By LARRY VAUGHT
Veteran coach Dom Dunn, a Louisville native, is thrilled to be back on the field coaching defensive tackles at Western Kentucky after spending the three previous seasons as the director of high school relations at Texas Tech for a staff that included current Kentucky coaches Neal Brown, Chad Scott and Tommy Mainord. He has 37 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, including 10 years at Auburn. Dunn was at the Kentucky High School Coaches Association Clinic at Centre College Saturday and shared his thoughts on Western, UK football, Brown, Scott and even Jacob Tamme.
Question: What has it been like working for Bobby Petrino and how anxious were you to get back on the field after three seasons as director of high school relations at Texas Tech?
Dunn: “I am very fortunate, very thankful. I coached for all those years and things just didn’t work out and I had to go into the administration part of it, which I learned a lot from the other side. When Bobby gave me this opportunity, it was just like a breath of fresh air. I really believe and know for a fact I am working for the best head coach in college football. He doesn’t miss a thing. He has made me a better coach again. Bringing out the best in meet since I have been with him since February.”
Question: What is your sense about what the win over Kentucky last year meant to the Western football program?
Dunn: “I am sure it was a great day for Western Kentucky and their fans and their players. But I didn’t have anything to do with it. None of us (coaches) were there. We have not talked about it. We won’t talk about it. You can’t worry about what happened yesterday. If I was a Western Kentucky fan, that would be a great day.”
Question: Since you will know half the Kentucky staff almost, what will that opening game be like for you trying to slow down the Neal Brown offense?
Dunn: “It is going to be a challenge. He does a great job. Their staff does a great job. Plus, we are starting all over basically on the defensive line. We lost some good players. Like every game, got to take one game at a time. We don’t look at Kentucky or Tennessee or anybody. We are just Team X that we have next.”
Question: What impresses you the most about Neal on and off the field?
Dunn: “Great guy. Great family guy. I got to know Neal a little bit at Troy and knew about him because I was at Auburn so long. I met Neal a few times and heard great things about him and then was fortunate enough to work for him for three years at Texas Tech. Love his family. His kids. His dad is a great man. I talk to his dad more than Neal. Trying to help him out where Neal’s sister is trying to get a job at another school. Great kid, great young coach. Energetic. Works hard in recruiting. Works the kids hard. I see Neal in five years being one of those big-time head coaches.”
Question: Even though he wouldn’t yet be 40 years old?
Dunn: “Don’t tell me that. Like I said, I got shoes older than Neal.”
Question: What kind of young coach is Chad Scott and what makes him such a good recruiter?
Dunn: “Chad is Chad. He is honest and he knows the game. He doesn’t put up a lot of BS. He gets to know the kids and families. His personality. Just a great guy. I love them all. They are all good people. He’s a good coach on the field, too. He is hard nosed, get after it, technician, studies the game. All those guys, including coach Mainord, have nothing but a great future ahead of them. But ask coach Mainord about his cooking. He can’t cook a brisket. He’s a good coach, and a great young coach. I hope these guys realize what a great opportunity they have. It can end in a hurry. You can be at the top of the world and then be at the bottom, but I see nothing but bright futures for these three guys.”
Question: Are they always enthusiastic like they showed during their first spring practice at UK?
Dunn: “Yes. That is what it is. You can’t ask your kids to go hard and work if you don’t have energy, enthusiasm and tempo. They all three have that and will continue to have that. That is what it takes.”
Question: Since you have coached in the SEC, how will Brown’s offense work in the SEC?
Dunn: “I think so. But what succeeds are players. My grandpa always told me no donkey won the Kentucky Derby. You have got to have athletes. If you get athletes and good football players, they can run any offense or defense. It is unique offense and will put pressure on the defense. When they get their type of people there, I see that offense being very successful.”
By LARRY VAUGHT
He came into his sophomore season with seven Division I scholarship offers and now Madison Southern running back Damien Harris says the number is around 15 or more.
That’s how impressive the 5-11, 205-pound Harris, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, has been. He ran for 742 yards and 11 touchdowns on just 76 carries in 2011 as a freshman and came back last season to gain 1,911 yards on 160 carries and score 37 times. He also caught five passes for 176 yards and three more scores.
He got more physical last season when he found more time to get in the weight room — he had always played three sports before — and hopes to be even more aggressive this season after learning last year that teams often celebrated just for tackling him.
