Five University of Kentucky seniors-cornerback Trevard Lindley, linebacker Micah Johnson, fullback John Conner, linebacker Sam Maxwell and defensive tackle Corey Peters-have received invites to the NFL Combine Feb. 24-March 2 in Indianapolis.

Peters was also invited to the East-West Shrine Game Jan. 23 in Orlando but will sit out to rest a minor shoulder injury suffered in the Music City Bowl. Peters is expected to be 100 percent for the Combine.

Another UK senior, running back Alfonso Smith, will play in the Texas vs. the Nation All-Star Game Feb. 6 in El Paso, Texas.

By his own account, it comes two years later than it should have, but former Bryan Station standout Terrell Combs will finally be a Kentucky Wildcat.

Combs was recruited by UK following his senior year with the Defenders but opted to sign with Minnesota instead. Now Combs is back in Lexington, having enrolled at Kentucky for the spring semester.

The 6-foot-2, 250-pound Combs was a three-star prospect out of high school and had offers from Michigan, Purdue, West Virginia, Michigan State and Louisville in addition to UK and Minnesota.

“I just got homesick; things really didn’t go my way (at Minnesota),” Combs said. “I was ready to come back home. I’m excited to be at UK. This is what I should have done from the get-go.”

Combs played as a true freshman in 2008, seeing reserve action as a tight end. He was moved to defensive end at the spring of 2009 by Minnesota Coach Tim Brewster and decided to look elsewhere.

Combs said he doesn’t have a preference for where he plays at Kentucky but said that head coach Joker Phillips will likely start him on offense. The Cats lost its top three tight ends to graduation, leaving Colorado transfer Ryan Wallace and redshirt freshman Anthony Kendrick as the only scholarship tight ends currently on the roster.

Combs will be eligible in 2010, but will pay his own way this semester and be awarded a scholarship in 2011. His return home was good news to his mother, Nelda.

“It was hard for us to get up there and see him play,” she said. “This is awesome.”

Joker Phillips was officially introduced as Kentucky’s head football coach on Wednesday and has already made at least one major change on his coaching staff, as he informed offensive line coach Jimmy Heggins that he will not be returning in 2010.
WKYT-27 reported that Phillips also will not retain defensive line coach Rick Petri.
Heggins, who came to UK in 2005 after a 19-year stint as an assistant at Florida State under Bobby Bowden, confirmed the decision Friday morning.
“(Phillips) just said he had decided to go in a different direction,” Heggins said. “I’m going to hang around (Lexington) for a while and see what I can do as far as getting a job somewhere.”
Petri, who also joined the UK staff in 2005, wouldn’t confirm that he’d been let go when contacted late Thursday night but sounded like a man ready to move on.
“I really don’t know what’s out there at this point, so I’m not at liberty to say anything at the present time,” he  said.
Heggins and Petri have both done admirable jobs as position coaches. UK fielded perhaps its best offensive line of the Rich Brooks era in 2009, and Petri has overseen a unit that has produced a pair of NFL Draft picks in Myron Pryor and Jeremy Jarmon and figures to have a third player (Corey Peters) in the league next year.
But Phillips said recruiting will be the No. 1 priority under his watch, and the moves could be setting the table to bring in a couple of top-notch recruiters.
Three other holdovers from Rich Brooks’ staff, assistant head coach/tight ends/special teams coach Steve Ortmayer, defensive coordinator Steve Brown and secondary coach Chris Thurmond, all said this week that they planned on being back in 2010.
It’s been assumed that Ortmayer would retire at the same time as Brooks, considering the two have worked together for years and are longtime friends.
But Ortmayer said he had no plans to retire this year. Brown said he spoke with Phillips last week and felt good about his chances of returning. Thurmond had hip replacement surgery on Thursday but also stated he expected to be on the staff next season.

The University of Kentucky has called a press conference for 3:08 on Wednesday to introduce Joker Phillips as its next head coach.

Why 3:08 you ask? According to UK spokesman Tony Neely, it’s in recognition of the No. 8, which was Phillips’ jersey number as a Wildcat receiver from 1981-84.

University of Kentucky assistant head coach/special teams and tight ends coach Steve Ortmayer said on Monday that he had no plans on following Rich Brooks into retirement.

Ortmayer came to UK with Brooks in 2003 and served as  vice president for football operations when Brooks was the head coach of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams in 1995 and 1996. UK head coach for offense Joker Phillips has be named Brooks’ successor.

“Right now I’m on the road recruiting,” Ortmayer said when reached by phone on Wednesday. “I’m out of town and not involved in the process right now. That’s Joker’s call, but I don’t have any plans on retiring.”

Brooks said he would have no input in next year’s coaching staff.

“That’s not my call,” Brooks said. “I talked to all of my coaches and thanked them for what they had done to help us do this. Those decisions are no longer mine. I don’t anticipate anything, it’s just part of passing the torch.”

University of Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks will have a press conference at 11 a.m. on Monday at Commonwealth Stadium to announce his future plans. Brooks, 68, has a 130-156-4 career record in 25 seasons as a head coach, including a a 39-47 record in seven years at UK. The Cats were riddled by NCAA probation when Brooks took over in 2003, but Brooks guided them to four consecutive bowl games for the first time in school history.

University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said Tuesday night that he wants football coach Rich Brooks to return in 2010, but added that he wants it to be Brooks’ call.

Brooks told the media after Sunday’s Music City Bowl loss to Clemson that he was “80 percent” sure that he would not return as head coach in 2010.

