Cobb, Hartline continue to shine. Cats roll again

Many fans were hoping this offseason that one of UK's younger talented quarterbacks could beat out Senior Mike Hartline for the starting job. Hartline had to start the season off exceptionally well to quiet the doubters, and he's done just that. Against the Hilltoppers on Saturday, Hartline passed 213 yards and three touchdowns on 16-of-20 passing. In both of his games combined, Hartline is 33-of-46 on the season for 430 yards with three scores, a rushing touchdown and no interceptions. Hartline came into the season with mixed reviews, but there's no question that everyone had extremely high expectations for Junior WR/QB/PR Randall Cobb.



The Legend of Cobb continued last night when he threw a touchdown pass, caught a touchdown pass, and returned a punt for a touchdown all in one game for a combined 192 all-purpose yards. Against Louisville, Cobb had a rushing touchdown. In 2 games, he has 4 touchdowns (1 passing, 1 rushing, 1 receiving, and 1 special teams) on only 24 touches. He's scoring a touchdown every 6 times he touches the ball. To this point, if you think another player in the country should win the Heisman trophy, you're ignorant. He hasn't played against the best competition yet, but neither have most players at this point. As a Junior, Cobb is only 6 touchdowns away from tying Craig Yeast's all-time TD record at Kentucky.

For Cobb to get serious Heisman consideration, he'll have to have a lot of other guys making plays all around him to keep the defense honest. He'll also have to play on a team that wins 10+ games and competes for an SEC Eastern Division Title. So far in the young season, all of these things seem very possible of happening. In 2 games, Hartline has thrown for over 200 yards in both outings with 0 interceptions. Kentucky has also ran for over 200 yards in each game. Against Western, UK had 8 players catch a total of 19 passes and another 8 players rush for positive yardage, led by Derrick Locke's 105 yards on the ground.

Kentucky had a big lead for the 2nd week in a row going into halftime. The Cats scored 42 points in the first half. Reserves came into the game midway through the 3rd quarter and performed well on route to a 63 point offensive performance. Sophomore Morgan Newton was 2 for 2 passing for 48 yards and Redshirt Freshman QB Ryan Mossakowski made his college debut. Freshmen Raymond Sanders and Donald Russel also impressed on the ground in the 2nd half. There's no question that the Cats are stacked at nearly every position on offense and they have depth that has never been seen here at UK on the offensive side of the ball. Kentucky's 2007 team had plenty of offensive weapons, but they didn't have 2nd and 3rd string backups that were capable of filling in after an injury like this team does.

One of the few question marks for the Cats continues to be the kicking game. Kicker Ryan Tydlacka has missed a field goal in both games this season. The defense is also still a work in progress and must improve before the Cats face the Gators in Gainesville in 2 weeks. Kentucky has a very young and inexperienced defense that simply has given up too much in the first two games of the season. WKU running back Bobby Rainey ran for 187 yards against the Cats. Granted, Rainey also ran for 150 yards against Nebraska, but if there's areas the Cats need to improve: it's kicking and defense.

Despite these issues, the Cats have looked awfully good overall in the first two games of the Joker Phillips era. He has become the first UK head coach to start his career 2-0 since Bear Bryant. Other SEC East foes seem to have plenty to work on themselves and the East is up for anyone to grab. Florida trailed South Florida at halftime, Georgia only mustered 6 points against South Carolina, Vanderbilt lost to LSU, and Tennessee was blown out by Oregon last night. South Carolina and Kentucky might just be the two teams to beat at this point, but I'd never bet against Urban Meyer's Gators to get things going eventually. Kentucky will have one more tune-up this coming Saturday against Akron before the Cats' SEC slate begins at the Swamp.

Hartline Named Starting QB

"We feel like we have three quarterbacks we can win with in this league, we really do," Phillips said. "We told them that. That's a good problem to have but right now we feel like Mike Hartline gives us the best chance to win. He's been more efficient. He's playing faster than the other two and at this point he gives us the best chance to win. He was slightly ahead at all times, no question about that but not far ahead enough that we felt like we had to make a decision. It was very difficult, it really was. He gives us the best chance at this point in time, he might not in a couple of weeks, but he does now." - Joker Phillips

So, there you have it. Hartline is once again the starting Quarterback in his Senior campaign. Although Coach Phillips indicated that there will NOT be a rotation of Quarterbacks like we sometimes saw last season, he left open the possibility of another Quarterback taking over the position in "a couple of weeks". I tend to agree that Hartline gives us the best opportunity to win "right now". He's 2-0 against Louisville in his career including a win on the road, while the other two quarterbacks have not played against Louisville.

