Kentucky was flying high after upsetting South Carolina but thudded back down to earth against Georgia and now must abort its plan to win the SEC Eastern Division crown.
Georgia linebacker Justin Houston created all kinds of problems for the Cats. He forced one fumble, recovered another, and spent much of the evening in Mike Hartline's lap. When he wasn't sacking the UK quarterback, he was at least breathing down his neck and making it difficult for Hartline to throw in rythym.
Under the circumstances, it was downright remarkable that Kentucky's gutsy senior signal caller managed to complete 27 passes for more than 350 yards. What wasn't remarkable was that UK dug itself another giant sized hole with poor tackling and turnovers close to their own goal line. The former made Washaun Ealey look like the second coming of Bo Jackson, and the latter made things way too easy for Georgia to pile up points without having to go far to do it.
As well as Hartline and his receiving corps have played this season, UK should be much better than a 4 & 4 team, but the defense never seems to play a full 4 quarters, and the Cats' kick coverage hasn't been nearly as good as their kickers.
I don't have any answers for the inconsistency on defense, but offensively I do have a simple plan that should allow Kentucky to outscore every opponent remaining on the schedule. Just pretended that it's 3rd and long every time they snap the ball, and the longer the better. For some unknown reason, UK is almost unstoppable on 3rd and 14. They tend to go backwards a lot on 1st and 2nd down, but when it's 3rd and an acre, this team is dynamite.
The problem is that no matter what happens from here on out, it looks like the Cats are destined to go to another "lesser" bowl game while looking back at what might have been.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Comeback Cats
After an earlier loss this season, Kentucky Coach Joker Phillips said, "You just can't turn the ball over 3 or 4 times in one game and still win in this league." I was about to say, "Oh yes you can", when South Carolina committed three turnovers in the first half alone and still led UK 28 to 10.
Let's face it, without those three gifts, the Cats would have trailed by at least a score of 37 to 10 at intermission, and it was hard to find any legitimate reason why that margin wouldn't build in the second half. Kentucky's tackling had beeen absolutely atrocious for the first 30 minutes, but just as they did against Auburn, the UK defense started coming through with big stops, and the complexion of the game changed completely.
The state of Kentucky is known for basketball, not football, but it is on the football field where UK has produced one of the great American success stories of the 21st century. It is the story of a quarterback who refused to listen to all the doubters who told him he simply wasn't good enough. Mike Hartline shrugged off all the criticism, endured all the slings and arrows, and proved himself capable of producing remarkable comebacks.
This latest one shouldn't have surprised us. Hartline completed 13 straight passes against Auburn the week before, and his streak ended only when another perfect pass was dropped. His offensive line had done a great job of protecting him all season until South Carolina sacked him three times and hit him countless more times just as he was releasing the ball. Still he kept moving the chains even on 3rd and long. Trailing 28 - 17 and faced with what looked like and impossible 3rd and 14 situation, Hartline hooked up with Chris Matthews for a 22 yard gain.
The performance by Matthews was a microcosm of the entire game. The big junior college transfer lost his temper and committed a stupid personal foul that moved UK out of field goal range in the first half. But rather than pouting about his mistake, Matthews came back to make one big play after another enroute to the most productive night of his career.
Some nay sayers will still find ways to devalue this win. They can say if South Carolina's great freshman running back, Marcus Lattimore hadn't sprained his ankle after single handedly racking up more offensive yardage than the whole Kentucky team in the first half, even three UK touchdowns wouldn't have been enough of a comeback to win. What you have to remember is that UK's best running back, Derrick Locke, spent the entire game on the sidelines with an injury. So the fact that South Carolina had Lattimore for a half gave them the advantage.
The Gamecocks came into Commonwealth Stadium averaging 374 yards of offense per game. They came within 5 yards of equalling that total in the first half against Kentucky, partly because the Cats defensive scheme on more than one occasion was to have big defensive lineman trying to cover pass receivers downfield.
South Carolina meanwhile keyed their defense to stop Randall Cobb, and they did apply some vicious hits to contain him early in the game. They even threw him for losses on successive plays in the opening quarter, but they couldn't stop him when it counted most.
Cobb isn't the biggest player in college football today, but I'm convinced he is the most determined. When a game is on the line, he is the one player I would most like to see with the ball in his hands. Going for it on 4th and 1 late in the game, UK surprised no one by snapping it directly to Cobb in the Wildcat formation, and he still got more than enough for the crucial first down.
