By LARRY VAUGHT
Senior defensive end Collins Ukwu, one of the team captains, said the incident so close to game time last week that resulted in three players — running back Raymond Sanders, receiver Bookie Cobbins and cornerback Marcus Caffey being cited for marijuana possession — being suspended did not impact the outcome of Saturday’s game with Western Kentucky that UK lost in overtime.
“The thing is, you just have to keep playing. I am sure every team in the nation has the same type of issues or what not,” Collins said. “It doesn’t bother us. We could definitely have needed them, but that’s something you don’t look at. Things are going to happen throughout a team and it was just a case of playing on.”
Starting offensive tackle Kevin Mitchell took the company line, too, on Monday.
“It always hurts our team (when players are suspended). I am not sure what happened. We didn’t really know anything about it until after the game,” Mitchell said. “We just have to move on. We could use the players, but you have to move on and play.”
True, but fans are going to have a hard time moving on. First, UK coach Joker Phillips said after the game that UK “matched” Western, not exactly what one expects from a Southeastern Conference coach playing a Sun Belt team. Second, Phillips has players cited for marijuana possession but has quickly reinstated them. Third, Ukwu said every team has “issues” as a way to look past what happened.
Phillips was asked if perhaps two chances for Caffey were not enough and if he would get another one.
“We are in the business of making sure the kids have an opportunity to succeed, definitely. We’re not a rehab center, a center that we’re going to continue to give guys chances,” Phillips said. “We love Marcus. This is all we got, okay? This is all we got. We’ll go with him until we feel like we can’t take it anymore. We’ve done it with other kids. But this is all he has, and we’ll continue to stick by him and help him get through all these things.”
Admirable. Probably even the right thing to do. But he’s not playing all year.
Cobbins will also now be on his third chance after his spring academic woes, but he’s played little and likely will play even less now with freshmen Demarcus Sweat and A.J. Legree emerging more daily.
Sanders, who has never been in any type of trouble at UK, will play Saturday at Florida. Count on that. He’s too good to stand and watch if he’s available. And we don’t know what the outcome of his case will be Oct. 9.
I asked Phillips if this was standard punishment and how he determined where Sanders would go back on the depth chart. He either misunderstood the standard punishment part or chose just to answer the depth chart question.
“We don’t have a standard. The thing we have to look at is how well a guy (George) performed that came in and replaced him, how well did the guy perform, take care of business, does what he’s supposed to do, never hear his name on any lists, goes to class. Jonathan George performed well enough to be the starter,” Phillips said.
George did as he ran for 51 yards and two scores and caught six passes for 54 yards and one touchdown. But the negativity of the Western loss only increases with the explanation about the players’ suspension.
“We have to tell ourselves to keep fighting. We have to practice hard because the better you practice, the better the games will be. We have to tell ourselves to stay positive, especially the older guys,” junior linebacker Avery Williamson said. “Some of the younger guys are kind of down, but we have to hold them up. The juniors, seniors and even sophomores have to help the freshmen out.”
What about the coaches? Do the players feel they need to help Phillips and his staff keep their jobs after a 1-2 start and consecutive losing seasons?
“We really try not to talk about it much. We just try to push that to the side and just go out and play. You can’t really worry about situations with coaches. That is not our issue to really worry about,” Williamson said. “That’s not in our hands. Well, it is in our hands. We have to win. That’s not our situation really to talk about. We have to do it for ourselves, for our teammates and play for each other.”
That last line is accurate, too, because after losing to Western and learning why players were suspended, the UK bandwagon is practically empty except for players and coaches that have to convince themselves they can overcome this horrendous weekend.
14 CommentsBy LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky’s football woes got even worse today when WLEX-TV confirmed that three UK football players — Bookie Cobbins, Raymond Sanders and Marcus Caffey — were all charged with possession of marijuana on Sept. 13. That’s two days before UK lost to Western Kentucky Saturday.
Sanders, a sophomore and UK’s leading rusher after two games, was suspended for the Western game. So was Cobbins, a redshirt freshman who has played very little. Caffey was declared academically ineligible before the season started after he was scheduled to be UK’s starting cornerback.
WLEX-TV reported that the three were not arrested, but were cited to appear in court Oct. 9.
When he was asked about Sanders’ suspension after Saturday’s game, here’s what Phillips said: “He’s like a kid to me. Kids sometimes don’t do little things that they’re supposed to do, and we hold our kids accountable. We’re not going to sit him out four games from now, we’ll do it now. That’s the thing. We hold our guys accountable here.”
At today’s press conference, Phillips said all three would be reinstated to the team this week and that Sanders and Cobbins could play at Florida.
“Kids don’t do always do all the things right,” Phillips said today. “The thing we do is hold kids accountable. We discipline right away. We don’t wait. We try to get as many facts as we can and then make a decision.”