Hartline has proved that he is able to consistently beat all the teams that he is supposed to beat, and UK should beat the first three teams on their schedule. Kentucky fans also must not forget that Hartline threw for 139 yards and a touchdown in just one half against South Carolina before his season ending injury last year. He had the Cats going into the locker room with a lead and the Cats couldn't get it into the endzone without him in the second half, eventually falling 28-26 to the Gamecocks.

Once the Cats get into SEC play, on the other hand, I'm not sure Hartline gives us the best opportunity to win big in the SEC. He will get us to a fifth straight bowl game, but Joker obviously has higher goals and aspirations moving forward for this program. Morgan Newton won 2 SEC road games last season at Auburn and at Georgia. I'd expect Newton to get some quality second half PT against Western Kentucky and Akron. That will be his opportunity to prove that he could be the man going into SEC play, if things aren't clicking with Hartline. Talented Redshirt Sophomore Ryan Mossakowski appears to still be third on the depth chart.

QB Race: too close to call after Spring Game

Senior QB Mike Hartline started out shaky with an interception in his opening drive, but settled down and finished throwing for 124 yards and a touchdown in today's Blue/White Scrimmage. In an offense vs. defense scrimmage, the Cats' offensive unit rotated all three competing quarterbacks in each drive. Hartline started the game in the first drive, then Redshirt Freshman Ryan Mossakowski followed him and immediately impressed with his arm and his legs, and then Sophomore Morgan Newton came in for the third offensive drive. The Cats kept this 3 man rotation throughout the entire scrimmage, and all three quarterbacks impressed.

Newton started off quiet, but showed flashes of brilliance towards the end as he completed the longest pass of the day (41 yards) to Senior Wide Receiver, Chris Matthews, and also eluded two rushing defensive lineman in the same drive before completing a 19 yard strike to another Senior WR, Gene McCaskill. The UK Defensive Line pressured the Quarterbacks all day long, but all three of them did a good job moving around under pressure and finding open receivers. Newton and Mossakowski each also made big gains on the ground, but the running game today belonged to Sophomore TB Donald Russell, from West Palm Beach, FL.

After today's performance (9 carries for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a 65 yard run), Russell looks to be the Cats' secondary tailback behind Senior, Derrick Locke, whom did not see much action today. Another star from last season who didn't get his name called much was Randall Cobb. Cobb played receiver and was thrown to a couple of times and made a couple of catches, but was not used in the Wildcat formation. Coach Phillips insisted that Cobb will be used often in the Wildcat next fall, but that there were other areas of the offense that needed more work today in the scrimmage and the three primary Quarterbacks needed more repetitions. As a Senior, Hartline appeared to be a very slight favorite for the Quarterback race at the beginning of Spring Practice, however, both Newton and Mossakowski closed ground on him this spring and the race is currently too close to call. Phillips sees this as a positive and believes that we can win with all three of them and that a stater would not be named until fall camp.

(Pictured above is UK President Lee Todd and Denver Broncos' LB and UK great, Wesley Woodyard checking out the UK Spring Game)

A reflection on the possible ending of the Rich Brooks era

The Cats came up short Sunday night as they were defeated by the Clemson Tigers and All-American Running Back, CJ Spiller, 21-13 at a frigid LP Field in Nashville. The three straight bowl win-streak has come to an end, as well as the nation's longest non-conference winning streak. The game started out great for the Cats as they seemed to control most of the first half in time of possession, 1st downs, and yardage. They were also doing a very good job of slowing down Spiller. However, the Cats' offense could only come up with 10 points in the first half, despite moving the ball into Clemson territory in six of their first seven possessions.

