Octavious Oxendine Says Kentucky is an “all-around kicking butt” School

Octavious Oxendine, second from left, at SEC Media Days with, from left, coach Mark Stoops, JJ Weaver and Eli Cox. (UK Athletics Photo)

Kentucky players usually are briefed and prepared for potential questions before they go to Southeastern Conference Football Media Days. However, I doubt that senior defensive lineman Octavious Oxendine was expecting to be asked about the relationship between the football and basketball teams at UK.

That stemmed from the talk about a year ago where coach John Calipari said Kentucky was a “basketball school” and that brought a not so friendly reply from football coach Mark Stoops.

I feel there’s no type of rivalry there at all just because we always keep with the basketball guys. I was telling a reporter earlier today, those are my guys. Shout-out to my guys. Canada earlier at Jake’s house. They had a fantastic time playing basketball up there. And our recruiting class we just got in basketball, like they’re the guys,” Oxendine, a North Hardin High School graduate, said.

“We’re doing good on both sides right now. I feel like we’re an all-around good sports school. We’ve always been top 20 all around. Tennis, volleyball. Anything we do in sports at Kentucky, I feel like we’re the top of the line.”

Great answer, so maybe Oxendine was expecting it. He said he was not a “big fan” of any college team growing up but admitted it was a “blessing” to have ended up at his home-state school.

“We don’t have an NFL team. When you get to Big Blue Nation, the fan base is Big Blue Nation, they’re all around,” Oxendine said.

That’s partially why he continued to call Kentucky an “all-around” school rather than a football or basketball school.

“Our soccer team is always good. Volleyball just won the national championship a couple years ago. Basketball team just did the same, as well, the women’s,” Oxendine said.

Well the basketball team has not won a national title since 2012 and the women’s basketball team has never won one, but Oxendine was trying to emphasize his point and might have been a bit excited.

“I mean, we’re all-around. We’re all-around kicking butt at UK,” Oxendine said.