UT commitment Fugate starts season in style

Breathitt County star Channing Fugate started the 2009 season in style by returning the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, sparking the Bobcats to a 58-24 victory over Mercer County in the Forcht Bank Bowl at Campbellsville Saturday night.

Fugate didn't slow down much after that. The second time he touched the ball he went 35 yards for a TD. The third time he ran 70 yards for a score, but the play was wiped out by a penalty. Fugate also had scoring runs of 49 and 10 yards, and also returned a punt 53 yards for a TD.

"He put on a pretty big show," Coach Mike Holcomb said of the 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior who has committed to Tennessee.

Unofficially, Fugate ran 13 times for 224 yards, more than 140 yards in kick returns, and had five TDs.

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UT Camp Update

This week around 200 high schoolers from around the country are participating in UT's final camp of the summer.

The VOLS received their first committment of the week from Kentucky FB Channing Fugate, 6'2-220 lbs.

Projected to play H Back at UT, Fugate rushed for 36 TD's and 3,052 yards as a junior. Fugate, who some compare to former Rutgers FB Brian Leonard and former LSU FB Jacob Hester, says he is solid to UT and will not visit anymore schools this Summer or Fall.

Although there are dozens of the nation's top 2010 prospects in town, all eyes and attention will be on California QB Jesse Scroggins who is believed to be favoring UT and Florida. Scroggins is rated the #6 Pro Style QB in the nation and the top uncommitted QB on UT's radar.

You have to like UT's chances for landing the stud QB. Scroggins has family in Nashville and Memphis and would have the opportunity to start as a true freshman. UF on the other hand already has a 2010 QB committed and the spread offense doesn't necessarily fit Scroggins style. After camping at UF earlier in the week, a decision from Scroggins should be made very soon.

And let's not forget the Power of the Rock, which was painted on UT's campus this morning. Call me superstious, but it worked for Nu'keese Richardson and Bryce Brown.

Other big names at UT's camp are:

Jeff Luc, #1 ILB in the nation (check out the video below, dude is a beast), been hanging out with Eric Berry and Monte.

Lamarcus Joyner, #2 CB in the nation.

Demarco Cobbs, rivals top 100 athlete.

Cody Riggs, brother of former VOL Gerald Riggs and top 100 CB

Dion Bailey, Scroggins teammate and #12 safety in the nation

Keion Payne

Anthony Johnson, UT committment for 2011 and perhaps the top DT in the nation for next year.

Also in attendance are a dozen or more QB's from California and 9 players from Pahokee H.S. Obviously the UT staff has made amends with the Pahokee staff based on the turnout at the camp. It will be interesting to see if UT gets anymore committments this week.

3,000 yard rusher wants VOLS offer

In 15 games Channing Fugate (Jackson, Ky.) rushed for 3,052 yards on 279 carries to go along with 36 touchdowns. Blessed with size (6-foot-1, 225 pounds), strength (a 350-pound maximum bench press) and speed (a 4.6 forty yard dash time), Fugate became just the fifth running back to surpass the 3,000 yard mark in a single season in the history of Kentucky high school football.

“I’m big so I can run up the middle, but I also have the speed to cut outside,” Fugate said. “[To have such a successful junior year], I had to work hard, trust the line, trust my team and the runs will be there.”

Fugate’s production and attitude opened the eyes of college coaches across the country.

“I like Illinois and Purdue, and I like Stanford, but I haven’t visited there yet, so I really don’t know what it’s like,” Fugate said. “I don’t know if I’ll get to visit or not.”

Another school near the top of Fugate’s list is Tennessee.

“I went down to Tennessee’s camp this past Tuesday,” Fugate said. “I did pretty good and they said they might want to offer but they might want me to commit first, so I’m kind of confused now on what to do. I think I might have to go back down there and check it out again. "

“If they were to offer, they’d be up pretty high on my list and maybe at the top, because they’re so close to me. It’s only like a three-hour drive to Tennessee and it’s a pretty good program I’d have to consider a lot.”

Andrew Drukarev: Stanford.scout.com