In a disappointing loss which could have been the last game of the Rich Brooks era, it should be noted that Clemson should have been placed in a bigger bowl and was a heavy favorite by most experts. If Bobby Bowden didn't get his wish to play in the Gator Bowl for his last game, UK would have played a weaker FSU team instead of Spiller and the Tigers, and probably would have won their fourth straight bowl game. It wasn't fair for Clemson to have hopes of going to an Orange Bowl and lose a competitive game with Georgia Tech to fall all the way down to the Music City Bowl. It also wasn't fair that Coach Brooks didn't get the same special treatment as Bowden with an Outback or Peach Bowl in what could have been his last game. After the game, Coach Brooks said there's about an 80% chance that he will not return but will take some time (as early as 4 or 5 days, but no longer than a week) to reflect with his family before making a decision.

This was a game the Cats could have won and the opportunities to win were certainly there, but I think it's safe to say that the better team won and there is not much shame in losing to a team with possibly the best running back in the country that just missed an Orange Bowl appearance. With the news that Rich Brooks was likely leaving we also heard the news that Derrick Locke is likely returning along with the rest of the Cats' offensive weapons. The team has also found a sense of direction with the Quarterback situation, which is a very positive result of this season. There seems to be no more Quarterback controversy, and Morgan Newton has established himself as the guy while getting some very valuable experience. A seven win season with the invaluable experience that Newton has had this year as a true freshman quarterback, in my mind, is more satisfying than an eight win bowl victory with Hartline still playing under center. Hartline is not our future, and it's good to see that the Cats made a step forward with some progress towards the immediate future this season with Newton at Quarterback.

Hopefully, the young Cats will take this loss and use it as motivation for next season. Maybe, instead of celebrating another 8 win season and mid-level bowl victory, it's best that the Cats think about this loss as they go through off season workouts. Maybe, with this loss in their minds, and the returning talent that we have coming back, this loss will motivate us to reach above and beyond a seven or eight win season next year. Hopefully, our eyes will be on a prize much bigger next season. With the uncertainly of the Florida program, the SEC East is very much up for grabs for anyone to take. I hope that Coach Brooks will be around for what could be a very special season, but I also understand that the timing might be right for Joker to take over. I'm confident that Coach Brooks will unselfishly make the right decision for Kentucky Football, and not for himself, because that is the type of man that he is. We will keep you updated this week on the status of Coach Brooks and whether or not Joker Phillips will be taking over the program in 2010.

The Cats face Hartford on the hardwood tomorrow night in Rupp, and I heard there's a pretty big game coming up on Saturday too. Look no further than WildcatWrap.com for coverage of the football coaching situation and this kinda big basketball game on Saturday.

P.S. Either myself or IT Director, Christian Cox (or maybe both of us), will be providing a write up in the coming days of our experience in Nashville along with pictures from the trip.

Congratulations Coach Brooks: SEC Coach of the Year!

Despite having the least amount of returning starters from 2008 in the entire conference, an unexpected loss of All-SEC Defensive End Jeremy Jarmon, only three healthy games from All-American CB Trevard Lindlay, both starting cornerbacks injured and unable to play against South Carolina, and then Mike Hartline getting knocked out of that same game in Columbia after a stellar first half against the Gamecocks, the Cats' season looked to be spiraling out of control loss after loss and injury after injury. And I haven't even mentioned the injuries of Randall Cobb, Derrick Locke, and Micah Johnson which sidelined each player for at least one game.

True Freshman third string Quarterback, Morgan Newton, was literally thrown out to the wolves when he made his first career start and first ever college appearance on the road at Auburn. Somehow, someway....the Cats left with a win, and continued to finish 5-2 with a true Freshman third string Quarterback. Michigan was 5-7 with a true freshman quarterback, Southern Cal was 8-4, and Kentucky played a tougher schedule than each of those teams and faced more injuries, but managed to be 5-2 with road wins over Auburn and Georgia, despite starting a third sting Freshman Quarterback and numerous other injuries throughout the season.

The above reasons make Rich Brooks the obvious choice for every SEC coach of the year award. Today, he was awarded the honor by Collegefootballnews.com, who also placed Derrick Locke on the 1st Team All-SEC team as a return man. Look for Coach Brooks to be in the running for his second career National Coach of the Year Award next season, if he is successfully able to replace his offensive line and his playmakers stay healthy. Those two things could mean ten or more wins for the Cats next year.

Even though Hartline could be healthy by the time the Cats face Clemson in the Music City Bowl on December 27th, Coach Brooks as well as Joker Phillips have indicated that Newton will most likely be the guy and stay the starting quarterback going into next season. Newton should emerge as a star playing with Sophomore sensation, Randall Cobb, in the next two seasons.

