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.

Battle(s) of the Bluegrass!

At my time as an undergrad at Eastern Kentucky University, the Eastern/Western game was known as the "Battle of the Bluegrass". It was nearly always a competitive game and a great small college rivalry. However, there was really nothing "small" about this game. It didn't feel anything like a 1-AA football game. The atmosphere was great, students were into the games, and it was always the best tailgate of the year. I experienced the game twice at EKU and once in Bowling Green as a freshman, when I was the Colonel mascot!

As an EKU Alum, it saddens me that this game still doesn't exist and I think WKU fans should feel the same. From Western's perspective, they were making the move up to 1-A football and they thought they were better than EKU despite all the close games and the fact that Eastern beat them in one of the final meetings between the schools in Richmond. Perhaps, the real reason was that they felt they had more to lose from this game than to gain. Just maybe, they were scared as an FBS school to loose to an FCS school? After an 0-12 season a year ago, maybe the Hilltoppers regret dropping Eastern. Maybe they don't feel so superior anymore.


EKU VS. WKU, my sophomore year.

But in a way, the Eastern/Western rivalry lives on tomorrow. The Colonels travel to Louisville to face the Cards and the Hilltoppers come to Lexington to face the Cats. Instead of one "Battle of the Bluegrass", there's now two. Western is still searching for their first FBS victory and it's not going to happen tomorrow against UK. Eastern nearly shocked Indiana a year ago playing on the road in a Big 10 stadium and another OVC team has already made some noise this year when Jacksonville State knocked off Ole Miss. Ole Miss is much better than Louisville, and the Indiana team that the Colonels nearly knocked off a year ago may be better than Louisville as well, so I see no reason why EKU couldn't legitimately pull off the upset tomorrow.

On the other hand, Western is very unlikely to play competitively with the Cats. The Battle(s) of the Bluegrass tomorrow could serve as "bragging rights" between the Colonels and Hilltoppers. I like Eastern's chances to give a much better showing than the 'Tops. It's too bad they just can't play each other on the field. They think they're better than Eastern, but tomorrow might just show otherwise. Eastern could very well beat an FBS team before Western does, and the Hilltoppers get 12 chances a year to do it.

GO CATS, and GO COLONELS!

Ok, I'm going to admit now that I just saw that EKU lost 31-9 to Missouri State last week. Sleep well Cards fans, but not too well.

National Signing Day Recap

With the Cats playing against an LSU team tomorrow that is winless in the SEC, I think it's fair to say that the Cats should handle LSU tomorrow rather easily granted that Tasmin Mitchell doesn't go "Devan Downey" on us.

With that being said, it's time to talk some football. All off-season long, Mike Brown has kept us updated on Wildcat Wrap of the coaching carousal in college football. The biggest names taking over programs include Brian Kelly at Notre Dame, Lane Kiffin at USC, and Jimbo Fisher taking over for Bobby Bowden at Florida State. All of these coaches did very well on signing day, living up to their hype and huge contracts. The state of Kentucky has three new head coaches of their own in all three major college football programs and all are African American. Charlie Strong game to Louisville with the most hype, but could he deliver? Could Willie Taggard give the Hilltoppers any chance at all to finally win a game or two in D-1A (FBS) football? And could Joker Phillips continue the move upward for Kentucky football on National Signing Day?

Joker's first recruiting class as Head Coach of Kentucky was highlighted by a few surprising last second commitments. A few weeks ago, it wasn't looking very promising for the new coach- but he promised surprises, and he delivered. One of the biggest surprises was stealing Miami, FL Running Back, Brandon Gainer, away from Florida State and the Seminoles' new Head Coach, Jimbo Fisher. Gainer was also recruited unsuccessfully by new Louisville head coach, Charlie Strong. The Cats added another solid RB in Miles Simpson from Simon Kenton H.S. in Northern Kentucky. Simpson was also being recruited by Louisville and turned down a total of 11 schools including Cincinnati, Michigan, Nebraska, and Purdue.

The additions of both Gainer and Simpson at RB gives Kentucky's incoming backfield a ranking of 15th in the nation by Rivals.com. Both are SEC-caliber Running Backs that will more than adequately replace Derrick Locke as he graduates after the 2010 season. Look for one of these guys to also step up to be a 3rd down, short yardage option in their freshman seasons for the Cats. The Cats incoming linebackers are also ranked 3rd in the SEC only, behind only Auburn and Florida, and could see a lot of playing time as freshman. Other holes on defense should be filled by Junior College recruits such as DB Mychael Bailey from the Cats' recruiting pipeline from LaGrange, GA and South Carolina DL, Donte Rumph.

The highest ranked individual player for the Cats is TE Alex Smith from Cincinnati's Lakota West H.S. Smith is the 11th ranked TE in the country and will give the Cats an instant threat at the position that has been absent since the graduation of Jacob Tamme in 2007. He picked the Cats over the hometown Bearcats, Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. With two strong commitments from Greater Cincinnati, maybe last season's opener at Paul Brown Stadium paid off in Recruiting in the area the way that the Cats hoped that it would.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was taking away the #1 recruit in the state that appeared to be a "lock" for new Louisville coach, Charlie Strong. Louisville Central LB Tim Patterson was a self-proclaimed "life-long Louisville Cardinals fan" and the Cards were so confident that he would sign with them that it was reported in Louisville as a done deal less than 24 hours before Signing Day. Although Strong's first recruiting class at Louisville is better than it has been the last few years under Steve Kragthorpe, the hype over Strong's hiring didn't deliver the results that Card fans were hoping for in his first recruiting class as he was clearly out done by new Wildcats' coach, Joker Phillips. The basketball and football supremacy in the state is secure and unthreatened for the Big Blue Nation, at least in the near future..



This seems to be an example that supports the idea of naming a "Head Coach In-Waiting" as opposed to hiring out of the program and starting from scratch in recruiting. This class isn't by any means one of the best in the nation, nor in the conference, but Kentucky is taking more and more "baby steps" each year on the football field and also on the recruiting tails. The class as a whole is ranked around 10th out of 12 teams in the conference, which isn't bad considering that the Cats return A LOT of young talent from last year's team as it is- and 10th in the SEC is honestly sometimes good enough to be Top 15 or 20 in the entire country. Even with a new head coach, Kentucky continues to close the gap on the majority of the conference as this year's class looks to be about even with Bobby Petrino's class at Arkansas.

If the 2010 Cats can turn a few more notorious annual close losses into victories (Tennessee and South Carolina) and continue to make progress on the field in Phillips' first year as head coach, then recruiting will continue to improve. This staff has proven that they can compete with Top 40 recruiting classes that rank high in speed, length and athleticism (which is what this class is made of). If the Cats can close out on the close games this year and they bring the program to the next level that it is capable of this season, Top 20 recruiting classes will come to Lexington under Joker Phillips. If this staff is competitive with Top 40 classes, they can win (and win big) with Top 20 (middle of the pack SEC) Recruiting Classes. The Cats are slowly, but steadily, rising.

And in case you were wondering, WKU new head coach, Willie Taggart, has recruited the #1 ranked recruiting class in the Sun Belt Conference, a very impressive feat for a first year coach taking over a team that was winless in their first two seasons of D-1A (FBS) football. The Cats have a 4 year series scheduled with the Hilltoppers, playing two games in Nashville and two in Lexington.