Barnhart said that he talked to Brooks shortly after his post-game radio show Sunday, but hasn’t met with him since. He said he hopes to meet with Brooks sometime this week to discuss the future.

“I want him to be our football coach, I think he’s good for Kentucky,” said Barnhart, who agreed to an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader and Courier Journal before Tuesday’s Kentucky-Hartford basketball game.. “He’s good for our players. And that’s important.”

Barnhart said that he’s been firmly behind Brooks and the football program during his tenure as athletics director.

“I’ve supported football, the department has supported football in a variety of ways,” Barnhart said. “I supported Rich seven years ago. I supported him four years ago. I’m supporting him this year personally— from a very personal standpoint.”

As evidence of support, Barnhart pointed to several facilities upgrades over the last seven years that he estimated at nearly $10 million. Those include a new surface at Nutter Field House, new practice fields at the Nutter Training Center, new locker rooms at Nutter and Commonwealth Stadium, and a $1.5 million re-sealing at Commonwealth Stadium, and a new team meeting room. Position-specific meeting rooms are also in the works.

One project not underway is a multi-purpose recruiting room, which has been on the table since 2003.Barnhart said the delay comes down to finances: The original estimate for the project was around $2 million, but that figure has risen to around $7 million, partially due to UK’s desire to include a kitchen area for on-site preparation of meals for recruits. Barnhart said he wants to package that project into the renovation of Commonwealth Stadium, which UK is trying to finance through a project that would also fund a new basketball arena and baseball park. Barnhart said the funds are still currently being raised for those projects.

Barnhart added that the football budget has risen from 8 million to 11.5 million in recent years

“The only frustration he can have is that recruiting room,” Barnhart said of Brooks. “Clearly that’s something we’d like to do as well, but it wasn’t without reason why that project got put on backburner. When that project goes from $2 million initial costs to $7 million, what do you cut out?”

Barnhart also noted that, according to a USA Today study of coaches’ salaries, UK ranks 19th nationally in total salary pool for assistant football coaches. Brooks’ package currently pays him $1.6 million annually, but that still puts him near the bottom of the SEC, as nine coaches in the league currently make more than $2 million.

Barnhart said that Brooks hasn’t indicated to him which factors will weigh the most heavily in his decision whether to retire. When asked if he planned on asking Brooks what needed to be done to retain him, Barnhart said, “We’ll have to see how the conversation goes. He’ll have to talk to his family and get through that piece of the conversation, and we’ll visit again. If there’s some things that he says ‘I really need to have happen for me to stay,’ I’ll say, ‘OK we can do that.’

Barnhart went on to add, “You’ve got to get to a spot where you say, ‘OK, is my heart in this job and is this truly what I want to do? Or is it about other things? If it’s about other things, those are the things you can talk about.”

Barnhart said he had no idea whether Brooks’ heart was still in the job.

“I absolutely do not know that in any way, shape or form,” Barnhart said. “I think Rich enjoys being a football coach. I can’t speak to his feelings, but I wanted to make sure (he knows) that if he wants to come back, it’s his. It’s his job.”

Should Brooks decide to resign, former UK player and longtime assistant coach Joker Phillips has been named coach in waiting. Barnhart said that he fully supports Phillips as Brooks’ successor.

There have been a lot of rumors floating around on message boards regarding University of Kentucky commitment Joseph Mansour, a four-star punter/kicker from LaGrange (Ga.).

A story in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer this week cited UK’ s interest in Owensboro High kicker Ross Gilliam, with Gilliam being quoted as saying Kentucky called last week after a kicker decided to back out of his previous commitment to UK. Mansour is the only kicker currently committed to the Cats.

I called LaGrange Coach Steve Pardue this morning to check up on the story, and Pardue said he hadn’t heard anything about Mansour de-committing from UK. Pardue then called Mansour’s dad, who told him that the story was untrue and that Mansour remains ‘100 percent committed’ to Kentucky.

The University of Kentucky completed its final on-campus practice on Monday morning at the Nutter Field House and will re-convene in Nashville on Tuesday evening to resume preparations for Sunday’s Music City Bowl matchup with Clemson.

The Wildcats completed final exams last week and then practiced Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday as they prepare to take on the Tigers, who were the runners-up in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I think the energy has been high,” senior tackle Corey Peters said. “They’re probably the best team we’ve played in any of these bowl games, so that’s exciting, and I think everybody’s excited for school to over for the semester, now we’re ready to go out and play some ball. This has been the only time that we’ve been able to focus strictly on football since camp, and we’ve been indoors, so it’s actually a little warmer. These are some of the few practices everybody actually enjoys. ”

Kentucky will hold its first practice in Nashville on Wednesday.

Hartline holding up

Brooks said that junior quarterback Mike Hartline made it through his fourth straight practice without any major setbacks to his knee.

“He threw the ball really well today,” Brooks said.

Dufrene to get start at linebacker

Brooks said that junior Jacob Dufrene would get the start at strongside linebacker in place of the injured Sam Maxwell. Dufrene has six tackles and a tackle for loss in limited action this season.

“He knows what he’s doing, now he’ll have the opportunity to step up and make plays,” Brooks said. “Just like other guys have had to do in spots this year.”

University of Kentucky sophomore receiver Eric Adeyemi has left the program and will transfer, UK Coach Rich Brooks said.

The 6-foot, 170-pound Adeyemi, a native of Miami, Fla., caught 18 passes for 149 yards with no touchdowns during his two-year career. Adeyemi played in nine games this season for the Cats, catching five passes for 41 yards.