UK Basketball Notes:

• The UK WOMEN'S hoops' team is also undefeated with a 9-0 record and hosts defending national runner-up Louisville at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday.

• Seth Davis has picked the Cats to be the last team to stay undefeated this year. He says they will stay unbeaten at 19-0 before getting upset in Columbia to South Carolina.
  
• Wildcat legend Jamaal Mashburn will be broadcasting the 2,000th win on ESPN U with Jimmy Dykes


• UK Athletics has announced that they WILL continue to sell eRUPPtion Zone tickets to the general public while the students are away on Christmas Break for only $5. Classy move by UK Athletics- they could make so much more money for those tickets if they wanted to.


• The tickets will be sold an hour and a half before gametime for all games during the break except, of course, the Louisville game. Something tells me there will be another campout for the 2,000 win game against Drexel (I wish work didn't prevent me from having much of a chance to get out there early enough to get tickets).

Last but not least, it's time to start to get into the holiday spirit!

Oh....... the weather outside is frightful, But the Cats are so delightful. And the Louisville fans should know. 10-O, 10-O, 10-O They’re showing no sign of stopping. Two thousand wins we’ll soon be topping. While beating every top-10 foe, 10-O, 10-O, 10-O The Louisville season is... dying, and their fans will...... allll start crying. But the record of the CATS, although, 10-O, 10-O, 10-O!

One down, one to go!

I guess Kentucky had what you would call, "a moral victory" today on the basketball court against a good Rider team that beat Mississippi State about a week ago. For most schools, a moral victory is a game in which you don't win but play well and feel good about it. For Kentucky basketball, a win isn't good enough. A 10 point win isn't good enough either. At Kentucky, a moral victory is a 30 point win against a solid opponent, then...after winning be 30, it's okay to be happy.

The Cats had been playing well in just about every aspect but one: perimeter defense. In the last two games, the Cats gave up 33 three pointers. Today, they gave up 4. By the time Rider made their first three point shot, the Cats already had a 28 point lead in the second half. At one point, Demarcus Cousins even committed a foul on a three point attempt. I think they finally got the message and played with the defensive urgency that was absent the last two games.

Rider Head Coach, Tommy Dempsey's Comments:
"I know they have taken a bad rap for some of the three pointers that have gone against them, but I watched every game and a couple of kids went nuts against them. They hit tough, fall-away, in your-face threes. They gave up open shots, but you can't expect them to not give up open shots in the course of the game, especially when they are pressing, jumping in passing lanes, and trying to create offense with their defense. Of course when you play that way, you're going to give up open shots at times. I watched the film and said to myself, 'If we have to hit shots like that all night to stay in the game, it's going to be a long night.' Those were some spectacular performances, and I don't think it was strictly a product of Kentucky not playing defense. But, I did think they looked better tonight. They were active and their big kids were aggressive guarding the perimeter. They made it hard on us."

It was indeed a long day for Rider. John Wall led the way with 21 points and 11 assists, while Patrick Patterson had an impressive 19 points and 18 rebounds (the Sports Illustrated cover didn't seem to have a curse on him), and Cousins finished with 18 points and 5 blocks.

Game 1 for today went according to plan, now it's about time for Rich Brooks' football Cats to spoil the plans of the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. With a win tonight, and (cross your fingers) an end to the streak against Tennessee next week, the Cats can finish 2nd in the SEC East behind only Florida. Coach Brooks says that he plans to unleash Newton tonight and open up the playbook for the talented true freshman. Randall Cobb is questionable, but I have a feeling he's going to go, even if he's limited, because this game is a chance to move up the SEC ladder. It's a game that is crucial to the advancement of this program. GO CATS!

What a Weekend for the Big Blue...and oh yeah, WHO DEY!

FRIDAY: KENTUCKY 75, MOREHEAD STATE 59

What a weekend it was for Kentucky sports fans. It all started on Friday night when the Calipari era officially began with a solid 16 point win against an NCAA tournament team that returned four starters and an NBA Draft prospect. They did it without John Wall, and once again, Eric Bledsoe played fantastic at the point and even made the #1 play on Sportscenter. Eric Bledsoe is about the best back-up point guard I've seen since Wayne Turner backed up Tony Delk in 1996. I can't wait to see these two guys play together for the first time tomorrow night against Miami University. If Bledsoe sticks around, this kid is going to be very special. He set a new record for the most points for a UK freshman in thier first game ever with 24 points. Kentucky basketball is back in every way imaginable.

