KENTUCKY NOTES - Injuries plus potential lookahead = ???
LEXINGTON - Kentucky coach Rich Brooks has mixed emotions about Saturday's game against the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers here at Commonwealth Stadium.
Asked on Monday if he had any reservations about scheduling an in-state team like Western that has nothing to lose and so much to gain, Brooks replied: "I did and I didn't. Certainly they have really helped us out. They get a really good payday for doing it, I believe. When Temple and Akron bailed on us at a late date, we had to find somebody to get in here and give us a home game, so under those circumstances, I'm very pleased to be playing them."
Kentucky was originally penciled in to play at Temple. The Owls backed out and then Kentucky turned to Akron only to see that fall through, leaving the Wildcats temporarily with only 11 games and three open dates until Western Kentucky agreed to come to Lexington.
Kentucky comes into Saturday's 7 p.m. game at 3-0, while the Hilltoppers are 2-2. Western has lost to Indiana 31-13 and Alabama 41-7, and beaten Eastern Kentucky 37-13 and Murray State 50-9.
The Hilltoppers are coming off a high, beating Murray State last Saturday in front of a full house at their newly re-furbished stadium in Bowling Green. Kentucky had a much-needed bye week after a very sluggish 20-14 win over Middle Tennessee.
With a trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and a date with the Alabama Crimson Tide looming in their SEC opener on Oct. 4, the obvious question for UK is the temptation to look past a Western team that the Wildcats should beat.
"Us barely escaping that game against Middle Tennessee with the Hail Mary pass at the end (by MTSU), we are not in any way going to overlook Western," said Kentucky senior defensive end Ventrell Jenkins. "We've got Alabama in two weeks, but our focus is on Western. We're not overlooking anybody anymore. Coach Brooks has been around this game a lot of years and he knows when a team is not doing good and he knows when a team has gotten a little complacent, and that's how I feel we took Middle Tennessee. We relaxed. We thought we had arrived. My thoughts now are on Western's offense."
"We ARE 3-0, but after that last game against Middle Tennessee, guys on the team don't really accept that as a win," added senior linebacker Braxton Kelley. "We feel like we have to do a lot better than that before we can call ourselves a quality team, because we're going to face a lot better opponents and we have to get a whole lot better in the SEC."
Indeed. The SEC this year may be the best from top to bottom that it's ever been. Even Vanderbilt moved into the Top 25 this week. Florida, Georgia, LSU and even Alabama could be national title contenders.
That means that this season, more than ever, Kentucky cannot afford to lose a non-conference game.
Following the Alabama game, the Wildcats host South Carolina and Arkansas back-to-back in two pivotal games, then play at Florida, at Mississippi State, host Georgia and Vanderbilt and close at Tennessee. The best chances for a UK victory in that murderers' row figure to be Arkansas and Mississippi State.
"This game is obviously critically important to us," Brooks said of the Western game. "We're going to play a team that runs a very similar offense to what we saw against Middle Tennessee. It's an in-state game against a team that's trying to make a statement moving up from Division 1-AA to Division I. They have played some good football this year and obviously have a great tradition.
"This is an opportunity for them to come in and make a major statement for their program, and we need to make sure that it's just a statement that they're playing here for the very first time and that would be the end of it," Brooks added. "So let's hope we can take care of business this week because it's a game where we need to continue to get our offense untracked and we need now " without a couple of key performers on defense " to show we can handle a couple of (personnel) losses if in fact they don't play."
Brooks is referring to junior linebacker Micah Johnson and sophomore defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin, who suffered ankle sprains in the Middle Tennessee game and are listed as "doubtful" for Saturday.
Freshman quarterback/wide receiver Randall Cobb also suffered a high ankle sprain against Middle and is expected to be out at least three more weeks.
Brooks ripped his team the week of the Middle Tennessee game for poor practice habits. He said Monday that he's seen a lot of improvement at practice in the aftermath of that game. Brooks gave his players two days off, Friday and Saturday, and said that appears to have also helped.
"Our tempo in practice has been much better," Brooks said. "We obviously need to get better and narrow down some of the rotation at (wide) receiver, which I think we've done, and we'll see how that pays dividends, if it does, this week.
"Defensively and in the kicking game, we need to continue to clean up mistakes we have been making," he added. "We just needed some fundamental work if you will, and I think this past week has been a good opportunity to get it. It was amazing after having Friday and Saturday off how fresh their legs looked yesterday. So I think that was probably a good break for us."
Junior place kicker Lones Seiber was just 2-of-6 on field goals against Middle Tennessee. Brooks re-opened the place kicking job after that game and says the job remains a tossup between Seiber and redshirt freshman Ryan Tydlacka.
And Brooks said the wide receiver position is still not entirely settled. Senior Dicky Lyons Jr., sophomore Kyrus Lanxter and freshman Matt Roark and Eugene McCaskill appear to be four names near the top of the depth chart at the receiver spot.
But don't go to print with anything etched in stone at the receiver spot, Brooks said on Monday.
"It's a day to day fluctuation," Brooks said. "The thing I like about the people that have moved up is they are competing and they are trying to do the right thing and they are working their fannies off. But, we are continuing to look at and evaluate that position."
Brooks said he hopes his players learned some lessons out of the close call against Middle Tennessee.
"They are practicing better, but I would not consider the lesson learned until they continue to do that and continue to improve in games and in practice," Brooks said. "I'm encouraged because sometimes they have to learn the hard way. We're fortunate we didn't learn that lesson after LOSING a game that we should have won.
"Even though our team was pretty good about things like that a year ago and you would think it would carry over," Brooks added. "But each team has a new hierarchy and a new mix ... new players every year coming into the program. Do they adapt? Do they do it the same way all the time? No, they don't.
"Sometimes it's like trying to pound sand into a rat hole. It's hard."
