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  • Where do You go From Here?

    By: LONNY DEMAREE


    Freshman Cody Quinn

    We think it's safe to day that barring a miraculous turnaround, this season's going to be a losing season. So where does the team and it's coaching staff go from here?

    * Given the instability at the quarterback position young Jalen Whitlow will have to grow up quickly. Is it feasible to win in the rugged SEC with a freshman quarterback.

    * How do you accurately evaluate the plight of the head coach Joker Phillips when his team is devastated with injuries. We looked out on the field one time in Saturdays Mississippi State game and there were four true freshmen in the secondary.

    * There are worn out platitudinous inferences that at some point in a losing season the team quits. That question was posed in today's presser to defensive end Farrington Huguenin? He said - "We are behind coach Phillips one-hundred percent."

    * I have been around UK football, hands on, for four decades and played on high level football teams in the military. As a group competitors just don't quit. Yeah there might be a couple guys but the team doesn't quit. A recent example: If there ever was a time that team could quit, it was after last seasons Vanderbilt debacle 38-8. But no, they rallied to play Georgia at Athens tougher than any team had played Georgia all season. And defeated Tennessee without a quarterback.

    * Does the coaching staff, who has had to be innovative with the quarterbacks over the last two seasons, concoct an offense that takes advantage of the talents of freshman Jalen Whitlow.

    * Young quarterback Partrick Towles suffered a high-ankle sprain that Joker Phillips terms day-to-day as to how soon he can return to the field. The variables of said injury are; 1) In most cases with skill position players that have to move around a lot it's a two to four week injury; 2) some heal quicker than others; and 3) some people have a higher pain tolerance than others.

    * If Towles is back in three to four weeks and Whitlow has somewhat settled into the quarterback role, do you play Towles and risk his not receiving a medical redshirt. After the sixth game of the season the medical redshirt is not an option if he plays another down.

    * Cartier Rice is the one and only old man in the secondary. Can he provide the leadership need to get the young kittens through the season.

    * The season gets somewhat easier from this point on but this young Kentucky team is going to have to come out every game and play like their hair in on fire.

    * Do the coaches coach like they want to stay in the profession whether it's at UK or elswhere? What do they tell potential recruits out on the recruitng trail about their future.

    * There's a lot of speculation out there on the return or not of Joker Phillips? Only Mitch Barnhart knows. He hasn't had much to say except he he is looking for improvement. Question is, in the absense of wins, how do you gauge improvement?

    * As a bean-counter (fund raiser) what does Mitch Barnhart do about empty seats? And where do they go from here?
    Comments 3 Comments
    1. ukpumacat's Avatar
      ukpumacat -
      Quote Originally Posted by LonnyDemaree View Post

      * How do you accurately evaluate the plight of the head coach Joker Phillips when his team is devastated with injuries. We looked out on the field one time in Saturdays Mississippi State game and there were four true freshmen in the secondary.
      You look at what his teams have looked like without those injuries, and the answer is the same: poorly coached. Joker needs to go.
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue -
      Where do You go From Here?

      First thing you do is forget about injuries. Every team in college football has them. Some are more critical to team performance than others, but "next man up" is the way it works. The AD has to determine if the game prep and execution is where the TEAM should be after the current coach has been in place for 3 years. The one thing you do not do is try and project how it will be next year, and let "young talent" cloud your vision. If you are even thinking of doing that you must ask yourself why are the upperclassmen not able to out play the youngsters. Is it a lack of ability on the part of the staff to develop the players? Did they recruit players that could not be coached?

      Tough decision for the AD, but it is a business and UK football is leaking money by the tanker load every week with no end in sight. Businessmen look at their bottom line every morning, and the UK bottom line has been in a steady decline for 2 years. The manager overseeing the enterprise will be looking for a job if he does not plug that leak and refloat the tanker.
    1. CitizenBBN's Avatar
      CitizenBBN -
      We looked out on the field one time in Saturdays Mississippi State game and there were four true freshmen in the secondary.

      Serious question, b/c I don't pretend to know football well, but were we losing b/c we were getting beaten in the secondary? I didn't see a big dropoff there as the frosh came in over the course of the game.

      QB is a tough situation, but it's hard to give the staff a pass on that one for injuries at least up till now b/c Towles didn't get a snap in practice and was not hurt till this game, they started a guy who had almost no reps at Florida and stuck with him a long time, and designed an offense that was tailored to a style that only the #1 and #4 guys could execute, with the #1 guy coming off an injury last season and the #4 guy not touching the ball (other than the Scout team) in more than a month.

      Those injuries mostly happened this last Saturday, after losing to WKU and UL. The season tickets being dropped happened before any of it.

      I see some good frosh out there, but will they be good sophomores? As Lonny raises the question, will there be any kind of class next year if this staff is in place? How long can they recruit with this sword of Damocles hanging over their heads? At some point it becomes a self-fulfilling situation as recruiting struggles.
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