Morehead had the talent to pull another Gardner Webb or VMI, but those days are over. This was a game the Cats could have lost in the past two years playing nervous and mentally stressed from the mind games and coaching tactics of their former coach. This year, you can sense that everyone is just having fun and playing loose, and letting their talent simply take over. They know that the pressure and expectations are as high as they possibly could be, but it's just not bothering them in any way. The expectations of having to win every game is not anything new to Calipari's teams. At Memphis, his teams were expected to win every conference game, and they did. They were circled on every team's calendar in Conference USA as the biggest game of the year. Things are obviously no different at Kentucky. And not once, after UofL, Cincinnati, Marquette, Depaul, and South Florida left the league, did Memphis ever get beat by an inferior team in the conference. Not even a solid UAB or Houston team ever walked away with a victory over Memphis during that stretch, even though those same two teams were good enough to beat a Kentucky team filled with 4 and 5 star recruits in 2007.

It was also great to see Patterson stepping up and scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds after struggling in two exhibition games. He must have seen that I picked Jarvis Varnardo over him in my 1st Team All-SEC selections. If true, I actually feel like I had an impact on his play for motivating Patrick to prove me wrong! You know when he recently said that KSR was his most visited website, he was actually probably confused and meant to say that it was Wildcat Wrap.

SATURDAY: KENTUCKY 24, VANDY 13

For the fourth straight year, Kentucky football will be playing in a bowl game. That statement has never been made in the history of this program until Saturday when the Cats reached bowl eligibility for the fourth straight year with a win at Commonwealth Stadium Southwest. There was a sea of blue in Nashville to watch the Cats make history against the Commodores. With a

couple of big but attainable wins over Georgia and Tennessee, the Cats could even be playing in a very large and meaningful bowl game. If they're able to win one of the last two, the Peach Bowl is a likely destination on New Years Eve for the Cats in Atlanta. If they win both, it's possible that they could be packing their bags for Tampa for the Outback Bowl against Penn State or Iowa. To even be in this position is impressive with everything that this team has gone through. They went through a brutal 3 week stretch early on against Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina and came out of the first five games with a 2-3 record.

They had one of the worst quarters you could ever imagine against Florida, but they battled back to make it a respectable final outcome. The next week, there were more than a few questionable calls that went in Alabama's favor that if not made, would have been a totally different game. The week after that, the Cats' led almost the entire game and Mike Hartline was playing his best game of his career. Then, he got hurt and the Cats let one slip away in a devastating 2 point loss to South Carolina. Just as Hartline had finally solidified himself as "the guy", he gets hurt and the Cats are forced to switch to a three quarterback rotation. Amazingly, the three headed quarterback of true freshman Morgan Newton, Will Fidler, and Randall Cobb each had a rushing touchdown and shocked a 5-1 Auburn team on the road. Morgan Newton would eventually emerge as the primary quarterback as a true freshman and has struggled at times like a true freshman in the SEC should struggle (remember when Matthew Stafford lost to UK and Vandy as a true freshman in 2006?).

But, in the end, Newton has won 2 out of 3 SEC games with the help of Randall Cobb doing just about everything except kicking field goals. Cobb and Derrick Locke combined for 144 rushing yards after the duo both sat out last week's game against EKU. Locke even completed a pass for a gain of 41 yards to Morgan Newton who was lined up as a receiver while Cobb was under center. Cobb made a reverse handoff to Locke, and then Locke found Newton wide open down field. On the very next play, Cobb was in the "Wildcobb" formation again and ran it 21 yards into the endzone to give the Cats a 7-0 lead. Plays like these are ones that need to be called more often from Joker Phillips for the next two years with Randall Cobb. If he's utilized to his full potential, he will emerge as college football's best player by his senior year.

Along with the heroics of Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke, Newton has stepped up when his number was called as a freshman quarterback and put UK in a position to possibly play in a very big bowl game. With the announcement that Hartline will have season ending surgery, Newton has the chance to do something that hasn't been done in Lexington in a very long time: beat Tennessee.