He also caught the touchdown pass that put UK ahead for the first time all night at 29 - 28. Somehow though Randall had still saved his best for last, and it was his 2 point conversion run that ultimately saved the game for the Cats. If he had been stopped short of the end zone, South Carolina would never have tried that pass that was intercepted on the final play of the game. After marching down inside UK's 20 yard line, they would simply have kicked a game winning field goal. But with the Cats' lead at 3 points, Steve Spurrier's arrogance would not allow him to go for a game tying field goal to force overtime. That decision allowed Kentucky to beat the ole ball coach for the first time ever.
Kentucky had plenty of heroes: Cobb, Matthews, Danny Trevathan, Taylor Windham and of course Mike Hartline. Add it all up, and the Cats now look like a good bet to got to a bowl game for a 5th straight year because now they know they're capable of coming from behind to beat even a Top Ten team.
Let's face it, without those three gifts, the Cats would have trailed by at least a score of 37 to 10 at intermission, and it was hard to find any legitimate reason why that margin wouldn't build in the second half. Kentucky's tackling had beeen absolutely atrocious for the first 30 minutes, but just as they did against Auburn, the UK defense started coming through with big stops, and the complexion of the game changed completely.
The state of Kentucky is known for basketball, not football, but it is on the football field where UK has produced one of the great American success stories of the 21st century. It is the story of a quarterback who refused to listen to all the doubters who told him he simply wasn't good enough. Mike Hartline shrugged off all the criticism, endured all the slings and arrows, and proved himself capable of producing remarkable comebacks.
This latest one shouldn't have surprised us. Hartline completed 13 straight passes against Auburn the week before, and his streak ended only when another perfect pass was dropped. His offensive line had done a great job of protecting him all season until South Carolina sacked him three times and hit him countless more times just as he was releasing the ball. Still he kept moving the chains even on 3rd and long. Trailing 28 - 17 and faced with what looked like and impossible 3rd and 14 situation, Hartline hooked up with Chris Matthews for a 22 yard gain.
The performance by Matthews was a microcosm of the entire game. The big junior college transfer lost his temper and committed a stupid personal foul that moved UK out of field goal range in the first half. But rather than pouting about his mistake, Matthews came back to make one big play after another enroute to the most productive night of his career.
Some nay sayers will still find ways to devalue this win. They can say if South Carolina's great freshman running back, Marcus Lattimore hadn't sprained his ankle after single handedly racking up more offensive yardage than the whole Kentucky team in the first half, even three UK touchdowns wouldn't have been enough of a comeback to win. What you have to remember is that UK's best running back, Derrick Locke, spent the entire game on the sidelines with an injury. So the fact that South Carolina had Lattimore for a half gave them the advantage.
The Gamecocks came into Commonwealth Stadium averaging 374 yards of offense per game. They came within 5 yards of equalling that total in the first half against Kentucky, partly because the Cats defensive scheme on more than one occasion was to have big defensive lineman trying to cover pass receivers downfield.
South Carolina meanwhile keyed their defense to stop Randall Cobb, and they did apply some vicious hits to contain him early in the game. They even threw him for losses on successive plays in the opening quarter, but they couldn't stop him when it counted most.
Cobb isn't the biggest player in college football today, but I'm convinced he is the most determined. When a game is on the line, he is the one player I would most like to see with the ball in his hands. Going for it on 4th and 1 late in the game, UK surprised no one by snapping it directly to Cobb in the Wildcat formation, and he still got more than enough for the crucial first down.
He also caught the touchdown pass that put UK ahead for the first time all night at 29 - 28. Somehow though Randall had still saved his best for last, and it was his 2 point conversion run that ultimately saved the game for the Cats. If he had been stopped short of the end zone, South Carolina would never have tried that pass that was intercepted on the final play of the game. After marching down inside UK's 20 yard line, they would simply have kicked a game winning field goal. But with the Cats' lead at 3 points, Steve Spurrier's arrogance would not allow him to go for a game tying field goal to force overtime. That decision allowed Kentucky to beat the ole ball coach for the first time ever.
Kentucky had plenty of heroes: Cobb, Matthews, Danny Trevathan, Taylor Windham and of course Mike Hartline. Add it all up, and the Cats now look like a good bet to got to a bowl game for a 5th straight year because now they know they're capable of coming from behind to beat even a Top Ten team.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Moral Victory?
Who says there's no such thing as a moral victory. UK fans just witnessed one. At halftime of this CamFest at Commonwealth, it appeared The Cats were so overmatched by Auburn that they would surely lose by at least 3 touchdowns. Instead they clearly outplayed the unbeaten visitors in the second half and lost by 3 points.
