Micah Johnson

LEXINGTON ? Kentucky could be without middle linebacker Micah Johnson and fullback John Conner Saturday when it opens the season against Miami at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnson has a sprained foot and did not finish practice Wednesday. He missed Saturday's scrimmage before returning to workouts Tuesday. Johnson is on the preseason watch lists for several national awards and is UK's top returning tackler. Head coach Rich Brooks says Johnson's injury is now in the area of the foot where plantar fasciitis generally occurs.

LEXINGTON ? Patrick Patterson, who is already projected as a first-round pick in the 2010 NBA draft, has again been named to the Top 20 watch list for the John R. Wooden Award All-American Team and Player of the Year trophy. The Kentucky junior averaged 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game as a sophomore and shot 60.3 percent from the field, the 11th best mark in the nation. Patterson, who had 15 double-doubles last year, was the only Southeastern Conference player to rank in the top five in scoring and rebounding.

LEXINGTON - Even when he was being redshirted last year, Kentucky coach Rich Brooks thought linebacker Will Johnson of Nashville was showing flashes of potential stardom in his final four years at UK. "He's going to be a player," Brooks said. Johnson took the right attitude for his redshirt season and used it to help improve his skills rather than worry about why he wasn't playing like some other true freshmen were. "It was actually good for me. It gave me a chance not only to learn the defense, but to learn more than I knew about everything to do with football.

LEXINGTON -- Kentucky coach Rich Brooks didn't try to talk linebacker Micah Johnson into staying with the Wildcats for his senior year. "My role is to give the best advice and opinion I can," said Brooks Friday. "Whether he can elevate his status is something I felt comfortable telling him. " That advice played a factor in Johnson, a junior, decided to return to UK for his final season rather than make himself eligible for the NFL draft where he was projected as anywhere from a third to fifth round draft pick by NFL personnel.

Kentucky might have picked up its biggest commitment of the 2009 recruiting season Wednesday. Junior linebacker Micah Johnson posted on his Facebook Web page that he had received his NFL evaluation and based on the information he would be back at Kentucky for his senior season. Johnson's message said he was told he got a "third to fifth round grade" and could "easily" go in the third round with a good workout at the NFL combine. "But I'm still coming back (to UK)! I will help make history," Johnson posted while noting that he wanted to help the Wildcats reach a BCS bowl and he also wanted to be the best linebacker in the country next season.

It was a situation neither one liked, but both accepted. Braxton Kelley started as a freshman and sophomore. Micah Johnson came to Kentucky in 2006 as the most highly-touted recruit in Rich Brooks' tenure at UK. Yet all last season, the two basically had to split time at middle linebacker. Neither complained - and both were productive. But both wanted to be a full-time player and now they are about to get that chance. The graduation of Wesley Woodyard, UK's leading tackler the last three years, created an opening at outside linebacker that Kelley now fills.