"It is a huge step and you can't downplay that in my mind because it's never happened," UK coach Rich Brooks said about reaching a fourth straight bowl game. "But at the same token we're not happy with where we are at this stage. We had a close one get away at South Carolina and we didn't play as well as we're capable against Mississippi State. We'd be looking a lot better right now if we had won one of those. Those were very tough losses but I'm proud of how the team has bounced back. Now we just want to climb the ladder a little higher."

Beating Georgia and Tennessee to cap off the regular season would certainly help the Cats climb up that SEC ladder that Coach Brooks keeps on talking about. In a few years, when Newton is a junior and Randall Cobb is a senior, hopefully the tandem will take this program to the unimaginable next level: the BCS.

"It's significant. We won't be satisfied with a 6-6 finish but we've taken one step from the bottom of the SEC to the middle of the pack and now we've got to build toward the top," senior defensive tackle Corey Peters said.

SUNDAY: BENGALS 18, STEELERS 12

(Photo courtesy of Cincinnati.com)

Last but certainly not least, I absolutely have to give a shout out to WHO DEY NATION! The Bengals completed the sweep today against the defending Super Bowl Champs, and it is in no way delusional now to start talking about the Lombardi trophy coming to Cincinnati. With games coming up against Oakland, Cleveland, and Detroit...the Bengals could be looking at a 10-2 record. Yes, 10-2, (could be 11-1 if not for the immaculate deflection in week 1 against Denver). They could also complete an undefeated season in the AFC North with a win against Cleveland. Then, if they're able to knock off Brett Favre and the Vikings, the Bengals could seriously win out.

Wildcat Wrap x2, featuring John Wall's debut and a nice win in Commonwealth.

In the exhibition opener against Campbellsville, the Cats put together a dazzling first half performance but looked tired and sluggish in the 2nd half. This week, Coach Calipari addressed the conditioning issue with two-a-day practices beginning at 6:15am each day. It apparently worked after the Cats put together two fantastic halves of basketball in a 65 point win over Coach Cal's Alma Mater, Clarion. John Wall made his debut with an unselfish 27 points, 4 rebounds, and 9 assists. Wall could have scored a lot more if he wanted to, but he's a team player and his presence made everyone play better and that is why he's a favorite to win National Player of the Year as a freshman. Demarcus Cousins added 20 points, as he and Wall combined for 47 of the team's 117 total points.

Eric Bledsoe sat out for precautionary reasons after a minor ankle injury that occurred against Campbellsville. With Wall ineligible for the regular season opener against Morehead State, the Cats didn't want to risk anything with Bledsoe. As good as this team looks right now, we still haven't even seen our two best guards playing together and that will be quite a treat to watch in the second regular season game against Miami (Oh). Daniel Orton also left the game early with chest pains, but is listed as day-to-day.

The only other player who did not see action was DeAndre Liggins, who also didn't play against Campbellsville. One of the top point guards in the country from the class of 2008, Liggins started a significant number of games for the Cats last season and led them with 18 points in a loss to Miami (FL), but the guard seems to be in Coach Calipari's doghouse. Liggins, Stevenson, Harrelson, and Harris all started a lot of games last season and are having to earn their minutes this season. Everyone except Liggins have made the most of their opportunities and Stevenson has gotten back into the regular rotation of substitutes. Mark Krebs has also impressed in the limited time that he has seen.

We may not see another 65 point win this season, but with the incredible depth of this team it's safe to say that there will be many 30, 40, and even some 50 point wins against decent competition. Just think about this: four of our so called "mop up" players started games for us last season. Teams better start off well against Kentucky this year or it could be a very long day for them as very experienced former starters will come in later in the game and not make things any easier for them at all.

Not much can be said during exhibition play, but I will say this....this team's best player (John Wall) is better than anyone on the 1996 team, arguably the best college basketball team ever assembled. This team also has much more depth at the bottom of the roster than the 1996 team did. If this team wants to win a National Championship and be compared to the 1996 team, it all depends on how all the role players develop.