Now the bad news. It looked like this was Kentucky's game plan in the first half: Try to shut down Auburn's running backs and make Cam Newton beat us. Well, duh. The Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback is tough enough to stop when you're concentrating only on him, and UK defenders seemed to be avoiding him like the plague in the game's first 30 minutes.
When Ronnie Snead did get in position to tackle the enormous QB on one play, Newton stiff armed him out of the way like a charging elephant might dispose of a pesky chihuahua. Newton's four first half touchdowns came with remarkable ease. He never seemed to be running full speed, but the Cats still couldn't catch him.
With Auburn on top 14 to 7 early, it did appear that UK was about to run Newton out of bounds for no gain when he suddenly lauched an off balance passed that sailed perfectly into the hands of Tony Burns at the Cat's 9 yard line.
Super Man Cam then ran through a ridiculously large hole for yet another Auburn score. Not long thereafter, he made a 35 yard trot to the UK 5 yard line, and seconds later there was nobody within 5 yards of Newton when he waltzed into the end zone for his 4th TD of the night. Everybody in Commonwealth stadium had to be pondering the same question I was a that point. How can a quarterback that big be that hard to find? His team scored every time they got the football in the first half.
Mike Hartline meanwhile was completing everything he threw at that juncture. However, after successive completions to Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb, Locke fumbled on a running play, giving UK its 6th turnover in the last 2 and a half games. It's really hard to win when you present that many gifts to the opposition.
With the World Equestrian Games going on nearby, Kentucky kept looking a gift horse in the mouth. Twice the Cats missed golden opportunities to recover Auburn fumbles. If the officials had ruled that Randall Burden had maintained possession as he rolled out of bounds with the last of those fumbles, I'm absolutely convinced Kentucky would have converted the turnover into a game winning touchdown of their own.
Sadly though, the Cats continue to waste great performances from their terrific trio of Cobb, Locke and Hartline. Yes, I just used the word terrific in the same sentence with the name Hartline, and you better believe he earned it. It's time for all of us to give the guy his due. He beat out two very talented young guns for the job as UK"s QB, and now it's pretty clear how he did it.
Locke and Cobb meanwhile are far and away the best kick-return duo in the country, and Cobb now has my vote as the best all purpose player in America.
Offensive co-ordinator Randy Sanders seems to have figured out that Kentucky is far more effective when Cobb gets more touches out the Wildcat formation. The play on which Cobb started running left out of that formation and then threw back across the field to Jordan Aumiller in the end zone was the kind of creative call by Coach Sanders that UK needs more of.
They'll need imagination and execution to beat South Carolina this week.
All the Big Blue Kool-Ade drinkers who predicted 9 or 10 wins for the Cats this season overlooked the fact that Auburn and South Carolina are both much better football teams than they were last year. Both managed to recruit impact players who have made a huge difference.
Randall Cobb though can be the biggest difference maker next Saturday, and I have a hunch that the little man with the big heart is not going to let his team lose another heartbreaker.
Now the bad news. It looked like this was Kentucky's game plan in the first half: Try to shut down Auburn's running backs and make Cam Newton beat us. Well, duh. The Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback is tough enough to stop when you're concentrating only on him, and UK defenders seemed to be avoiding him like the plague in the game's first 30 minutes.
When Ronnie Snead did get in position to tackle the enormous QB on one play, Newton stiff armed him out of the way like a charging elephant might dispose of a pesky chihuahua. Newton's four first half touchdowns came with remarkable ease. He never seemed to be running full speed, but the Cats still couldn't catch him.
With Auburn on top 14 to 7 early, it did appear that UK was about to run Newton out of bounds for no gain when he suddenly lauched an off balance passed that sailed perfectly into the hands of Tony Burns at the Cat's 9 yard line.
Super Man Cam then ran through a ridiculously large hole for yet another Auburn score. Not long thereafter, he made a 35 yard trot to the UK 5 yard line, and seconds later there was nobody within 5 yards of Newton when he waltzed into the end zone for his 4th TD of the night. Everybody in Commonwealth stadium had to be pondering the same question I was a that point. How can a quarterback that big be that hard to find? His team scored every time they got the football in the first half.
Mike Hartline meanwhile was completing everything he threw at that juncture. However, after successive completions to Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb, Locke fumbled on a running play, giving UK its 6th turnover in the last 2 and a half games. It's really hard to win when you present that many gifts to the opposition.
