really play against people like that (in high school), but it’s a good thing to see now.
“I think it will help me a lot. They’ll bring out the best in me so I just have to bring it every day.”
He had gone against Kentucky senior center Oscar Tshiebwe once in a high school scrimmage game and it was a turning point in Thiero’s career at Quaker Valley (Pa.).
“I got my starting position after playing them because nobody wanted to challenge Oscar and go get a rebound. So I went in and got a rebound over him,” Thiero said. “That’s when my coaches realized, ‘He wants it. He’s going to play hard every second.’”
Tshiebwe sort of remembered the scrimmage and Thiero getting a rebound a little differently.
“He had a lot of confidence. He was playing good,” Tshiebwe said about Thiero. “I was doing my thing. He was just a kid. He has got better and he is in a program where everybody is working.”
So how did a freshman guard get a rebound against Tshiebwe?
“Some rebounds just come in your hands. The ball just jumps in your hands and you can say, ‘I got a rebound against Oscar,’” Tshiebwe laughed and said. “I’ll let them get those. I tell them, ‘You can get many rebounds in practice, but you’re not getting those in the game.’”
Abby Steiner has emerged as one of the nation’s best sprinters and has a chance to add a world’s championship to her already impressive resume when she competes in the 200-meter dash at the World Championships at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon July 15-24.
Steiner holds three collegiate records — 200 outdoors, 200 indoors and 300 indoors — and UK coach Lonnie Greene also notes there has not been an American run as fast as her in the 200.
Steiner’s success would seem to be a perfect recruiting tool for UK but Greene says he never has to mention her success.
“We don’t have to mention her name. People mention her name to us. Recruits, parents, coaches all want to talk about Abby Steiner,” Greene said. “Ever since she put on the uniform at Kentucky, she has been a successful athlete.
“I remember so vividly when I first got the job. Her and her father walked into my office during orientation and I looked at her and could see that she was an athlete. Sometimes you try to describe it and there are not the words to describe her. She’s that special.”
He calls his star sprinter a coach’s dream who makes his job easy.
“Sometimes, and we hope not, elite individuals like Abby become career kids. We hope not but you might not get another one like her in your career,” Greene said. “She works hard. She has the best attitude. When talent like that prepares like she does, it is hard to beat that talent.”
Alabama four-star defensive back Avery Stuart is one of the higher rated recruits that coach Mark Stoops has landed at UK and currently the highest ranked player in UK’s 2023 recruiting class. He picked UK over Florida State, Auburn, Penn State, Oklahoma and others.
With all the focus on how name, image and likeness (NIL) and the impact it is having on recruiting, I asked Alabama Christian Academy coach Michael Summers if any NIL incentives influenced Stuart’s decision.
“Not that I know of,” Summers said. “I think some other schools … (UK assistant) coach (Frank) Buffano said he could not talk about that kind of stuff right now.
“I respect that. That is being by the book. I am sure if he gets there and does his job, that stuff will take care of itself. But they (UK) had enough integrity not to break the rules.”
Stuart is the No. 20 highest rated commitment all-time at UK according to 247Sports and rated about receivers Dane Key and Keaten Wade, two stars in the 2022 recruiting class, and 2023 receiver Shamar Porter. He is regarded as the nation’s 12th best safety by 247Sports and 197th best player.
Stuart also plays receiver because Alabama Christian is a 1A school enrollment-wise playing up in 3A against schools with more numbers.
“He obviously plays safety but we also need him at receiver,” Summers said. “That’s not his natural spot but we beat our city rival who was state runner-up and he had a big interception but also a really big touchdown catch.
“We are a run team but our quarterback is pretty good at getting him the ball. We are hoping people double team him and we can run it down their throat. If not and they don’t double team him, we are going to throw it up and let him go get it.”
Summers said he’s known Stuart was special for several years and has tried to help promote him as much as possible.
“We got information out on him but he also plays a lot of 7-on-7 ball to get his name out there. He went to a lot of camps to get a lot of tape out. A combination of all that and his special talent made a lot of schools notice him and Kentucky is getting a really, really good player,” Summer said.
Freshman Cassidy Rowe says her first month with the Kentucky basketball team has been “amazing’ and while the transition to college basketball has been hard it was what she was expecting.
“The coaching staff, my teammates, everyone has just been so good to me,” Rowe said. “I feel like Kentucky’s coaching staff has great coaches but they also care for you as a person first. That is huge with them every single day and that makes the atmosphere here amazing.”
Rowe suffered two major knee injuries during her prep career at Shelby Valley and then broke her right wrist late last season. The Kentucky-Indiana All-Star series were her first games back and she admits she was “still holding back a little bit” to make sure the wrist was healed.
“Now I am getting more confidence every practice we have,” Rowe said.
She’s even got a taste of boxing through a team bonding function coach Kyra Elzy had.
“We went through a boxing class and it was pretty hard. We hit a punching bag for eight or nine rounds of different techniques. It was really a hard workout,” Rowe said. “We also did some ab exercises. I had never worn boxing gloves or done anything like that before and had no idea how hard it would be.”
However, she knows it was not as rigorous as the surprise trip the team took to Fort Campbell before last season when they hiked and even pushed a tank.
“I have heard the returners talk about it,” Rowe said. “We will not return (to Fort Campbell) and they (returning players) were really happy about that. I heard it was really hard and nobody wanted to go back.”
Kentucky got a huge recruiting commitment from 6-4, 300-pound Alabama lineman Koby Keenum Saturday. Rivals.com ranks him as the No. 3 center in the 2023 recruiting class.
However, there was a time Keenum envisioned himself as an elite baseball prospect.
Mars Hill Bible School coach Darrell Higgins says Keenum was a baseball player when he came to the school as an eighth-grader.
“I had to talk him into playing football. Finally his sophomore year he fell in love with football and the grind,” Higgins said. “He was a left-handed pitcher, first baseman, hitter. He did all that traveling for baseball.
“He has gotten better and better since he started with us but he did not have a lot of success his freshman year. He had toe surgery and missed a lot of the year.”
COVID hit and stopped Keenum’s sophomore baseball season. That’s when a group of Mars Hill senior football players, including the coach’s son, Peyton who now plays at Troy for coach Jon Sumrall, moved all the weight equipment to a player’s house so they could work out.
“They really transformed him into a great player,” Higgins said. “He is very athletic. He can really come off blocks and get to linebackers and the secondary. The best thing he does is finish off blocks. He’s just very special.”
Quote of the Week: “If you have a confident quarterback it puts confidence in the whole team. That confidence is contagious. Will is very energetic and always looking to have a good time. He’s quite the character but we love it,” center Eli Cox on UK quarterback Will Levis.
Quote of the Week 2: “I’m playing against players I know were given money, that the school and NCAA knows were given money and we’re still playing against them. Under the table, not even above the table like it is now,” Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops on Kentucky Sports Radio about payments to players.
Quote of the Week 3: “The wide receiver room might be the deepest room on the team. Who would have ever said that before? I am not saying (former offensive coordinator) Liam Coen was making these receivers but whoever has been breaking down film on these receivers is doing a great job,” former UK all-SEC defensive back Van Hiles on UK’s receivers.