Who will become this year's Mark Pope? We know Wall, Cousins, and Patterson are going to be great just like Walker, McCarty and Delk were. We also know we're solid all the way down the roster. Mark Krebs is a lot better than Steve Massielo and a few others on that team. But it will be the guys that average 10-15 minutes a game that will make the difference. Guys like Jon Hood, Darnell Dodson, Josh Harrlelson, Daniel Orton, Darius Miller and Ramon Harris will determine where this team will stand in history. Those guys all have a long ways to go, but if they can contribute in a way like Mark Pope, Jeff Sheppard, and Anthony Epps did, than this team could go in the history books as one of the best. Unfortunately, the one thing that most of those guys lack is experience, which could be the difference of these 2 teams. But as Coach Cal says, "I'll take talent over experience any day of the week". At least when you're talking about this kind of talent, I think he might be right.

We've talked about the Cats' performance against John Calipari's alma mater, now lets talk about the football Cats and their performance over MY alma mater, Eastern Kentucky University.

WILDCAT WRAP

UK VS. EKU

Throughout the first half, it looked like the Colonels were about to put another scare on a Division 1 FBS team for the second time this season. With three minutes left in the 1st half, they only trailed the Cats by a score of 10-6. The Cats didn't come out as mad as I thought they would after losing to Mississippi State. They did march down the field in their first possession but then turned it over on downs when Coach Brooks elected to go for it on 4th and 1 in the EKU redzone. It also should be noted that they were without their two best players on offense, Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke, who usually account for about 90% of the Cats' total offense. The Colonels played with a lot of heart and passion, and at least in the first half, seemed to have wanted this game a lot more than some of the lackadaisical Wildcats.

However, the Wildcats came to play in the second half and wore down on the Colonels as the game went on. True Freshman QB Morgan Newton ended the day with 20 completed passes in 29 attempts for 187 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Newton threw his first career touchdown pass to tight end Maurice Grinter and later found Chris Matthews in the corner of the endzone. It was great to see Newton make some progress just before next week's SEC matchup with Vanderbilt. The future looks brighter than what some people may think, in my opinion. Mike Hartline is expected to possibly return and take over as the starting quarterback against Vandy. A win on Saturday in Nashville would make the Cats bowl eligible for the fourth straight year, with two games remaining with Georgia and Tennessee.

In the end, the game ended up exactly how I thought it would and how I hoped it would. EKU played tough and kept it close for a while in a pretty well played game by both teams. They showed a lot of heart and made me a very proud alum out there today. I honestly think Eastern might just be the 2nd best team in the state. I certainly think they would at least give UofL a very good game. If UK had committed the amount of turnovers that they did against UofL today, it could have been very close just as the UofL game ended up being. I also definately think Eastern looked better than two FBS schools on UK's schedule, Miami (Oh) and Louisiana Monroe. The Cats looked sluggish in the first half, but without their two best players on the field, ended up with a 37-12 victory and now find themselves one game away from bowl eligibility with three games remaining.

Computer Crashed!

I apologize for the lack of posts by myself the last few days, but we are experiencing technical difficulties at wildcatwrap.com with my laptop. Hopefully, IT Director Christian Cox can get on this immediately.

Anyway, here's my belated thoughts on the game Saturday. Make no mistake, it was a very big game and tough loss. If we had been able to come out with a win, we would likely have a 5 game winning streak going into the Georgia and Tennessee games and have a chance to play for a New Years Day Bowl Game. We still have a slim chance at that, but now we have a very little margin of error and will have to win at least one of those last two games. But consider this: Kentucky has an identical overall and conference record as Tennessee and has the same overall record as Georgia. Those last two games ARE very winnable games, and if the Cats won just one of them (or both) along with a 4th straight bowl win....would this season be a failure? My point is that there's still a lot to play for and it appears that Mike Hartline was actually the best choice all along at Quarterback and should be back for those last 2 games.

Don't get me wrong though, Morgan Newton will be a very good Quarterback in a few years and I'm very glad that he has been able to get some quality experience this year. He is a true freshman who looks at least on par with the level that Andre Woodson was playing as a redshirt freshman and sophomore. Woodson didn't blossom until his junior year which was his fourth year in the program, while Newton went to his high school prom 6 months ago.