“A lot of times it can be like that. It gets frustrating. Every time you get tackled, they celebrate like they won a state championship, but it only makes me better,” said Harris. “It makes me not want to get tackled that much more so I can keep them from having that pleasure of tackling me. It is what it is. I have kind of accepted it through the years, so it is not that big a deal any more.”
He proved his speed is a “big deal” at the Class AA regional track meet at Boyle County Saturday. He won the 100-meter dash in and also helped Madison Southern win the 4×100 relay even though he’s still not at full speed. “It has been kind of hard for me conditioning wise. This was my first meet in almost two months where I had surgery on my elbow. That’s why I didn’t run the 200 (meter dash). I had a slight strain in my quad, too,” he said.
He’s not sure what caused his elbow injury.
“I just got to the point that I couldn’t straight in out and was in pain. I didn’t really have a significant injury to cause that,” Harris said. “I went to the doctor and they told me that I had extra bone growing off my elbow and it was causing extra scar tissue and arthritis. Whenever they did surgery, they shaved it down so I could get full extension in it. I will be 100 percent for football now.”
Harris prides himself on being prepared. He says he enjoys watching film and understands the value of blocking assignments and schemes. He also understands he needs a plan for what he wants to do this summer.
“I am going to try to make it up to Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama and maybe even Florida for the Friday Night Lights where you get to play in the Swamp under the lights at night,” Harris said. “I will make a few of those type trips. I am also actually going with one of my linemen to support him at one of his combines up in Chicago. I will be pretty busy seeing what places are about.”
He plans to make a trip to Kentucky “every now and then” this summer. However, he says he is already “pretty close” to UK head coach Mark Stoops, offensive coordinator Neal Brown and running backs coach Chad Scott.
“They are all great guys. I will definitely stay in touch with them and make some of their practices and stuff. I was at the spring game. I will definitely stay in touch with those guys,” Harris said.
He tries not to let his abundance of scholarship offers impact his daily routine.
“I try not to think about it. I want to stay grounded, stay humble. I know that I am not there yet. There are still a lot of things I have to work on,” he said. “It is hard at times to be humble. I am not going to deny it is hard. But I was raised by a good mother and she definitely keeps me grounded.
“My coaches tell me to just try to be thankful for everything I have because it is a blessing to do everything I do. I try to stay humble and thank God for all he’s blessed me with. Focus more on my grades and then what I need to do on the field versus how many offers I have.”
He won’t set individual goals for this season.
“Every year my No. 1 goal is get better and win a state championship. I don’t want to get individual accolades because there are 11 men on the field, not just one,” Harris said. “I definitely try to make team goals instead of me goals. In the end, a state championship with my team is much better than state player of the year. I don’t really have that many goals for myself other than definitely win a state championship. That’s the one goal I want.”
That’s part of why he runs track. He likes to stay in shape, but says he also “loves winning” and pushing himself to win.
“If there is something to do because I think I can win, I do it because I love to be a winner,” he said.
He’s not sure if he can win the 100-meter dash at the Class AA state meet in Louisville Friday.
“It is a tough question. I have been off for a while. but I don’t ever consider myself an underdog. I always consider myself to be not the best but to have the best chance,” Harris said. “You have to go in with that mindset that you are going to win under any circumstance. Not in an arrogant or cocky way. I feel like I still have a good chance to come in first. If I do, it will be great. If I don’t, it will just give motivation to work even harder for next year.”
He has paid attention to how hard the Kentucky coach staff has been working in recruiting and noted how Conner quarterback Drew Barker, a four-star recruit, picked UK over South Carolina last week.
“I am not going to want to go somewhere where I am the only recruit … where other people commit takes into play where I want to go,” Harris said. “If a good quarterback commits to a school, I will look into that. A good quarterback and a good running back duo, that’s always a plus.
“As far as other players at my position, I don’t like to go somewhere another top running back will go. I don’t want to really share with somebody else. I would like to be that guy that gets the carries, that gets the tough yards and stuff like that. I take it into consideration”
He knows Brown’s high tempo offense at Kentucky could create a lot of opportunities for playmakers to touch the ball, something he says appeals to him..
“More carries gives me a better opportunity to show people what I can do. But 30 or 40 carries a game is hard work. Not saying I wouldn’t be up to the work, but it makes things harder versus 15 to 20 carries like coach Brown seems to like for a back,” Harris said. “But that is kind of how our offense is. We like to run 80 or 90 plays a game and if I were to go there, it would be an easy fit for me because I would be used to running so many plays already and I like that offense.”
