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By LARRY VAUGHT
Getting soundly beaten by Louisville to open the season has not convinced Kentucky’s players and head coach that the Wildcats are as bad as they looked.
“We beat ourselves,” said Kentucky senior receiver LaRod King, who had eight catches for 77 yards and one score in Sunday’s 32-14 loss, said. “We are much better than this. Saying this is the first game is a bunch of bull in my opinion. First game … get the jitters. We prepared way too hard and way better than we showed out here today.”
Senior center Matt Smith, a Louisville native, was visibly shaken after the loss and admitted he got a bit emotional in the dressing room with teammates.
“We wanted to look like a team that was ready to go, not a team playing the first game,” Smith said. “We worked hard to be better than this. When we were in our prime, you could see the offense moving the ball and the defense making plays. You just can’t come out and let some things happen that we did. Give them credit,
Louisville rolled up 466 yards on Kentucky and had two 100-yard rushers against a UK defensive line that was expected to be a team strength by coach Joker Phillips.
“We should have stopped them,” senior defensive end Collins Ukwu said. “We should have been better defensively.”
Phillips was sure they would be, too.
“One of our goals was to win up front. We didn’t win up front,” Phillips said. “We didn’t win the physical battle.”
Phillips said after watching UK go through preseason camp, he didn’t see UK “getting pushed around up front” like it did. He also didn’t anticipate backs CoShik Williams and Raymond Sanders both fumbling and stopping scoring drives.
“I like our talent level,” Phillips said.
Quarterback Maxwell Smith said the Wildcats can only get better.
“Maybe this was a smack in the face, we all need to get better,” Smith said. “I know our defense is going to get better.”
15 Responses to Kentucky seniors wanted to look like a team that was much better than what Cats showed
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Should of, would of, could of are all pipe dreams! Louisville could have put 60 points on us and held us to 7. Do not tell me what could have been, because I know what I saw! Charlie had mercy on us or it could have been a lot worse. We could not beat Trinity with this team and the blame lies directly on the coaching staff!
I know that Joker will get the rest of the season and I think he should. Mitch needs to start planning for our next head coach. It is going to get very ugly before the season is over! I was hoping for the best, but it is obvious that Joker is in over his head. Great guy who is not ready to be a head coach. I blame Rich Brooks and Mitch Barnhart for putting us in this situation.
Last year I thought our offense was going to be able to hold its own and was concerned about the defense. This year I thought the defense would be able to hold its own and the offense was a question mark. I thought our defensive front was our strength. I never thought we would get physically manhandled like we did. It looked like an emphasis on “contain” rather than aggressively pressuring the ball was used which put our front DL on its heels. No one was flying to the ball. I could be wrong. Seems I’ve been wrong more than right. Sitting back and containing is a formula for getting yourself whipped. It’s for sure we got whipped. Tomorrow is another day and Saturday is another game. The season isn’t over but there should be a sense of urgency for this next game.
If history has anything to do with it,the season is over.This is a bad UK football team,with no real SEC talent on the defensive side of the ball.What we saw Sunday against UL is what UK has.If not,they (better players) would have been on the field.The best UK has, played and they are simply not good.
Minter appears to be Jokers Bill Curry.A coach who talks a great game,but never delivers.
Re: History
Sadly this start is another same old same old. Our history is not good. The question that UK fans should ask is this: With a history of seldom competeting in conference play can UK say that it is really dedicated to winning. In other words has UK decided to bottomfeed in the SEC and accept the SEC payout and hope that fans have enough hope to continue to buy tickerts?
Blanton Collier was the last UK football coach to win half of his games . These games include the usual cupcakes as well as SEC teams. Collier left UK in 1961. Nine coaches since Collier have failed to win more than half of their games. Winning percentages range from John Ray’s .233 to Fran Curci’s .480.
During that time the most competetive UK has been was Curci’s 1976 and 1977 seasons. In 1976 Curci’s team was awarded a share of the SEC championship after Mississippi State (I believe) had to forfeit. In 1977 UK WON the SEC but could not play in a bowl game because of sanctions. After that Curci’s record took a nose dive.
In 2007 Rich Brooks (winning percentage .453) competed well in the SEC. His team beat LSU which eventually became the national championship. Still Brook’s SEC record that year was only 3 and 5.
As I posted, this record is not good. Is it not time for UK to decide to compete?
If Minters unit continues to play sub par, its time for Joker to make some changes. The D was putrid. We had a bigger D line than their Ol line and we still got manhandled. ON the bright side, kudos to Max, he sure made some clutch passes and 280 yards is good, now if only those RB’s can hold on to the ball.
Mike Archer
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Steve Brown
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Rick Minter
How many times do we need to see this movie before we figure out how it ends?
We kept hearing how the D line was going to be the strength of the team especially with the 2 big anchors at DT. We were also led to believe that Dupree and Williamson would be contributing studs. The secondary couldn’t close within 5′ of any of their receivers. What has this team been working on all preseason??….collective duds is all we saw..a very sorry, sorry excuse for a defensive team. Why are we not getting any comments from Rumph or Cobble. I wouldn’t immagine they liked what they saw in the mirror this morning. Minter is doing a lousy job getting this team prepared and maybe their is no collective FB I.Q. on this defense.
Kentucky football (Jokerball in our house) has officially become the laughing stock of the SEC. Go to ‘Saturdaydownsouth.com/20″.
It has become beyond embarassing.
Saturday down south, one of the founders is a Kentucky fan. Not sure what you mean. The team that needs to be embarassed is Miss St and the fog machine LOL
I liked the no-huddle, the fake punt, the onside kick. Hey, I can be stoked about something can’t I? Hello…is this thing on?
Way to go UKFan. Need to find some positives
The situation is never as bleak as it seems in the darkest hour, or a bright as it seems under the noon-day sun. Joker says his team is not as bad as it showed on Sunday. That may well be the case, but it is time for Joker and his boys to show it, not talk about it. Talk is cheap when it is used for August football forecasts in Lexington.
I am one that allowed myself to get caught up in the pre-season hype – again.
You are right – There is a lot of hot air in August.
I still think that we should beat Kent State but WKU is greatly improved from previous years & they have “Nothing to lose”. They can just relax & play. Then there is the SEC! In the past we could count on Vandy to roll over but not anymore. I am really disappointed & worried.
I will reserve my opinion on weather WKU is improved after they play Alabama. APSU is not a measuring stick for any team because it has not been that long since they restarted the football program plus they have never been competitive at all.
You make a good point – APSU may not be a good measuring stick for WKU. I was basing my “improved” comment on the fact that WKU appears to have started the turn around process based on the way they finished the season last year. That may not be a good measuring stick either. I really do not expect them to score at all against Alabama – I just hope they survive.