I wanted to put this on the Football board so much not as to incite, but to inform; I have read with interest Freddie Maggard's post on KSR about what he saw as some of the root concerns with UK and a compare and contrast to Louisville as well. Some I'm sure will read it as cheap shots and so be it; that's why I'm not going to post it over on the Cats Pause.
1. First and foremost, whatever we or UK fans think of their talent or abundance of it one thing leaped off the page for me Saturday...they were and are soft. I get so sick of hearing about four star this and four star that and then turn around and say you lost because Boom Williams and JoJo Kemp weren't healthy; well Hells Bells, who among Mikel Horton, Brandon Radcliff, Reggie Bonnafon and Jeremy Smith was a Top Ten RB out of Ohio? Did anyone notice the number of times Horton was trying to get off the field after hits by Chucky Williams (a kid who had a big game Saturday) but they waved him back on because they didn't have anyone to put on the field in his place? We played so much more physically over the course of 60 minutes Saturday and we really got some quality blocking--as pointed out by Mark Ennis--from the interior guys offensively. For the first time all season against teams not named Syracuse and UVa. It was like watching a tactical boxer land body blow after body blow...the affect added up.
UK clearly missed Melvin Lewis and I think it's effect was it forced Matt Elam onto the field. I'll be blunt, whatever Matt Elam is or isn't, he isn't a P5 football player and it demonstrated to me the most stark difference between Kentucky and Louisville Saturday...Louisville has players in it's defensive front who will be drawing paychecks within the next two years and while we lament Coach Strong's ability to recruit quality offensive linemen we can't say the same about his ability to recruit defensive linemen. But...the D linemen that Coach Strong recruited was Deangelo Brown and Sheldon Rankins with Keith Brown as a part time OLB; the current staff recruited the other contributors of Devante Fields, Drew Bailey, Pio Vatuvei, Johnny Richardson and also the redshirted GG Robinson who was the highlight of last year's class and Michael Boykin who might be the highlight of this year's defensive class. They also recruited the suspended Travon Young and James Hearns. My tough love comment is...don't work under the delusion that it's all because Coach Strong left an embarrassment of riches and UK was left with Joker's recruits. Outside of a consistent difference in quarterback quality over the twenty year course of the Governor's Cup (clearly Tim Couch was a great college QB and Woodson and Lorenzen were were good ones), Louisville has consistently had good defensive lines in contrast to Kentucky in that same span. When we haven't we had that quality defensive line we lost or more specifically when Kentucky had an advantage in the trenches as they did in 2002 and 2007-2009 they won.
2. Call it a cheapshot or cheap talk from a keyboard tough guy but I'll say this uncategorically...UK was cheap and undisciplined Saturday every bit as much as they were last year before the game...holding call after holding call (while I'd agree with Stinchcomb on the one on third and short where Swindle went high on Sheldon Rankins and was called for a hold, c'mon, the others were from being beaten by Fields and Rankins like they stole something), how they didn't get a third personal foul and an ejection for targeting on the Quick play in the 4th is beyond me. You'd ask if you're a fan "What was he supposed to do?" I'd retort how about not having a WR come completely open in an exact replica of the TD in the third quarter. That play wasn't as bang bang as it was desperate last resort that should have resulted in ejection. The hit on the punt return of Jaire Alexander on a punt wasn't even marginally a close call. The throwing the ball into the stands by Forrest after his TD return to make it 21-0. Talk. Talk. Talk. And always seemingly from UK receivers Badet, Garrett Johnson and Dorian Baker who were also at the heart of the pregame garbage last year. Between the three I'm pretty sure their most obvious talents are dropping passes or starting crap pregame.
It's been abundantly clear the last two seasons which program can be labeled as disciplined and which one can't. UK not only has lost, but they have looked like losers doing it.
3. The "QB" situation. What we saw this year really could have been disastrous and while it's a touchy subject around here I'm sure with Dan and the different camps that have emerged around the flavor of QB we have or want...imagine if you had UK's staff handling it rather than ours. They stuck with a flawed QB for a very long time and I'd submit that a big reason why was a distrust of Barker off the field carrying into the huddle; we haven't had that issue. It seems like a recurring theme with this staff at Kentucky whether it's Neal Brown, Shannon Dawson or Mark Stoops calling the offensive shots. We have had three different QBs in two years come off the bench in relief in games where we were down and lead us back to wins...and a fourth in Gardner who nearly did at Virginia after being benched and Clemson when Bonnafon couldn't get it done. Bolin the same against Houston.