4 CommentsBy LARRY VAUGHT
In just a few weeks, one player that could make a huge impact on Kentucky football should arrive on campus.
Butler County Community College receiver Javess Blue is a player that offensive coordinator Neal Brown is counting on to make an immediate impact next season.
“Any time you go out and sign junior college guys, especially high level junior college guys, you expect them to step in and immediately compete for playing time. He is a kid that (assistant coach) Chad Scott did phenomenal job recruiting. A guy we actually signed at Texas Tech and didn’t do what he needed to do academically,” Brown said.
“He went to Butler and had a solid freshman year and this year I thought he was the best junior college receiver in the country. Really proud of how he handled himself. Physically, he is ready. He looks how you should look. It is just a matter of him getting here in the summer, learning what we are going to do and then going out in fall camp and competing.”
How is he different than incoming freshmen receivers Ryan Timmons and Alex Montgomery?
“He is older. That is the biggest thing. He has had to play against better competition just because of junior college,” Brown said. “You are talking about at Butler where they were runner-up in the country. He is just an older, more mature kid. That is the only real difference with him, but it is a big difference.”
By LARRY VAUGHT
He’s heard the talk about him being a potential Southeastern Conference freshman of the year candidate, but that doesn’t bother Florida running back JoJo Kemp.
Instead, he’s embracing the lofty ambitions others have him for him as he prepares for his career at the University of Kentucky.
“I set high goals for myself. The only thing I can do is work hard and believe in God and the rest will take care of itself,” said Kemp, who was ranked as the nation’s No. 10 multipurpose back by Rivals.com and No. 28 overall running back by ESPN.com. “I am not worried about the expectations fans have for me. I just have to continue to bust my behind to lift my teammates around me. What happens, happens.”
Kentucky offensive coordinator Neal Brown said he does expect Kemp “to push for playing time early” because of his various skills. However, he doesn’t want the SEC freshman of the year talk to get out of hand.
“I think that is a little much. Let’s get him a carry over two before we start anointing him, but he is a good player,” Brown said. “I thought he was a kid that was a little under recruited. He is a kid when we came here that we knew we needed to sign another running back and he was our No. 1 target from the get-go. For (running backs coach) Chad (Scott) to pull that off was huge. To identify who we wanted in mid-December and go out and get him locked in was huge for our program.”
Kemp believe he is a “complete back” because of all he can do.
“I can catch, run, stay in to block for the quarterback. That is what makes a complete back,” Kemp said.
He rushed for 1,469 yards and 23 touchdowns on 255 carries in 2012 and ran for 1,163 yards and 14 scores on 178 attempts in 2011.
Brian Linder of the Daytona Beach News Journal thinks Kentucky got a special player in Kemp.
“The first time I saw Jojo play was the ESPN2 game against Jacksonville Sandalwood. Sandalwood had a handful of big-time Division 1 guys on its defense — including DeMarcus Walker and Kain Daub — and Kemp rushed for 210 yards and two touchdowns. And, I think, he showed that he is a complete back,” Linder said. “He is not a burner, but he has good burst — when he sees the open field he hits another gear — and decent speed.
“He keeps his feet moving and had great balance. He is deceptively strong and does a good job of bouncing off tacklers. He is not afraid to run between the tackles. He just has all the tools to be a very good player at the next level.”
Linder expected Kemp to go to either West Virginia or Pittsburgh.
“I believe he had two SEC offers — Kentucky and Tennessee. I think he is driven by the fact that he feels he was a bit overlooked early. In that case, it makes sense that he would want to prove himself in the SEC,” Lincer said. “He could be an impact player next season. I don’t think there’s any doubt. It won’t be easy in the SEC, but he seems like the type of kid that will keep battling until he earns playing time.”
Kemp actually had interest in Kentucky even before Brown arrived with his productive offense and had been recruited by former UK assistant coach Greg Nord.
“I had an interest in Kentucky because I wanted a chance to go to school out of Florida and make a name for myself,” Kemp said. “That’s what I always wanted to do. When coach (Mark) Stoops got there and then coach Brown and coach Scott came, I really got interested. Coach Scott talked to me about how he did as a freshman (at Kentucky) and I built a good relationship with him.
“It helped a lot knowing coach Scott had played in this offense. He reminded me of my high school coach. We built a connection. He will help me grow and mature and make be a better person outside football. He will push me on and off the field.”
