SB Nation - Jake Lanefski

Kentucky at Auburn: Will a Child Lead Us?

Truzenzuzex — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:48:01 -0000

More photos » by Mary Ann Chastain - AP

What the heck happened to all my players???

The hot topic for the upcoming Auburn game, of course, is who will be under center for the Wildcats? Unidentified sources out of the UK football camp are speaking highly of the true freshman, Morgan Newton, but Rich Brooks is revealing nothing about who will get the starting nod, merely telling anyone who asks that the decision will probably not be officially made until game day, perhaps even just before kickoff. But word on the street has it that the decision has been made, even though no confirmation, official or unofficial, seems to be forthcoming.

Of course, that's the smart thing for any head coach to do. Morgan Newton and Will Fidler bring two radically different skill sets to the game. Newton is young and does not know the UK offense that well, but he has the superior physical skills, including a pair of legs that made him a Parade All-American, but as an athlete, not a quarterback.

Fidler, on the other hand, is primarily a pocket passer, much like Mike Hartline. Fidler is a much better fit for the offense that the Wildcats currently run, but he is no real threat to take off and get yards with his feet. In fact, if it is possible for someone to be less athletic, running wise, than Mike Hartline, it is Will Fidler. Fidler has a strong arm and knows the offense much better, but he is limited, and he was playing behind Hartline for a reason.

In the end, I expect both QB's to get a number of snaps against Auburn unless one clearly separates himself early. Auburn will have to prepare not only for a traditional drop-back passer, but a dual-threat quarterback and Randall Cobb in the bargain. It is an interesting problem for Ted Roof, the Auburn Defensive Coordinator to solve. One thing is for sure -- the 'Cats will look different on Saturday than they have looked all season.

At this point, nobody knows for sure what Brooks is thinking -- will he go with a trimmed-down offensive package and more athleticism, or try to rely on what has worked so far with a different quarterback at the helm? There are merits to both strategies, and odds are that we will see a bit of both, particularly if the starter fails to move the football the first couple of series.

But there are even more questions about this game, not the least of which is how UK's green corners, Randall Burden and Martavious Neloms, will hold up in their second game as starters. The good news is that Paul Warford is improving, but is still questionable for the weekend. Also on the injury ront, offensive guard Jake Lanefski has torn his ACL and will have season-ending surgery, so our depth at guard just took a big hit.

There will be more analysis of this game to come, but from a macro standpoint, this is going to be about the defenses. Can UK's defense, which is currently last in the SEC in run defense, hold Auburn's SEC second-best running game down to a reasonable level? For Auburn, their defense must stop a Kentucky running game which isn't exactly awesome, but has been solid. Auburn is 10th against the run in the SEC, just two spots up from the 'Cats.

Passing-wise, Auburn would seem well-positioned in this game with the second-best passing offense in the league facing the young cornerback tandem that South Carolina exploited to such great effect last weekend. Statistically, about the only place Kentucky looks good against Auburn is special teams.

No matter who is under center on Saturday, Kentucky will need a terrific effort, every bit as good as they played against South Carolina without the mistakes, and all that with a new quarterback under center, to beat the Tigers in their place. It is a very tall order, make no mistake.

Kentucky Wildcats: Time to Get Back to Football

Truzenzuzex — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:15:21 -0000

More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

DeQuin Evans misses Jarmon. So do we all.

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While the Rick Pitino affair has been interesting and fun to debate, I figure it's time for us to get back to the business of talking about the Kentucky Wildcats of today, not of yesteryear. Particularly, I think it's time to check in with the football team and see how things are shaping up. A lot of this news might have been missed in the recent fusillade of posts about Pitino and Sypher.

First off, we begin with a couple of suspensions. Senior center Jorge Gonzales has been suspended for the first game for the infamous, "violation of team rules." Sophomore receiver Aaron Boyd was also suspended, but his case was apparently more serious, as Brook suspended him from all football activity for one week, again for an undisclosed team rules violation. This is much more serious for Boyd, as this is the point at which players get to make an impression on the coaching staff. Not only will Boyd miss that, but he will miss all the information and instruction that goes along with it.

Alfonso Smith has a gimpy wheel and has missed a couple of practices, as does one of his backups, CoShik Williams the walk-on. T.C. Drake has a groin pull that will keep him out until next week. Offensive lineman Jake Lanefski has also torn some knee cartilage that will keep him out for about 3 weeks after surgery. That is a blow to our offensive line depth, but hopefully he'll be back in time for the Louisville game, at least.

That's the negative side, but there is some good news to report after the jump:

Larry Vaught is reporting that freshmen Qua Huzzie and Ridge Wilson are ahead of the curve, according to linebacker coach Chuck Smith:

Huzzie and Wilson are kind of separating by the way they are picking up the system. The other two are going to be good players, but they are having a little more difficult time picking it up."

Smith did not rule out Huzzie and Wilson getting some time as freshmen, which is a very encouraging thing. Other Wildcats who have seen time as true freshmen at the linebacker spot include Wesely Woodyard, Micah Johnson, and Danny Trevathan.

It also looks like our receiving corps will be much improved this year. Chris Matthews and the redoubtable Randall Cobb have both been impressing early, but Brooks has had good things to say also about Gene McCaskill, Kyrus Lanxter, La'Rod King, E.J. Fields, and Matt Roark. That is big news to me, as our receiver youth was a huge reason why the Wildcat offense was ineffective last year, along with the lack of a vertical game from Hartline.

Matt Lentz is also coming into this year in much better shape with significantly improved numbers in the weight room and a better handle on what he can do to help the team:

Wasn’t it hard to give up playing a marquee spot to go to defense?

