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With injuries to so many receivers, offensive coordinator Neal Brown spent time after Monday's practice catching passes from quarterbacks Patrick Towles, Drew Barker and Reese Phillips to help give the quarterbacks extra throws.
"The quarterbacks aren’t getting enough work right now, so we’ve gotta build in pre-practice and post-practice stuff to make sure they’re getting enough reps in the stuff that we’re going to run," said Brown as UK gets ready for the Blue-White Spring Game Saturday.
Brown again talked extensively about the quarterback race, which is down to three players after last week's decision by returning starter Jalen Whitlow to transfer when the semester ends.
Question: How big a concern is it that he’ll have a quarterback starter who has played no college football or very little?
Brown: “Well, Patrick’s got very little (experience). You can probably count that as none almost. I think it’s a little bit of a concern. I don’t know. I’ll take talent over experience. As long as they’re talented, which the three kids that are practicing right now are talented; the ones that haven’t played, they’re talented. There will be some mistakes. I think you’ve gotta kind of factor that in. There’s going to be some mistakes. I think you gotta take care of them, especially early in the year, get them some confidence. But I feel good about those guys. They know how to prepare and we’ll do a good job putting them in a position where they can be successful.”
Question: Is there more pressure on Barker, Phillips and Towles with Whitlow gone?
Brown: “No, I don’t think so. I think there’s pressure at that position no matter what. At this level, in this conference, I think there’s pressure. Jalen being here or not being here, I don’t think that affects it. Whoever the guy’s going to be, there’s going to be quite a bit of pressure. I don’t think there’s any question. I don’t think we try to hide from that either.”
Question: Will he try to make sure he does all he can, including stacking the lineups, so the quarterbacks have a good spring game?
Brown: “Oh, I don’t know, that’s the head coach’s decision, man. Two-comma question.”
Question: Will all three quarterbacks come out on the first play of the Blue-White Game like he had Towles, Whitlow and Maxwell Smith do last year?
Brown: “No, I can’t. That wouldn’t be funny this year. That wouldn’t be funny. No, I don’t know. I haven’t even gotten to the spring game yet. We’ve got a big practice on Wednesday and then we’re lighter on Friday. So after Wednesday, I’ll probably start thinking more about the spring game.”
Question: Will he pick a starting quarterback at the end of spring practice or let it carry over into summer/fall?
Brown: “I don’t know. Coach (Mark) Stoops and I are going to have some conversations. We want to get it narrowed down. I don’t know if we’ll pick one on Saturday. Something will probably have to happen over the next week or so to make that determinations. But we do plan to hopefully narrow it down. We’ll see how it goes.”
Question: Is it important for players to know who the starter at quarterback is for summer workouts?
Brown: “I don’t think — I think it’s important we give somebody in camp, within a reasonable time toward the start of camp. I don’t think the summer necessarily matters, but I think toward the start of fall camp or during the early parts of fall camp I think that needs to be done.”
Question: Does he have a gut feeling about the quarterback job he’s just not ready to share yet?
Brown: “Not really. I’ve got an idea who’s looked the best in some pressure situations. Nobody has just grabbed it yet. I hope that happens. I’m really interested to see — and I didn’t mean to avoid it — but I’m really interested to see what happens on Saturday.”
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