Articles by Category
By LARRY VAUGHT
LEXINGTON — Chad Scott doesn’t mind a little hostility among his running backs at the University of Kentucky.
“You may have a little natural hostility, but not hostility because they don’t like one another. Just hostility cause they want to outdo each other, and that’s what we want because that is going to drive them,” said Scott, UK’s running backs coach. “We have always wanted that, but not necessarily had in the past. That is how you elevate your game when they want to outdo each other.”
Kentucky had three running backs — freshmen Boom Williams and Mikel Horton and sophomore Mikel Horton — pushing each other during spring practice to position themselves for playing time next season.
Last year Scott had five running backs vying for playing time and injuries were not a huge concern. Now with three running backs, injuries could be a problem.
“It is like you can’t win for losing. If you have five and they all stay healthy then you are trying to figure out how to get reps for them all. Then you have three and they get hurt and you wish you had more,” Scott said. “Either way is fine. I would rather have five and decide who is going to get the ball because that is between those guys. They have to compete.
“They are competing now like I always wanted them to do. In the past we had younger guys and did not understand how to practice and compete at a high level. Mikel and Boom are only in the second semester of their freshman year. Now they have been through a season and understand what it takes and they are competing. “
Scott has tried to find ways to add to that competition.
“We create little simple competitions outside of the field. If I beat them to the meeting room, they owe me 20 push-ups. If they beat me, I owe them 20. Everything is a competition. If we are in the meeting room and they don’t make a play, they drop down and give me 20,” Scott said.
And who gets to the meeting room first?
“I get there first. No question,” Scott, a former UK running back, said. “Every once in a while they do beat me, and when they do I make sure I do the push-ups right away. No conversation. I do them right away and we make it a big deal.
“It’s more just an understanding of the sense of urgency we got to have in every regard whether it is getting to the line of scrimmage to run plays, getting the blocking scheme, lining up right, getting to class on time, getting to the tutor. Just a sense of urgency to get where we need to be,” Scott said.
Here’s more of what Scott had to say about the running backs going into UK’s summer workouts before practice resumes again in August.
Question: How much pass catching is in this offense for the running backs?
Scott: “There is a lot. In this offense, Coach (Shannon Dawson) wants if we got six people in protection and they only got five rushing, he wants the line to do ID that guy so we can get the ball in play to a skilled player, so there is a lot of pass catching in this offense.”
Question: Is Boom Williams clearly your No. 1 running back?
Scott: “He is No. 1. He can do so many things and he can be even better. Last year he was in a position where he just made plays on raw talent. Rarely did he do a lot of things right, but he just made plays. First of all, we created plays for him to get him in space. At the time, he was struggling to understand what the blocking scheme was doing for him. He would stick his foot in the ground and go left to right away from the scheme. Sometimes it would be good, but most of the time it was bad. We had to put him in position because he has such great ability to make plays. A lot of the times the plays you saw him make last year was just scheme plays we had to get him in space and let him do what he does.
“Now this spring he understands what it takes to do the little things right to put himself in position where he is one-on-one as opposed to one-on-six. He is liking that lifestyle a whole lot better.”
Question: When he had his off-field issue with the pellet gun last season, he didn’t shy away from taking responsibility and seems to have learned from that. Is that true?
Scott: “He really has. You hate for those kind of things to happen and you hope it is something he learns from. Understand why it happened. Understand why it should never happen again. But also move from it. He has grown on and off the field. He still has a ways to go in terms of doing everything right off the football field but he is understanding the success he is having on the field is a direct correlation of what he is doing off the field. As far as doing what he is supposed to be doing academically and getting where he is supposed to be, he has been on point recently and doing a great job. On top of that his attitude and way he is performing on the field is the same way. We try to get him to understand the correlation of what you do off the field is big in terms of what you do on the field. If you can’t get it right off the field, you will never get it out of your head. You are constantly thinking about it and people are constantly in your ear. Instead of just hearing from me, you are hearing from (coach Mark) Stoops, that coach, this guy. A whole lot of voices in your ear telling you basically the same thing but it can get overwhelming.”
Question: What is freshman Mikel Horton like?
Scott: “I love that kid. You talk about a student of the game, he is passionate about football. He has done a great job to put himself in position to compete to be No. 1 also. He has been banged up, but he has had a phenomenal spring and it means something to him. That kid if he has a bad practice, you almost have to make sure somebody is with him and he goes to class because he is going to hang around this building and make sure we understand that he is trying to get it right and he wants to understand why he got it wrong. It means that much to him. He has lost weight. He is so light on his feet. Moving around really well, changing directions. He has become more physical consistently.
“He has unbelievable ball skills. He has the best ball skills of all the running backs. Great, soft hands and he understands all the pass game big time. Him becoming physical and losing that weight and moving the way he is moving, he can be special.
“He gives us a different dimension and looks a lot better than he did last year. You are going to see a different person in Boom. The wild plays he had last year, he’s going to do more because he’s putting himself in position to do more. You are going to see a different person in Mikel Horton because he’s going to be more explosive, have more of a burst and is going to be more physical that is going to allow him to be on the field and stay on the field and hard for us to take him off because he can line up outside, he can line up in the backfield and do different things being physical with his skill set.”
Question: Where does that leave sophomore JoJo Kemp?
Scott: “In the past, JoJo has been his own worst enemy. Some of the things he didn’t do here in practice, fans didn’t see. The two years he has been here, he’s had horrible practice habits and he understands that. He is a competitive guy. When we go 11-on-11 offense versus defense, he turns the switch on. But during the season you are not always going against the top defense because to keep everybody fresh, you go against the scout team. His practice habits were always bad.
“I go back to the season where from the outside you couldn’t see some of the things he was missing because he was just doing his own thing and then he started pressing. Then when he does the right things, he has big plays and has a great game and fans say, ‘Where has he been?’ I am wondering where has he been in practice. He understands that now and has had a great spring.
“He is maturing and the competition has helped, but the biggest thing is just maturing. It’s just him. It doesn’t really have anything to do with anybody but him. I tell him all the time, just get out of your own way. Just do the little things right.
“He is not a bad kid. None of them are. Sometimes things are simple and they look at you like, ‘Is it really that simple.’ It is. JoJo gets that now and understands it and when they make plays because they do little things right, it boosts their confidence. This spring he has had a great spring by doing the little things right.”
Question: Have you ever had a player like 330-pound defensive lineman Jacob Hyde who is working at fullback?
Scott: “The first. I think I speak for all the backs when I say we love him back there. He is 330 pounds. If he takes the right angle, he is either going to move them or they are going to move themselves because they are going to try and avoid him. I have never had a guy like that. I think he is going to help us out tremendously. I think what we are doing and asking him to do is going to create a lot of space for the running backs.”
Question: Do you ever get to talk to former UK offensive coordinator Neal Brown now that he is head coach at Troy?
Scott: “I have. He has been busy obviously. But he is on top of it doing a great job and getting everything going. I have been around and with him for eight years (at Troy, Texas Tech and Kentucky), so it is always tough. It is an adjustment, but I think it will be better on both ends. In the future if we were able to get back together I would be able to bring some different ideas to the table. I think that part be very beneficial in the future.”
KSR Twitter Feed
vBulletin Message