I say that because I look at QB play a little differently than most; too many look at it strictly in the context of Towles...sunk cost and you need to jettison it. I see four kids in our program who took bullets under fire and came out the other end planting their flag atop a conquered hill. I don't know what's going to happen between now and Spring but certainly Will looks like a candidate to leave and I'd wish him well if he did it and remember fondly how he played against Miami and Florida State as well as Clemson; but in Kyle's case I hope he sticks with us and we with him...he has a rare gift of coming off the bench in really tough situations to rally us and has demonstrated it no less than three times by my count. There aren't alot of college QBs like that.
4. We had a big part of our program nucleus go out during the game and I'd say in the cases of Staples, Kelsey and Radcliff unquestionably part of the emotional core of the team. Yet we kept coming back.
So shut up about missing Boom Williams. What Kelsey gives our program and has given to it the last two years is anything Williams has given to his in spades. It's why we saw the collapse in Tallahassee; Kelsey wasn't on the field. There isn't a bigger leader in our program and he was missing from the midpoint of the second quarter Saturday on. There are a couple targeted balls to JaQuay Savage that would have been Staples instead, and one was going to spring for a big play. We missed his ability to make the big play Saturday on slants and back shoulder throws especially.
5. This team came back all year. They came back from deficits against Houston and Auburn. They are the one team that nearly took out Clemson. They were 0-3. They were 2-4. They looked like crap against Pitt and still mounted a comeback. The offensive line was in constant flux. Primary second half of the season receivers Quick and Staples were out for a big chunk of the start of the season and weren't on the field full time after the Auburn game for weeks...and didn't take a snap against Houston or Clemson. We also didn't have Cole Hikutini after the first quarter of the Auburn game for weeks nor did we have Keith Towbridge for a big part of it. When you look at what we had on the field among receivers at the end of the Auburn game in Atlanta it was nothing like what we played with in November...it was true frosh QB Jackson, R-Fr. TE Micky Crum, true frosh OT Geron Christian, true frosh receivers Samuel, Jaylen Smith and Devante Peete. We had Kenny Thomas at OT starting as a true freshman starting against Clemson and he hasn't played for nearly a month due to injury.
Spare me the youth excuse. Spare me the critical injury jargon. We had it all in spades.
1. First and foremost, whatever we or UK fans think of their talent or abundance of it one thing leaped off the page for me Saturday...they were and are soft. I get so sick of hearing about four star this and four star that and then turn around and say you lost because Boom Williams and JoJo Kemp weren't healthy; well Hells Bells, who among Mikel Horton, Brandon Radcliff, Reggie Bonnafon and Jeremy Smith was a Top Ten RB out of Ohio? Did anyone notice the number of times Horton was trying to get off the field after hits by Chucky Williams (a kid who had a big game Saturday) but they waved him back on because they didn't have anyone to put on the field in his place? We played so much more physically over the course of 60 minutes Saturday and we really got some quality blocking--as pointed out by Mark Ennis--from the interior guys offensively. For the first time all season against teams not named Syracuse and UVa. It was like watching a tactical boxer land body blow after body blow...the affect added up.
UK clearly missed Melvin Lewis and I think it's effect was it forced Matt Elam onto the field. I'll be blunt, whatever Matt Elam is or isn't, he isn't a P5 football player and it demonstrated to me the most stark difference between Kentucky and Louisville Saturday...Louisville has players in it's defensive front who will be drawing paychecks within the next two years and while we lament Coach Strong's ability to recruit quality offensive linemen we can't say the same about his ability to recruit defensive linemen. But...the D linemen that Coach Strong recruited was Deangelo Brown and Sheldon Rankins with Keith Brown as a part time OLB; the current staff recruited the other contributors of Devante Fields, Drew Bailey, Pio Vatuvei, Johnny Richardson and also the redshirted GG Robinson who was the highlight of last year's class and Michael Boykin who might be the highlight of this year's defensive class. They also recruited the suspended Travon Young and James Hearns. My tough love comment is...don't work under the delusion that it's all because Coach Strong left an embarrassment of riches and UK was left with Joker's recruits. Outside of a consistent difference in quarterback quality over the twenty year course of the Governor's Cup (clearly Tim Couch was a great college QB and Woodson and Lorenzen were were good ones), Louisville has consistently had good defensive lines in contrast to Kentucky in that same span. When we haven't we had that quality defensive line we lost or more specifically when Kentucky had an advantage in the trenches as they did in 2002 and 2007-2009 they won.
