By LARRY VAUGHT
(LEXINGTON, Ky.)-When Kentucky opens the season Aug. 30 hosting Toledo, L’Damian Washington will get his first true look at Big Blue Nation. However, UK fans will get their first real look at the first-year receivers coach who might remind you of the Energizer Bunny with his non-stop enthusiasm in practice.
“The players keep me young. I told them that I work out just in case I have to put them in a headlock,” Washington laughed and said. “I do run around a lot. It’s kind of my cardio (exercise). I can’t go around on a bike. I am not gonna run. That’s not my deal. So I work out during practice when I am running around making sure everybody is where they should be and doing what they should be.
“I truly believe those guys feed off my energy when you relate to them. They know you care and see your energy. It’s contagious. That’s my job as a coach to breathe life into them at practice. That’s why I do what I do. I’m invested in this place and want it to be great.”
What will he be like on game day then?
“Sunday up until kickoff, I’m giving players everything I have in me, everything I’ve got,” Washington said. “I’m giving them every tool that they need to be successful. But once that game kicks off, my job isn’t to yell at them. It is not to go off on them because I need them to be in the best head spaces they can be in.
“My whole demeanor has to change. It’s like there’s a ship and the waves are rocky. Everybody’s looking at the captain to see how he is going to maneuver. On game day it doesn’t matter if the score is 30-0 in our favor or against us. My job is to remain calm, let them see me continue to be a leader. So I am super calm on game day because I know that all eyes, no matter what’s going on, are on me.”