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky running backs coach Chad Scott knows his first game at Commonwealth Stadium — against Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 7 — is going to be memorable and emotional for him.
“There are memories in my head now. I can remember and see myself running out of that tunnel as a freshman when we were playing South Florida and that cloud of smoke. It is going to be an awesome feeling again,” Scott said. “That is one thing that makes me so passionate about being back here and getting these guys going.
“We had success when I was here and the success can be even better now because we have a great offensive mind in coach Brown and great defensive minds in coach (Mark) Stoops and coach (DJ) Eliot. Putting players on both sides of the ball to get it done will be a great feeling.
“Some of the facilities have changed a lot. When I was here, the football offices were underneath the stadium and now we have our own building. The whole extension to this building was not here. Team meeting rooms are where the racquetball courts were. What they have done with the Joe Craft Center is amazing. Lot is different, which is good. Making everything look more modern to keep up with what is going on across the SEC is what you have to do.”
Scott doesn’t buy the argument that UK’s football facilities are not good enough to compete nationally.
“I tell you right now they are as good as anybody in the SEC with what we are doing now with the $110 million renovation that we’ve got and they are going to be even better than some teams in the SEC,” Scott said.
Excitement
Scott remembers some good times and exciting moments when he played at Kentucky. He knows there were others during the Rich Brooks era. However, he has not seen UK football excitement ever so high.
“It is unbelievable. Even when I was here and keeping up with Kentucky even while I was gone, it’s nothing like it was before or ever,” Scott said. “The excitement and buzz around this program … people were just talking about football in January and February in the midst of basketball season is unheard of here. The excitement and buzz around football is unlike any other time in the history of UK football that I know of.”
Considering UK is coming off a 2-10 season and changing coaches, that seems a bit unusual.
“First of all, it is coach Stoops. What he has done in the past three years at Florida State to turn that program around and make it a defensive-minded program is unreal. Then he hires a home-town boy in Neal Brown who has had success everywhere he has been,” Scott said. “So you have a big name in Stoops and what he can do defensively over time and then for him to hire the hometown boy who has been successful everywhere he has been offensively to go with a great defense is exciting.
“You have a great defensive mind, great offensive mind and a crop of young coaches. I thought he did a great job hiring a young staff. I think just initially when these guys took over the job and went out and attacked some of the big-time players (recruits) that maybe some people weren’t too sure about Kentucky doing that .. but when we get the first kid to jump in the boat and way we finished the recruiting season is the reason for the excitement.”
By LARRY VAUGHT
Former Kentucky offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, now the offensive coordinator at California, has played a big role in Kentucky running backs coach Chad Scott’s career. He not only recruited Scott at UK, but also helped Scott with the transfer process.
“Once I was cleared to leave here at Kentucky, he helped me and guided me in that option. He gave me my first coaching job when he hired me at Troy. He had hired me to work some of his summer camps to get experience coaching guys and after I was a GA at North Carolina he was the first one to give me a full-time job. He gave me an opportunity to come to college and then the opportunity to be a full-time coach,” Scott said.
“We are still very close. He is even influential now in my maturation as a coach. I talked to him quite frequently and we stay in contact. He has been huge in my career as player and coach. We are close for lot of reasons and I owe him a lot.”
Scott says he’s passionate about what he does, which is one thing Franklin told him would make him a successful recruiter.
“I do a great job building relationships with kids and I am a young coach so I can relate to what they are doing. Some of the kids coming up have a lot of struggles and lot of adversity they deal with, all things I have gone through as a player and coach from a GA sleeping in my car to having the success I have now,” Scott said. “I can relay those stories to kids and they can relate in their own way to what story they may have.
“Being able to share those kind of stories and similarities that you may have and them seeing what it might be like on the other side helps me build relationships with those guys. But you also have to be passionate about it, and I am.”
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Chad Scott photo courtesy Texas Tech.
By LARRY VAUGHT
Former Kentucky offensive coordinator Tony Franklin hired Neal Brown to coach receivers at Troy the year before he brought Chad Scott to Troy to coaching running backs.
“When I first got to Troy, coach Franklin said you kind of need to watch Neal. He is well organized, he is passionate about what he does, he is anal about little things, he is detailed oriented even about little things,” Scott said. “He said, ‘You need to follow his lead and let him mold you because he knows what he is doing,’ and that’s what I did.
“So we bonded real well as coaches because everything he did, I took from him. The setup of recruiting areas, how you study film, how you analyze film, how you grade it. We just kind of hit it off. When he became the coordinator (at Troy when Franklin left for Auburn), we kept working with each other. I was very fortunate that he thought very highly of me.
