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!

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.