I do, however, agree with Charlie on the strange play calling late in the game. How does Randall Cobb not touch the ball in any capacity in the 4th quarter while in the redzone twice? If you're going to run two straight quarterback drawls, than why run it with Morgan Newton instead of Randall Cobb? Cobb has the ability to win a Heisman Trophy in a few years if the coaching staff utilizes him to his full potential but they have not done that so far this season. In the Auburn game, the staff actually made ALL of the right moves. Using Fidler (more mature and experienced than Newton) and Cobb late in the game was brilliant and won the game for us. My question is, if it worked late against Auburn, why not do the same against Mississippi State? Or for that matter, why not use Cobb more often throughout the game in the Wildcat?

After the 2 point loss to South Carolina, Steve Spurrier made remarks about how he was glad they waited so long to put Cobb at quarterback. Cobb marched the Cats right down the field midway through the 4th quarter and there's no telling what he could have done under center all day long. Last season, Cobb played quarterback the entire game against a top 10 Georgia team and put over 30 points on the board. Until someone proves that they can stop him, we should utilize him the most we can without putting too bad of a beating on his 180 pound body.

But that is enough criticism for now. Next week the Cats face my alma mater, the Eastern Kentucky University Colonels, and then Vanderbilt. These are two games the Cats should win to improve to 6-4. Like I said earlier, there is still a chance to have a very good season this year and I'll wait until the season concludes to make judgements on the direction of the program. EKU is currently celebrating 100 years of football and we'll have a nice tribute to the EKU program later on in the week.

Tonight, the Cats hit the hardwood and face an opponent for the first time this season as exhibition play opens up without John Wall against Campbellsville at 7:00 in Rupp. Hopefully, I can get on a working computer again tonight and give you the official "Wildcat Wrap" of the very first exhibition game in the Calipari era.

Gameday News and Notes

First of all, Happy Halloween, and wear your black tonight at Commonwealth! The official black-out t-shirts can be found all around town. Wish I had a picture of them but they're nice.

Before we get into football, I just want to share with everyone that I seriously think I have more journalism skills in my left pinky finger than Pat Forde has in his entire body. Once again, Forde tried to make something out of nothing out of the John Wall situation. He will miss one exhibition game (against Campbellsville) and one regular season game (against Morehead) and will pay back the money that his AAU coach gave him (while he had no money and his mother was sick).

It was never a big story but Forde tried to make it one. Like Cal said...about 20 players are going through the same thing right now, including a Duke recruit. The funniest part of the whole story was how he tried to blame it on Calipari when the supposed recruiting visits to UK occured in 2007. Ofcourse, Calipari must have known he was going to be UK's coach in a few years. He must have set this all up while he was at Memphis, right? Too bad I'm not best friends with Rick Pitino so he could get me a job at ESPN. Seriously, how do they continue to let someone so biased with an obvious agenda work at a place like ESPN?

Anyway, I wish I could write more about the football game tonight, but it's about time for me to get ready and head out there. I promise I will give a good game recap and summary on Sunday. But for now, here are a few game notes:

• LB Micah Johnson is probable and CB Trevard Lindlay is doubtful. We need the All-Americans 100% healthy by the time we wrap up the season with Georgia and Tennessee. But I have a feeling we are going to need Micah's efforts tonight and will be out there. He may not start though.

• We also need either Fidler or Newton to step up and be the primary Quarterback along with Randall Cobb in the wildcat. Three QB's is just too many and the offense seemed to be a little bit disoriented in the Louisiana-Monroe game with so many changes. I hope Newton steps up, because he is the future, but either one of them needs to step up and if neither does, Cobb may play more often at Quarterback.

• Cobb enters tonight's game with 2 passing touchdowns, 11 rushing touchdowns, 6 receiving touchdowns, and 1 kickoff return touchdown. He is the most versatile player in the nation, and only a sophomore! The next few years are going to be fun, and if Kentucky utilizes him more often in the wildcat, he could get some serious Heisman consideration as a Senior.

• This might be the biggest game of the year tonight. The UK/Miss State game has developed into a game where both teams NEED to beat each other each year to position themselves for bowl season and usually the game is very close, but the Cats seem to find ways to win in this series. Expect it to come down to the wire. Last season, the Cats won off of a missed extra point. I think it will be something similar this year with the Cats winning by less than 7 off of an MSU miscue and Randall Cobb will make some big plays as well to give the Cats a nailbitter victory. Commonwealth will be rockin tonight.

• Will I be able to tick-or-treat in the parking lot? Anyone bringing candy? I've got to go.