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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 01-31-2014, 07:20 PM:

He does need to lose weight but would bet by football season he will be down in the 35o range.

Rivals.com analyst Josh Helmholdt noticed something when he was watching UK football commitment Matt Elam in the practices leading up to the Army All-American Bowl earlier this month.

Elam wasn’t as explosive as he could have been off the snap, Helmholdt said, and it was affecting his ability to get a quality push against the highly touted offensive linemen on the other side.

There’s an obvious fix.

“I think it would definitely help his quickness if he shed some of that weight,” Helmholdt told the Herald-Leader at the time. “I mean, he’s a big boy. There’s no doubt about it. There is no doubt that he is a large man.”

Elam weighed in at 372 pounds at that event. The 6-foot-5 defensive tackle is up to 380 now.

That’s too big to make an immediate impact in the Southeastern Conference next season, and Elam knows it. His high school coaches have been telling him, the college coaches that were recruiting him have been telling him, and the analysts that evaluated him have made it no secret.

“(UK will) want to, I’m sure, get him in better playing shape before they trot him out there as a frequent contributor,” Helmholdt said.

If Elam can’t drop some of that weight over the next few months, he might be facing the ‘R’ word during his first season in Lexington. It was never discussed on the recruiting trail, but John Hardin Coach Chad Lewis didn’t dismiss the possibility.

“You know, they haven’t talked about a redshirt, but that would definitely be in the picture, I’m sure, because they don’t want to waste a year of him weighing 380,” Lewis said Thursday. “Both schools said they would get him a diet plan and a workout plan when signing day got here. It’s work. All the fun is over now — right now — and it’s going to be about getting in shape and getting himself ultimately to where he can produce at Kentucky next year.”

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