“Outside of just knowing the coaching duties, I never knew he exactly how he felt about me as a coach until he had the opportunity to go to Texas Tech and took me with him. It was a huge honor for him to take me as a running back coach with him. I stayed there and I turned down coaching jobs to stay with him. I appreciate the loyalty that he has, and the respect he has for me as a coach. I think we work really well together.”
Scott said it is “easy to work” for Brown because he makes it clear what he expects.
“It’s easy to work for him because I try to stay one or two steps ahead of him in terms of things I know he wants from me and expects me to do. So in that regard, it’s easy to work for him because I know exactly what he expects,” Scott said.
He was hoping when Brown got the job at Kentucky as offensive coordinator that he would get to come, too.
“I was hoping that he wanted me here with him. I didn’t necessarily expect it, but I was hoping,” the UK running backs coach said. “We both played here together and I have been with him all that time. He knows me. I was hoping it would work out, and it did.”
Scott isn’t sure what his role will be on game day at UK, but at Texas Tech he was on the sideline with Brown.
“I was one of the guys that signalled (the plays) and also one of the guys that would control the substitution going in and out of the game with the skilled guys. I handle the adjustments of run game and running game things,” Scott said.
And what’s he like on the sideline?
“I am one of the rowdy guys, the excitable guy. It is fun. That is what you do. You put in all the time and all the work and all the hours of preparation during the week, but the game is fun,” Scott said. “Obviously there are times when it gets a little time consuming, but game day is fun. I am excited to see guys execute and make big plays. If they go out there and do it, I am excited. If they go out there and screw up, you will see another side of me. I am a rowdy guy.”
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Chad Scott photo courtesy Texas Tech.
By LARRY VAUGHT
For Chad Scott, coaching running backs at Kentucky really is a dream job.
“It means a lot to me. It is like coming back home. It is a dream job for me and I can say that for a lot of reasons. It’s obviously where I started my college football career and I turned down a lot of great opportunities to come here,” said Scott. “Also my wife graduated from here, so it is huge for me. And it is always a place she wanted to come and live. It is a great honor to be back where I started.”
Scott worked with UK offensive coordinator Neal Brown at Troy and then at Texas Tech. They were also teammates together at UK when Scott ran for 611 yards as a freshman in 2000 to earn all-Southeastern Conference freshman honors and third-team freshman all-American honors. Scott played in eight games as a sophomore when he was hampered by an ankle injury and rushed for 210 yards before transferring to North Carolina. After gaining only 182 yards his junior season, he ran for 796 yards and eight scores as a senior and was seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference in rushing.
He spent time with the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants in 2005 before ending his NFL aspirations before pursuing his goal of becoming a college coach. The Plant City, Fla., married UK basketball player Shambrica Jones of Yazoo City, Miss., and she was an assistant coach at Morehead when he got a chance to work at North Carolina as a video graduate assistant in 2006 and 2007.
“It was tough because my wife was coaching at Morehead and I was kind of bouncing back and forth in the NFL. When all that stuff went away, I started to pursue coaching and got an opportunity to go to North Carolina as a video GA,” Scott said.
However, things didn’t go exactly as he planned. He thought he had a place to live, but by the time he got to North Carolina that had changed and led him to do something few would ever do in order for him to pursue his dream of coaching college football.
“I had been living in Morehead for a year or so and not able to find a (college coaching) job. Even though my wife was taking care of me, being a man that was kind of hard to deal with,” Scott said. (North Carolina coach) John Bunting gave me a chance to come back as a video GA and even when living there didn’t work out, I didn’t want to make excuses about it.
“I didn’t want to bring it to anybody’s attention because I didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for me. I just wanted the opportunity to coach and I was going to do whatever it took to do it. The first night I slept in the building in the players’ lounge. One of the janitors turned the vacuum cleaner on and woke me up. I felt kind of embarrassed and that kind of spooked me.
“From that point on, I slept in my car. I would pull it around to the back of the building and sleep in the car. We were in the office all night any way most nights and had to be up early. For about a year I got about three or four hours sleep a night. I would be the last person out of the building and I had to be the first person back. I slept in that car for about seven months Nobody knew it.”
That eventually changed when he was with Bunting one night and the coach asked him what he was doing.