With the World Equestrian Games going on nearby, Kentucky kept looking a gift horse in the mouth. Twice the Cats missed golden opportunities to recover Auburn fumbles. If the officials had ruled that Randall Burden had maintained possession as he rolled out of bounds with the last of those fumbles, I'm absolutely convinced Kentucky would have converted the turnover into a game winning touchdown of their own.
Sadly though, the Cats continue to waste great performances from their terrific trio of Cobb, Locke and Hartline. Yes, I just used the word terrific in the same sentence with the name Hartline, and you better believe he earned it. It's time for all of us to give the guy his due. He beat out two very talented young guns for the job as UK"s QB, and now it's pretty clear how he did it.
Locke and Cobb meanwhile are far and away the best kick-return duo in the country, and Cobb now has my vote as the best all purpose player in America.
Offensive co-ordinator Randy Sanders seems to have figured out that Kentucky is far more effective when Cobb gets more touches out the Wildcat formation. The play on which Cobb started running left out of that formation and then threw back across the field to Jordan Aumiller in the end zone was the kind of creative call by Coach Sanders that UK needs more of.
They'll need imagination and execution to beat South Carolina this week.
All the Big Blue Kool-Ade drinkers who predicted 9 or 10 wins for the Cats this season overlooked the fact that Auburn and South Carolina are both much better football teams than they were last year. Both managed to recruit impact players who have made a huge difference.
Randall Cobb though can be the biggest difference maker next Saturday, and I have a hunch that the little man with the big heart is not going to let his team lose another heartbreaker.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Let's Get Physical
My body is racked with pain after just watching that slugfest in Oxford. Ole Miss tacklers repeatedly made the kind of hard hits that my high school school coach used to call "slobber knockers."
Joker Phillips obviously told his Kentucky team at halftime, "Let's get physical. Let's put some licks on them that they'll remember all week." And UK's defenders did respond with some hard hits, but unfortunately too many of them came after the whistle blew.
On the first Ole Miss possession of the second half, the Cats handed them 35 yards as a result of penalties, Two of those were for late hits after the whistle. After falling 22 points behind in that second half, you have to admire the way UK hung in there and made a game of it, but after losing what everybody agreed was a "must win" game, these Cats could be in big trouble.
We're going to hear more than once in the coming week how hard it is to win on the road in the SEC. but remember this was an Ole Miss team that had already lost home games this season to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt.
After Derrick Locke accounted for all 60 yards of UK's first touchdown drive, it looked like Kentucky would hang another embarrassing "L" on Houston Nutt's squad. But even with Locke's track star status, it became obvious as the game progressed that Ole Miss had an edge in overall team speed as well as toughness.
The losers did gain more yards than the winners in this game, but that was due in large part to the fact that Ole Miss didn't have to put long scoring drives together thanks to UK turnovers and the fact that two kick-offs by freshman Joe Manseur sailed out of bounds allowing the Rebels to start drives at the 40 yard line.
Offensively, Mike Hartline missed a couple of short passes early when his timing seemed to be slightly off, but he still wound up throwing for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns. What's frustrating is that with a dynamic duo like Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb, this UK offense should not go 3 and out as often as they did at Oxford, and they sure as heck shouldn't come up empty on 10 of 16 third down situations.
Cobb was simply magnificent catching passes and returning kicks, and when he made a rare miscue with his fumble deep in Kentucky territory, he came right back to make one great play after another enabling the Cats to get the lead back. How he hung on to the TD pass on which he was hit hard enough by two defenders simultaneoulsy to knock his helmet off I'll never know. When you lose your lid and still hang on to the ball, you've got some kind of concentration and a whole lot of courage.
Meanwhile Hartline has gone from being a "game manager" last year to a riverboat gambler this season. He's got a lot of confidence now that he can complete even the toughest throws, and sometimes that's going to result in an interception. Just ask Brett Favre.
Hartline's counterpart at quarterback, Jeremiah Masoli, figured to cause the Cats lots of problems, and he did. The really disturbing part is how easily his receivers seemed to get open. When his tight end caught a touchdown pass on the first play of the 4th quarter to put the Rebels up 42 to 20, the guy could have ordered a hot dog in the time it took for any UK defender to even get near him. You may recall that play came after Jesse Grandy of Ole Miss sprinted 73 yards with a punt return to the UK 2 yard line. That's when the thought crossed my mind that the Rebels have a lot more speedsters than UK does.
The fact that Kentucky still had a chance to win or tie this game in the closing minute is a tribute to the attitude that Joker has instilled in his team.
