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By: LONNY DEMAREE
Into the fourth year of the Mark Stoops tenure, the coach soft-pedals the idea of Cats' inexperience on the playing field. The real truth of the matter is that sixteen of the players in the two-deep depth charts that had never played a down of football in the SEC have to be productive on the field. And two more of the same ilk played some against New Mexico State.
Why is that a narrative? 1) In a few of the cases some of the first year players have elevated themselves over older players; 2) There's been attrition for various and sundry reasons.
Quarterback: One lingering quote from Hal Mumme was “quarterbacks were born to transfer.” Hence Patrick Towles and Reese Phillips transferred. If either had stayed around it's not known if either would be calling the signals. We first focus on that position primarily because of the importance it lends to winning football games.
Where would that position be if Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw had not come aboard as part of the offensive brain trust. Hinshaw said he evaluated 33-quarterbacks before setting on Stephen Johnson lll as the one that best fitted UK's needs. When Drew Barker went down on Saturday, next up would have been University of Cincinnati transfer Luke Wright or true freshman Gunner Hoak. Instead because of the aforementioned coaches, junior college transfer Stephen Johnson lll was waiting for his opportunity and he delivered - quite Stoops said. Barker has a back injury that dates back to the summer. “Some of it is chronic,” Stoops said. He said he's checking with some specialist and he's not yet ready to make a decision on the starter for the South Carolina game.
Coach Mark Stoops' summation of Johnson's performance was poise the quarterback played with. “I just let the game come to me and utilized teammates on my team,” Johnson replied about his success Saturday. When asked was he the starter going forward and he said he was just going to enjoy this day with his family and concern himself with that in Mondays practice. Did the game plan change when he came into the game? “No, I just took what they gave me throughout the course of the game,” the quarterback said. Perhaps the game plan didn't change but the way he executed it certainly did because he found the tight end C. J. Conrad for big yardage. “It's good to see Stephen (Johnson) come in and play like he did,” Stoops said.
The aforementioned premise and or facts can be attributed to the start of this season. Potential starters on the defense side of the ball such as defensive tackle Regie Meant, linebacker/DE Lloyd Tubman, and linebacker Jason Hatcher had to put a big dent in the defensive production. Stoops would never dwell on that fact because their age-old statement is “next man up.”
Some of the losses can be attributed to a heavy necessary reliance on junior college players, especially in both lines and defensive in particular. One expected development has not come to fruition and that's to plug up the middle of the line in the big-set (odd man) with Matt Elam. He leaves something to be desired there but a lot to be desired when offenses are in the spread offense.
Stoops doggedly maintains they will get better and the adjustment in the second half of the New Mexico State show there may be something to that proclamation. Jut because of the inexperience they are dealing with and he expects them to get better.
True freshman and red shirt freshman Landon Young and Logan Stenberg respectively played a lot on the offensive line against New Mexico State. Young started.
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