Pat Washington
By LARRY VAUGHT
First-year Kentucky receivers coach Pat Washington spent most of spring practice trying to instill confidence into his players who struggled at times last season to make catches and has done the same during preseason workouts. He’s seen senior Larod King, last year’s top receiver, emerge as a more vocal leader but continues to insist he wants to have at least three “guys who can make plays” at any time whether they are in space or ready to take a big hit when the pass arrives.
After Thursday’s practice, Washington talked about some of his younger, inexperience receivers who may or may not be big-play contributors this season.
Question: How is redshirt Daryl Collins coming back off his knee injury?
Washington: “I think he is progressing well. Coming back from an injury, particularly like him with his kneecap, is not as easy as it seems from the outside. Any kind of cut you make, it feels a little funny and you are afraid the same episode will happen. Has progressed well. has a setback here and there, but for the most part he’s good.”
Question: Does he still have that explosiveness and big-play ability that had UK coaches so excited a year ago?
Washington: “In time I think he can be a big-time playmaker. It’s a process. I don’t think it is going to happen overnight, but he does have the ability. As long as he continues to work and gains more confidence in what he is doing and his knee improves, he will be okay.”
Question: How have redshirt freshmen Bookie Cobbins and Rashad Cunningham done in preseason camp?
Washington: “They still have work to do. Bookie being a quarterback (in high school) and being new at the position and Rashad playing in a Wing-T offense in high school, it is all different for them. I think they are getting better. They are not quite where they need to be, but they are getting better.”
Question: Does it take time even for players to realize it is not an easy transition to a new position, new offense?
Washington: “Some guys, it is more natural. Like Randall Cobb, you could put him at cornerback and he would start tomorrow. He’s just a natural football player and athlete. Some guys have to train themselves to be a good position player. That’s very hard and frustrating. They are good athletes. Some guys can run around and play football and you put a basketball in their hands and they can’t dribble a ball or shoot it.
“It is frustrating when you are an athlete thinking you can do these things and then you have to do it and you can’t. I have patience and I hope they have patience as well.”
Question: What makes true freshmen Demarcus Sweat and A.J. Legree so good that coach Joker Phillips is already calling them special players?
Washington: “They just get it. They are receivers. The only thing with freshmen is the learning curve and learning the system and playing with guys that are playing as fast daily as maybe the best team they played against in high school. It’s like playing their toughest opponent every day, which is tough. I remember a guy I coached who went to pro football that I coached and I asked him how it was. He said, ‘Coach, it is like playing Florida every day.’ That was pretty tough back in the days when (coach) Steve Spurrier was there. So for them, it is the same thing. It’s like playing their best high school game every day, so they have to compete at that level every day. Sometimes it is hard to get yourself up to compete at that level. If you don’t, you look bad. If you do, sometimes you do well.”
Question: When they are competing at a high level, are they special?
Washington: “I think so. They have the ability to play the position like you want them to play. Just the natural things of coming out of cuts, catching the football. They both have really good hands, really strong hands. You don’t have to spend a lot of time teaching guys that have played the position all the little points that you have to teach guys who have not played the position. These guys have been doing it in high school and can understand it. They get it quick.”
Question: Experience is great in the SEC, but how much better is just pure talent like they seem to have?
Washington: “You would like to have both and sooner or later we will have both with those guys. Experience is a huge factor, particularly early in the year, but talent usually outweighs experience and they have talent.”
Bookie Cobbins
By LARRY VAUGHT
It’s not easy to admit you were wrong, but Bookie Cobbins is not afraid to do so.
He came to Kentucky last year as a highly-touted quarterback/athlete out of New Orleans. He was ranked as the nation’s 26th-best dual-threat quarterback and a top 30 prospect in Louisiana.
He missed most of his senior season with a knee injury, he was expected to become a playmaker either at quarterback, receiver or Wildcat quarterback. Instead, he was redshirted when he had trouble grasping the offense and then in the spring after he was moved to full-time receiver, he was taken off the practice field because of academic deficiencies.
So how is Cobbins doing as he tries to show the UK coaches he can be a contributor when the season opens Sept. 2 at Louisville?
“Things are going pretty good. I like it right now and where things are and how we are standing. I am liking it, loving it as a wide receiver. It is pretty good. I like it. I am excited,” said Cobbins.
Why?
“I say I have grown up a lot. I finally realized that maybe I didn’t need to carry New Orleans around with me every time. I finally realized that I maybe needed to get a little New Orleans out of me and let me realize what environment I am in, so that’s what I did,” the personable Cobbins said.
“I just got my academics down. Just got my first ‘A’ few days ago when my teacher sent in her report. That is very exciting for me. Got my congratulations. Now I am excited about football. I didn’t play this spring. Now this has me extra excited for the fall. I am ready.”
He better be or he will have to deal with his mother — again.
