A look into the Weekend of Football...

Well, UK plays Akron. That should be exciting...

Akron only scored 3 points against Syracuse and lost to the infamous Gardner Webb in week 1. It should be a goal of the defense to get a shut out this week as they prepare for Florida the following week. After Ryan Tydlacka has missed 2 field goals and 1 extra point in 2 games for the Cats, Craig McIntosh will replace him this week. The supposed freshman phenom kicker, Joe Mansour, is not getting it done in practice and McIntosh will be given the kicking duties this week.

The Zips will give Randall Cobb the chance to boost up his Heisman numbers and score touchdowns in every way possible. Although Cobb is not getting the Heisman consideration he should at this point, Tom Leach describes how it could happen on his blog. When asked about the Heisman, Cobb said that he is only worried about winning an SEC Championship. If UK does that, than surely Cobb will be right there with everyone else in the Heisman talks.

The games of importance to look at in the SEC this week are No. 10 Florida vs. Tennessee and No. 14 Arkansas vs. Georgia.

The Volunteers are good enough to give Florida a battle, especially if the same sloppy Florida team shows up that has showed up the past 2 weeks against Miami of Ohio and South Florida. The Cats have to hope that it's as physical as can be this week between the Gators and Vols. Kentucky's starters hope to be rested on the sidelines in the 2nd half vs. Akron as Urban Meyer's Gators find themselves in what could be a physical matchup with Tennessee, just a week before they host the Cats in Gainesville.

In the Arkansas/Georgia matchup, the Bulldogs could very well fall to 0-2 in the SEC and maybe remove themselves from seriously contending in the SEC East, leaving Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky as perhaps the three teams with the best chance of heading to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

Cats fans should root for Tennessee and Arkansas, and things could look very bright for UK going into conference play. Be sure to check out Brown's picks for ALL of the big predictions in college football this week.

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.