“I told him. He said, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you serious? How long have you been doing this?’ I told him and he wanted to know why I hadn’t said anything,” Scott said. “I told him I didn’t want anybody feeling bad for me and I wanted this opportunity. I told him, ‘I told you when I took this job I would do whatever it took. I would put in the hours, do the work, bust my butt and I didn’t want any favors or have anything handed to me.’ That’s why I was the first person in the building and last person to leave.”
12 CommentsVaught’s note: Knowing how distraught UK fans are today over Thursday night’s loss at Georgia by John Calipari’s team, here is a little feel-good story about UK running back coach Chad Scott that I hope can bring a smile to your face and maybe make you at least laugh just a little bit.
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky running backs coach Chad Scott had a lot of good luck when it came to meeting his wife, fomer UK basketball player Shambrica Jones. The couple have one child, daughter Kori Cherrell.
“They always say the two toughest decisions in life are where you will go to school and when you choose your wife. I met my wife in the academic facility of all places. I was pretty studious,” Scott laughed and said.
And how did he meet her?
“I am almost embarrassed to tell the story. I thought I was one of the best looking guys in the place but after a couple of years of dating … what it was her teammate and roommate at the time made a bet as they were walking downstairs that the first guy you see, you have to give that guy your phone number,” Scott, a former UK football player, said. “I just happened to be that guy.
“Then I ended up marrying her. She also thought I was a soccer player. She had no idea who I was. Just happened to be the first guy she saw coming down the steps. First date went well and we have been together ever since. We have been married for seven years now.”
Scott said the way his life has turned out motivates him daily.
“That is another reason I work so hard and I am so passionate about coaching and recruiting. That first year after I got married, she was coaching at Morehead and I was at North Carolina and we lived apart. That was hard on her,” Scott said. “But she doesn’t do anything (coaching wise) now. It is my turn to take care of her like she did me.”
4 CommentsBy LARRY VAUGHT
Running backs coach Chad Scott, a former Kentucky player, said it was easy for him to recruit for the Wildcats and expects to be part of the same productive offense he was at Texas Tech under offensive coordinator Neal Brown. “Our expectations don’t change,” said Scott. “We want to move the ball and score points and think we are bringing in players that can help do that.”
Scott offers his insights on some UK signees as well as some returning players.
Question: Have you just followed everything receiver Javess Blue has done for the last three or more years?
Scott: “I have been knowing him for four years. I have been recruiting him since the 11th grade in high school. We have a great relationship.”
Question: What was there about him that you knew you wanted to stay in touch and keep a relationship going even when he had to go to junior college?
Scott: “He had phenomenal ability. We genuinely wanted him at Texas Tech. Then toward the end of his senior year, the grades didn’t let him qualify. Since I had recruited him the whole time, I felt like the best thing to do for the kid was to continue to recruit him and we actually signed him and placed him there at (Butler Community College). He is a great kid, great person, great player. I got a chance to meet his mom, who is a great lady. I wanted to take care of him.”
Question: What makes him so good, especially since his coach admitted fundamentally he had things still to learn?
Scott: “He is just a player. That is the thing about hit. Even though he has been as good as he has on the junior college level, when he comes here and gets the coaching coupled with what he does naturally, he ought to be a big hit. He is just an explosive football player. God-given talent.”
Question: How good is Florida running back JoJo Kemp?
Scott: “He has such diverse skill set. He is a guy that can pound it between the tackles. He can make you miss in space and take it to the house. He can also catch the ball out of the backfield. He is a complete back in my mind with diverse skill set.”
Question: Will Ryan Timmons line up in the backfield?
Scott: “He will. We will motion him back there just to get the ball in his hands. That’s the good thing about this offense. You can be so multiple in a variety of ways to get different guys involved in the offense and get certain guys the ball in space and let them make plays. So he will be in the backfield.”
Question: Is it easy to see Neal Brown’s offense to recruits?
Scott: “No question. Just as easy as coming back here to Kentucky to coach. It’s very easy because I played in it and now I have been it for seven years. I understand position by position what guys are able to do in the offense and what their ability will allow them to do and ways we can get them the ball. That makes their ability even more than what it was coming into the system.”
Question: Did the success at Texas Tech just make recruits immediately recognize that offense even if they didn’t know specifically who was coaching the offense?
Scott: “That is what is exciting because we were down there in west Texas with this offense. But because the offense was so successful, we got TV time on the east coast and now we are going to bring that style of offense over here to our stomping grounds where we are from. That makes it even more exciting. That makes guys want to play in even more.”
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