Bookie 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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”