"The good news is we caught it before contact started tomorrow,” Brooks said. “With an enlarged spleen, that obviously would have put him in tremendous danger. It’s normally a month to six weeks rest (when diagnosed with mono) and he won’t be doing anything for at least a week except resting. We will re-evaluate his condition after he starts working out and learning again.”

Boyd, a local prep star at Henry Clay High School, was the No. 1 prospect in Kentucky and one of the nation’s top wide receivers according to Rivals.com and Scout.com. He is the brother of former Wildcat quarterback Shane Boyd, now with the NFL’s Houston Texans.

“I know Aaron had high expectations and we were looking forward to working with him,” Brooks said. “It’s too early to determine whether this will be a redshirt year until we get him back on the field and see where his level and understanding is. Obviously this will impact his conditioning and his ability to learn and get acclimated to the system.

“It takes one guy out of the mix but I still feel good about what is going on out there, very good about it.” Brooks said. “We have a lot of practices left and we’ll see who continues to learn and improve.”

The Wildcats had their first practice as a complete team Friday and the first practice in full pads is set for Saturday.