“She was kind of mad over my academics. Actually, she was mad a lot,” Cobbins smiled and said. “She is the one who told me that maybe I needed to let New Orleans go a little bit and forget where I came from.
“Nobody is really going to forget where they came from, but you are going to try your best to not let others know where you came from. That’s what I did, and I have adapted to this environment, but there is still plenty of New Orleans in me. I am into being better, though, more than anything. Mom is pretty happy now. She is understanding what I am doing.”
Cobbins thought he was ready to showcase his abilities last spring before coach Joker Phillips put him in academic lockdown to make sure he was eligible for this season.
“It was very, very hard for me last year. It made me feel like I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. What is going on? What am I doing? But the thing about it is that it was good,” Cobbins said. “If I had played, who knows where I would have been at and who knows what I would have been doing. Right now I am liking wide receiver and I am kind of glad they did that. I am really like being a receiver and running routes. I was sure I was a quarterback, but what happened in the spring made me re-evaluate and learn to accept things.
“I’ve made a big change, a major change. By me saying I was doing the routes and not really doing them right last year and spring to now knowing what to do. It was kind of hard for me when I first did it. But now we are on par. I know what to do.”
He’s also learned life in the spotlight is not always easy.
“It is hard. Every time I do something, it bangs in the media. I am like, ‘Dang.’ I usually like it, but when something bad hits the fan it is, ‘Bookie can’t do this and Bookie can’t do this and Bookie has academic problem,’” Cobbins said. “Now I am straight. Everything is straight. I am good on grades. Everything is straight now. I am ready to play. I will be a big contributor this year.”
There’s that same confidence he did bring to UK. That has not changed — and shouldn’t. If he expects to be a playmaker, and UK certainly needs a playmaker, then he has to believe he is a playmaker.
“Throw it up, I will go get it. We have a lot of people that can make plays. Explosive freshmen, young receivers that can run. Some young defensive backs that are really good. We have a lot of people that can play. I think we are going to do very good,” Cobbins said.
And will the wait for UK fans to finally see him play be worth it?
“It is coming. Showtime. I am counting days until the first game. I am just waiting for Sept. 2. I am ready to finally show what I can do and do it the right way,” Cobbins said.
By LARRY VAUGHT
Question: Do you have a recruiting policy now of making sure you or an assistant sees a player in person before a scholarship offer is made?
Joker Phillips: “We will not sign a guy unless we see him at camp or at his practice. We are not going to sign players based on seeing them on film. Everyone offensive lineman we signed last year and have committed this year, (offensive line coach) Mike Summers saw. I trust him more than some (recruiting) guy putting stars (for rankings) on the guy. Mike Summers knows what he wants.
“I trust all our coaching staff. That’s one reason we have good kids in our program, and that’s what matters to me. I see guys leaving programs and getting in trouble and knew it was coming, and their coach knew. We do our homework on kids. We want kids that will be good in the locker room. We will take chances on kids if we think there is a chance they can be saved, but some can’t be saved. If a kid is in my office and is bawling after he gets his scholarship offer, that matters to me because I know he wants to be here. I am excited about this recruiting class that just walked on campus and ones that are committed (for next year). Our staff is evaluating and not worrying about star ratings. Wesley Woodyard is in the NFL now. He had two offers — Kentucky and Burger King. He was probably going to work at Burger King. Jeremy Jarmon was a two-star guy. Randall Cobb was. You have to trust your coaches more than the stars.”
Question: What do you think of freshman punter Landon Foster?
Phillips: “We saw him in person on campus. (Assistant coach) Greg Nord and I watched him. Sometimes you get enamored with a guy, so the thing we did is ask him to come back another time. He came back the next week so we could see how he performed with other great kickers because we wanted to get the best one. He performed for us and is a great athlete. We feel like we really have another great punter. Reports we are hearing from Ryan Tydlacka, who has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and has been back on campus, is that Landon has a lot of talent.
“You want to see a kicker on your campus because of the balls. A lot of times in high school they are kicking balloons. The balls we put in the game rotation are the ones the quarterbacks likes. They are going to be newer and harder balls than high school kickers use. I have seen high school kickers that only use one ball. I want our quarterback to feel comfortable with the balls we are using, so I want to see how a high school kid will kick that same ball.”
Question: Is redshirt freshman receiver Bookie Cobbins okay academically to begin preseason practice?
Phillips: “He is okay academically. He finished the semester up really well for us last semester and a lot of that happened when we took him off the field (during spring practice). I think he is competitive enough and has enough pride and that is an embarrassing moment for a guy when you take him off the field and his teammates have to see he is no longer there. A competitor will bow his neck and get things done and that’s what Bookie did. He spent a lot of time in our CATS Center with (advisor) Barb Dennison. The whole month of May was with (strength coach) Rock Oliver in the CATS Center making sure he was there and making sure he was where he was supposed to do.
