The Continuing Culture with Key Players

By: LONNY DEMAREE

There’s been a lot of talk about the players that are gone from the 2018 team. However Mark Stoops has said several times over the last three weeks that they (media) are not realizing the number of players returning to the team. He has pointed out the steady progression of his team from his first year here to the present.
Though he doesn’t state the goal publicly we know what the next step is for his team. Winning the SEC East.

Can it happen? Almost everything in life is cyclical. The Cats beat Georgia in 2006, 2009 (at Georgia) and were it not for a dropped pass to Jeff Badet that bounced off his pads into a trailing defenders hands for a freaky interception UK had them on the ropes in 2016. Am I predicting a 2019 win? Stranger things have happened.

So let’s talk about the changing culture that Stoops is talking about and some of the key players that are going to be involved.

Jared Casey comes to mind and after an early enrollment the rapid improvement he made in the spring. The youngster said – “The first practice they threw me in the fire and I had to learn fast.”

Casey was an early commitment to the Oregon Ducks. The DUCKS? How did that initially come about? “They were the first major to offer me,” Casey said. “I took a visit out there and it was, like amazing. It’s like mind blowing. All the coaches were there to greet me lined up to shake my hand. All of them – every single one of them. I never thought Oregon before UK, Louisville, and Michigan State. But that’s how they (Oregon) get you. My whole family is happy that I decided to come here because I was dead set on going to Oregon.

Xavier Peters whether present or in the future from what I witnessed on fan-day is going to be a very outstanding player. Attempting to absorb as much as you can as media going from drill to drill you can’t possibly pick up on everything. But my eye caught a scene in the 11-on-11 drills that was a confrontation between 6-foot-4, 240-Peters and 6-foot-9, 344-pound Nick Lewis who John Schlarman feels will be in the rotation this fall. Peters was on a speed rush like he was shot out of out a cannon and was all up in Lewis’s chest and Lewis was fighting and retreating attempting to keep Peters off his quarterback. Without seeing the necessary fight and determination of Lewis against a future All-American is indescribable.

Peters said even if he has to set up this season it’s not going to cause his to lose any determination. He has already experienced that scenario in high school when he had an ACL tear. It was motivation for me knowing what I had up ahead and knowing that I was going to be looked at. You can have a good end to a bad situation.

Josh Paschal: By now everybody is familiar with Paschal’s situation with his battle with melanoma. His last treatment is this month. Paschal has played with his hand on the ground and he has played some standing up. The staff feels like he is better suited for the Jack linebacker position and it allows Jamar “Boogie” Watson to move to the weak-side linebacker position. Paschal said – “I can use my strength – I can use my Speed – and I can set hard edges. With my hand on the ground it helped me going against tight ends. I feel at the end of camp I will be back to my old self.” He said he thinks he will be better than his old self. Fans harken back to the time he blew up a Mississippi State tackle for a sack.

Moses Douglass: He said he feels that he will become a household name as 'Douglass the hitter.' Everybody wanted me to move closer to the ball anyway. After watching him in the spring game he was one of my picks to click because he loves to hit and has the body to be a hitter. Douglass said it’s time for him to step up and be a man. He said he has been studying film and the playbook profusely. “To me it’s all about the mental because now I can just use my talent and physicality,” Douglass said. “My main focus is working on straight-line speed because I didn’t run in high school. I have gotten faster. I like to hit and let’s not forget his genes coming from his dad that played eleven years in the NFL.

Marquan McCall: He didn’t practice in the spring because he working on his grades. “I finished with good grades and just ready to play right now,” he said while he looked good in drills last Saturday. I ask him how much input he had in getting 5-star Justin Rogers to commit to UK? “I had a few words of input but I told he would still be my brother wherever he went. If you go to Alabama or Georgia you are still going to be my brother. I wanted to play with him again.” I implored him for an honest answer on his reaction to him committing to Kentucky. With a huge smile and “MAN, I actually was shocked because everybody wanted him.”