"A little bit, but not really. It was best for the team. We have good quarterbacks now, and they didn’t need me there. I can help more at safety and play special teams. I have to be a team player because that’s not only best for the team, but it is also best for me," he said.

This is a young man who is really becoming a team player, and I expect to see a lot of him in the defensive backfield this year. He has some really big shoes to fill with Marcus McClinton having graduated. Junior college transfer DeQuin Evans, who plays defensive end, is also missing another Wildcat who has moved on -- Jeremy Jarmon:

"I hated it when I heard the news about Jeremy Jarmon. I know not everybody will believe this, but I wanted to learn from the best," said Evans, who has been limited in practice so far because of a pulled hamstring. "I knew he gave me that chance.

Here's hoping that Evans and the other players at the spot can find a way to fill in for Jarmon by committee, because it will be very hard to fill those shoes.

Finally, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a preview of the Louisville Cardinals, our rival and second game opponents. Here is the summary:

OUTLOOK: When asked about his quarterback situation, Kragthorpe said, "Its fun. You're evaluating guys every day."

Let's see how much fun he is having when the season begins. The schedule is awfully tough this season, including non-conference road trips to both Kentucky and Utah in the month of September. Kragthorpe simply doesn't have the horses to beat good teams, especially on the road. This very well could be the final year of a failed experiment with Kragthorpe.

Ouch.

Wildcats vs. The Crimson Tide: A Historic Opportunity for Kentucky Football

Truzenzuzex — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:10:27 -0000

Make no mistake, this is definitely David vs. Goliath in the SEC sense of the metaphor.

To put it rather bluntly and colloquially, Kentucky has sucked against Alabama in football. Kentucky is 2-33-1 in 36 tries against Alabama since 1917 when we first played the Tide for a record of .069. Our record against the Elephants is the worst Kentucky has against any SEC team, and that includes teams like Florida and Tennessee, who currently have 21 and 23 game winning streaks respectively against the 'Cats. UK has beaten Alabama since we beat Tennessee and Florida, though, back in 1997 during the first year of Hal Mumme and his Air Raid variation of the Spread Option offense.

2-33-1. Let that roll around in your mind like the bloated, malignant worm of a statistic it is. No FBS team in America, perhaps, has such a dominant record over another during such a long period of years, a stretch that extends virtually into antiquity, to the very roots of college football in America. It is a staggering, gobsmacking statistic of domination that simply beggars belief.

It is against this historic backdrop that Kentucky begins its preparation to do battle with the Crimson Tide, the crown jewel of SEC football, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on Saturday where 92,138 fans gathered last year to watch the spring Alabama practice game. One wonders if Kentucky could pack that many into an arena to watch Big Blue Madness in basketball, if there were one of that size around, but I digress. It truly is a shame that the Wildcats have virtually no history of success against this most storied SEC football program. In a way, it is the obverse of the series between the two teams in basketball, except that Kentucky in no way holds such a gaudy record in terms of wins and losses, but a more gaudy one in terms of national success.

There are many ties between Alabama and Kentucky, not the least of which is sharing two football coaches in Bear Bryant and Bill Curry, one highly successful at both schools, and one not. But in terms of football players, Kentucky has only two currently on the team from Alabama -- Tony Dixon from Parish and Jake Lanefski from Mobile. Alabama only has one Kentuckian on the current roster, starting defensive end Brandon Deaderick from Elizabethtown. Interestingly, the two coaches have no connection to each other or to the other school that I can discern.

Tradition wise, as I have said, there is no contest here. Alabama's tradition is arguably the richest in all of SEC in football, and Kentucky's is inarguably one of the thinnest. But times have changed, and the 'Cats are standing on the brink of becoming something very unusual in the modern SEC -- a team that goes from historic futility to a genuine threat to win against anyone. This is not to suggest that Kentucky is suddenly Alabama's equal in football -- they aren't even in the conversation, especially historically. But at this particular moment in time, Kentucky is good enough to defeat Alabama on a given day, and there have been few moments in the annals of the two schools where that could be said.

Part of me regrets that we did not have a shot at the Tide last year when their team was much weaker and Kentucky was relatively stronger. But you can't pick your years in the 12-team SEC format, so we'll just have to settle for the memory of knocking off #1 LSU in Commonwealth Stadium last year. This year, UK's opportunity to shock the nation in football is a much taller task, as winning in Bryant-Denny Stadium in the SEC against a top 5 ranked Alabama team is an order of magnitude harder than defeating the same caliber team in Commonwealth.

This week, there will be many, many posts on this match up here at A Sea of Blue, at Roll Bama Roll, and elsewhere in the blogosphere. Despite the gulf in perception between Alabama and Kentucky on the gridiron, the reality is that both Alabama and Kentucky know what this game could mean. A win by Kentucky, unlikely as it may seem to some, could vault them into an unimagined level of national prominence in college football and change the fortunes of the team for years to come. Alabama has far less to gain and far more to lose, as is always the case when you are ranked in the top two in the nation.

Nick Saban understands what it means to get to the top, as he did at LSU, and knows that you must hold serve against opponents like Kentucky to stay there. Alabama is within shouting distance of a BCS championship appearance at the moment, and a defeat by Kentucky at home would dash those hopes asunder, probably (but by no means certainly) until next year. Losing to Florida or LSU at home is one thing, but to Kentucky ...

This game is huge. It is pregnant with opportunity for Kentucky, and BCS championship implications for Alabama. Therefore, we at A Sea of Blue will be giving it the respect and coverage it deserves. Basketball is coming, but a historic opportunity is here in football, and we should grab this elephant by the tail and hold on for all it's worth.