2. Call it a cheapshot or cheap talk from a keyboard tough guy but I'll say this uncategorically...UK was cheap and undisciplined Saturday every bit as much as they were last year before the game...holding call after holding call (while I'd agree with Stinchcomb on the one on third and short where Swindle went high on Sheldon Rankins and was called for a hold, c'mon, the others were from being beaten by Fields and Rankins like they stole something), how they didn't get a third personal foul and an ejection for targeting on the Quick play in the 4th is beyond me. You'd ask if you're a fan "What was he supposed to do?" I'd retort how about not having a WR come completely open in an exact replica of the TD in the third quarter. That play wasn't as bang bang as it was desperate last resort that should have resulted in ejection. The hit on the punt return of Jaire Alexander on a punt wasn't even marginally a close call. The throwing the ball into the stands by Forrest after his TD return to make it 21-0. Talk. Talk. Talk. And always seemingly from UK receivers Badet, Garrett Johnson and Dorian Baker who were also at the heart of the pregame garbage last year. Between the three I'm pretty sure their most obvious talents are dropping passes or starting crap pregame.
It's been abundantly clear the last two seasons which program can be labeled as disciplined and which one can't. UK not only has lost, but they have looked like losers doing it.
3. The "QB" situation. What we saw this year really could have been disastrous and while it's a touchy subject around here I'm sure with Dan and the different camps that have emerged around the flavor of QB we have or want...imagine if you had UK's staff handling it rather than ours. They stuck with a flawed QB for a very long time and I'd submit that a big reason why was a distrust of Barker off the field carrying into the huddle; we haven't had that issue. It seems like a recurring theme with this staff at Kentucky whether it's Neal Brown, Shannon Dawson or Mark Stoops calling the offensive shots. We have had three different QBs in two years come off the bench in relief in games where we were down and lead us back to wins...and a fourth in Gardner who nearly did at Virginia after being benched and Clemson when Bonnafon couldn't get it done. Bolin the same against Houston.
I say that because I look at QB play a little differently than most; too many look at it strictly in the context of Towles...sunk cost and you need to jettison it. I see four kids in our program who took bullets under fire and came out the other end planting their flag atop a conquered hill. I don't know what's going to happen between now and Spring but certainly Will looks like a candidate to leave and I'd wish him well if he did it and remember fondly how he played against Miami and Florida State as well as Clemson; but in Kyle's case I hope he sticks with us and we with him...he has a rare gift of coming off the bench in really tough situations to rally us and has demonstrated it no less than three times by my count. There aren't alot of college QBs like that.
4. We had a big part of our program nucleus go out during the game and I'd say in the cases of Staples, Kelsey and Radcliff unquestionably part of the emotional core of the team. Yet we kept coming back.
So shut up about missing Boom Williams. What Kelsey gives our program and has given to it the last two years is anything Williams has given to his in spades. It's why we saw the collapse in Tallahassee; Kelsey wasn't on the field. There isn't a bigger leader in our program and he was missing from the midpoint of the second quarter Saturday on. There are a couple targeted balls to JaQuay Savage that would have been Staples instead, and one was going to spring for a big play. We missed his ability to make the big play Saturday on slants and back shoulder throws especially.
5. This team came back all year. They came back from deficits against Houston and Auburn. They are the one team that nearly took out Clemson. They were 0-3. They were 2-4. They looked like crap against Pitt and still mounted a comeback. The offensive line was in constant flux. Primary second half of the season receivers Quick and Staples were out for a big chunk of the start of the season and weren't on the field full time after the Auburn game for weeks...and didn't take a snap against Houston or Clemson. We also didn't have Cole Hikutini after the first quarter of the Auburn game for weeks nor did we have Keith Towbridge for a big part of it. When you look at what we had on the field among receivers at the end of the Auburn game in Atlanta it was nothing like what we played with in November...it was true frosh QB Jackson, R-Fr. TE Micky Crum, true frosh OT Geron Christian, true frosh receivers Samuel, Jaylen Smith and Devante Peete. We had Kenny Thomas at OT starting as a true freshman starting against Clemson and he hasn't played for nearly a month due to injury.
Spare me the youth excuse. Spare me the critical injury jargon. We had it all in spades.