When another super catch by Cobb for a two point conversion still left UK down by 2 touchdowns late in the game, you could tell by their body language that most of the Cats felt they could still find a way to win.
They almost did when Harline hooked up with the tall and every improving Chris Matthews on another scoring pass, and the Cats followed it up with an absolutely perfect on-side kick. UK did everything right on that kick except come up with the football in the midst of a traffic jam.
Apart from the standout play of Locke and Cobb, there were some other positives in this loss including the 2 long field goals by Craig McIntosh and the 73 yard punt by Ryan Tydlacka. Danny Trevathan could be one of the SEC's best linebackers, and Mark Crawford is becoming a force in the middle of the defensive line, but I'm still haunted by the image of the pile moving almost every time an Ole Miss runner was met near the line of scrimmage, and that pile always seemed to be moving toward the UK goal line.
Joker Phillips obviously told his Kentucky team at halftime, "Let's get physical. Let's put some licks on them that they'll remember all week." And UK's defenders did respond with some hard hits, but unfortunately too many of them came after the whistle blew.
On the first Ole Miss possession of the second half, the Cats handed them 35 yards as a result of penalties, Two of those were for late hits after the whistle. After falling 22 points behind in that second half, you have to admire the way UK hung in there and made a game of it, but after losing what everybody agreed was a "must win" game, these Cats could be in big trouble.
We're going to hear more than once in the coming week how hard it is to win on the road in the SEC. but remember this was an Ole Miss team that had already lost home games this season to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt.
After Derrick Locke accounted for all 60 yards of UK's first touchdown drive, it looked like Kentucky would hang another embarrassing "L" on Houston Nutt's squad. But even with Locke's track star status, it became obvious as the game progressed that Ole Miss had an edge in overall team speed as well as toughness.
The losers did gain more yards than the winners in this game, but that was due in large part to the fact that Ole Miss didn't have to put long scoring drives together thanks to UK turnovers and the fact that two kick-offs by freshman Joe Manseur sailed out of bounds allowing the Rebels to start drives at the 40 yard line.
Offensively, Mike Hartline missed a couple of short passes early when his timing seemed to be slightly off, but he still wound up throwing for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns. What's frustrating is that with a dynamic duo like Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb, this UK offense should not go 3 and out as often as they did at Oxford, and they sure as heck shouldn't come up empty on 10 of 16 third down situations.
Cobb was simply magnificent catching passes and returning kicks, and when he made a rare miscue with his fumble deep in Kentucky territory, he came right back to make one great play after another enabling the Cats to get the lead back. How he hung on to the TD pass on which he was hit hard enough by two defenders simultaneoulsy to knock his helmet off I'll never know. When you lose your lid and still hang on to the ball, you've got some kind of concentration and a whole lot of courage.
Meanwhile Hartline has gone from being a "game manager" last year to a riverboat gambler this season. He's got a lot of confidence now that he can complete even the toughest throws, and sometimes that's going to result in an interception. Just ask Brett Favre.
Hartline's counterpart at quarterback, Jeremiah Masoli, figured to cause the Cats lots of problems, and he did. The really disturbing part is how easily his receivers seemed to get open. When his tight end caught a touchdown pass on the first play of the 4th quarter to put the Rebels up 42 to 20, the guy could have ordered a hot dog in the time it took for any UK defender to even get near him. You may recall that play came after Jesse Grandy of Ole Miss sprinted 73 yards with a punt return to the UK 2 yard line. That's when the thought crossed my mind that the Rebels have a lot more speedsters than UK does.
The fact that Kentucky still had a chance to win or tie this game in the closing minute is a tribute to the attitude that Joker has instilled in his team.
When another super catch by Cobb for a two point conversion still left UK down by 2 touchdowns late in the game, you could tell by their body language that most of the Cats felt they could still find a way to win.
They almost did when Harline hooked up with the tall and every improving Chris Matthews on another scoring pass, and the Cats followed it up with an absolutely perfect on-side kick. UK did everything right on that kick except come up with the football in the midst of a traffic jam.
Apart from the standout play of Locke and Cobb, there were some other positives in this loss including the 2 long field goals by Craig McIntosh and the 73 yard punt by Ryan Tydlacka. Danny Trevathan could be one of the SEC's best linebackers, and Mark Crawford is becoming a force in the middle of the defensive line, but I'm still haunted by the image of the pile moving almost every time an Ole Miss runner was met near the line of scrimmage, and that pile always seemed to be moving toward the UK goal line.
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