“Getting a guy from a freshman to a sophomore is hard. A lot of times it is the first time they are away from home and they don’t really understand how to get themselves up or get to places they need to be. I think it is now kicking in for Bookie.”
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky coach Joker Phillips had to take redshirt freshman receiver Bookie Cobbins out of spring practice when he fell behind academically. Will he be okay academically to begin preseason practice?
“He is okay academically. He finished the semester up really well for us last semester and a lot of that happened when we took him off the field (during spring practice). I think he is competitive enough and has enough pride and that is an embarrassing moment for a guy when you take him off the field and his teammates have to see he is no longer there,” Phillips said.
“A competitor will bow his neck and get things done and that’s what Bookie did. He spent a lot of time in our CATS Center with (adviser) Barb Dennison. The whole month of May was with (strength coach) Rock Oliver in the CATS Center making sure he was there and making sure he was where he was supposed to do.
“Getting a guy from a freshman to a sophomore is hard. A lot of times it is the first time they are away from home and they don’t really understand how to get themselves up or get to places they need to be. I think it is now kicking in for Bookie.”
Bookie Cobbins
By LARRY VAUGHT
Redshirt freshman Bookie Cobbins is still an unknown going into Kentucky’s preseason training camp. He was a high school quarterback in Louisiana but has been moved to receiver after redshirting last season. However, he missed the end of spring practice because of academic concerns.
Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said he was a lot like defensive tackle Mister Cobble, who lost a year of eligibility due to his poor academic performance his freshman year but is now a starter on track to graduate.
“We battle our tails off to get players to be sophomores and learn how to take care of business,” Phillips said. “But when you are doig that, how could you trust him to be on the field? It’s hard to say what he can do talent-wise. Will he do what he’s supposed to do. Does he have it now? We think so. If not, you will be seeing him somewhere else.
“I think he is very talented, but he’s got to do what he’s supposed to do on and off the field. He was one of those guys we thought might hurt us, so we did not play him because we did not trust him. I think now he is becoming a guy we can trust.”
Fullback D.J. Warren had a solid freshman year and is a player Phillips can trust, but the UK coach is not sure how much he’ll play.
“You don’t see a lot of fullbacks in the game today. We think we have got a quality fullback, but you have to get your best 11 players on the field and sometimes the best 11 is not the fullback position,” the Kentucky coach said. “When we had John Conner, he was one of our best 11. But when we put him in the game, that meant (receiver) Dicky Lyons was on the sidelines. You want to try and get your most explosive guys on the field. We have a quality fullback, but how much he will play is yet to be seen. A lot has to do with how our third receiver comes around.”
19 CommentsBookie Cobbins
By HAL MORRIS
hmorris@amnews.com
LEXINGTON — When Bookie Cobbins was a quarterback in high school, he never gave much thought as to how tough it was for his receivers to run a precise route.
Now the redshirt freshman is learning all that goes into the position since he is making a move from quarterback to wide receiver this spring.
“I never knew that, I just thought it was just simple route running and catch the ball, but you’ve got to do so much. You’ve got plant well you’ve to come out well and worry about what the (defensive back) is going to do,†Cobbins said Wednesday after the first day of spring practice.
“It’s just a lot of stuff to learn, but I’m adapting to it.
“It’s been going pretty well, I just have to work on route-running. I mean, I can catch the ball, just work more on route running. We’re just trying to get better.â€
Cobbins, who is from New Orleans, came to Kentucky rated the 26th-best dual-threat quarterback in the country, and 28th-best prospect in Louisiana. He threw for 1,308 yards and 15 touchdowns and ran for 26 yards and seven more scores his junior season. He only played four games his senior year before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
He redshirted last year working at quarterback, and was moved to receiver before spring practice began.
Kentucky coach Joker Phillips wanted to get Cobbins, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, on the field somehow. Phillips likes his promise, but knows Cobbins has a lot to learn about the position.
“Still a tough transition. learning to run routes versus the different coverages and all those things,†Phillips said. “He struggled at times making the adjustments. he can run I think he knew the routes, but just the adjustments on the routes versus the coverages.â€
Cobbins believes it won’t take him long to get it down, though.
“By the end of spring, I will have it by then. I doubt if it will take that long to do it,†said Cobbins, who loves playing quarterback, but knows this is how he will get playing time.
“It’s all right. I love quarterback but this is where I’m at right now. And that’s what I’m going to do, just to get up to the next level, so that’s what I’m going to do.â€
Cobbins is making the same transition former UK star Randall Cobb made before being drafted by the Green Bay Packers. While he respects Cobb and what he did for the program, Cobbins wants to make his own name at UK.
A lot of people are telling me I’m going to be just like Randall. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be like Randall Cobb?†he said. “But I wouldn’t mind being like Randall Cobb, but I want to start my own trend.â€
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