It will be interesting to see how USM's season plays out. Maybe, just maybe they turn out to be a pretty good team. Don't forget their OC does know UK's defensive schemes. Also, doesn't this qualify as a "road" win. I'll take it all day long.
Cats win....postgame thoughts
- Thread starter UKErik
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Hoak has shown nothing in practices or scrimmages to make anyone think he is capable of going against SEC teams. Williams is an unknown and will be a freshmen. How many freshmen QBs succeed in the SEC? So yes....if Barker gets pissed and does a graduate transfer we are screwed next year.
No we aren't. But there is no reason to believe Barker will leave. Why do people make this stuff up?
Defense and special teams were VASTLY improved. These were the main points of emphasis for the staff after last year. Seems they did an excellent job there don't you think? With a little tooling I think Gran will get the offense playing on a much higher level. Overall this game was a tremendous success. We WON! Now let's show up Saturday.
First of all...the Louisville game was an outlier. Johnson played totally out of his mind. He hasn't played like that before or since. It's unfair to judge a qb on one game, good or bad.
Outside of that game, and the Badet post routes I mentioned before, I could probably count the number of "great deep passes" he's made on one hand.
I have said it a million times. I think the kid is a hell of a gamer.....and he was a big part of our season being salvaged last year. I left out another key attribute for him: he doesn't try to do too much. That was exactly what we needed last year with the Benny, Boom, and Jojo show.
We don't have that luxury this year. We can't sit back and rely on our running game. If we are expecting the same SJ we had during the UL game, I think we are going to be as disappointed as we were waiting on the Patty Ice from the Fla game in the swamp to come back.
For the record, I am not someone who is going to say I know Barker or Hoak would be better....but I would like to see them get some meaningful game action so we can at least see what they can do. If SJ remains the clear option, so be it.
This is a different team than last year. Our defense and special teams are vastly improved. Our offense must replace Boom, Badet, Baker, Mosier, Toth. It takes more than 1 week.
I'm neutral on Johnson....I do know he doesn't call plays and Gran insistence on running the Wildcat when his oline was losing the line of scrimmage just stunted any momentum We had.
I wanted Hoak coming out of spring but he has gotten zero mention from Coaches. If I'm the coaches and I'm making a huge salary I'm playing the best one...that must be Johnson in their minds
I wanted Hoak coming out of spring but he has gotten zero mention from Coaches. If I'm the coaches and I'm making a huge salary I'm playing the best one...that must be Johnson in their minds
They were holding back some plays. Once the Cats Dline established the wall from the start it was clear the staff was told to hold back by Stoops.
Undoubtedly true. No team opens up its full play book in week #1. Certain weapons and wrinkles are developed later. Especially true for a team that hopes to win more SEC games. 1st improvement I expect to see is offensive line. Poor game yesterday for our offensive tackles, but they are capable of much better.
Ninety-nine percent of the teams play one hard game and three Patsy's. Why should we hurt air Bowl chances and our record for your personal satisfaction. We've got Louisville. Just doesn't make sense to take one of our Patsy's and play a harder team. Why should we? what do we have to gain by it? Nothing to gain and everything to lose.
First game against an opponent at their place that beat us last year at our place. Lots to work on, but I'll definitely take the win and get out of there.
I agree with everything you said Eric except...Johnson did not have a good game, but the guy is a winner, he missed on some long passes that he made last year. Is he going to get better as the line and protection gets better? If he struggles and we are losing put someone else back there, but...can't argue with results as far as W-L record. He is probably up there with almost any UK QB not named Derrick Ramsey
LOL...I was wondering who would be the first Wildcat to say that they didn't use all their plays. Great game and good luck the rest of the season
Then why does Johnson get no credit for Miss st game, Mizzou game or even Tenn game....he did play the Qb spot good than just the UL game last year
And as far as this las game...Gran went Wildcat for a large percentage of game. Maybe that is due to Johnson ability but again it's not like he was missing guys or turning it over Saturday. The coaches didn't let him throw it at all
If we want to go back to Barker the fine. But let's not forget he froze like a deer in headlights vs UL and Vandy game. And was a TO machine vs So Miss and UF last year
I never said they were great but there is always more going on than the fans see in one game. Your list seemed pretty exhaustive, just a hand full of players were acceptable. Everything else was awful.
USM did beat us in Lexington last year and humiliated us on our field. We never trailed yesterday at their place.
The defense was good overall. Secondary showed flashes but also gave up some big plays. Front 7 was dominant IMO.
The offense, besides Conrad, was very poor. 35 carries, 55 yards. UK misses Toth a lot more than maybe they thought they would.
If you want cheerleading posts and everything was roses, that's not reality.
USM QB's were bad, a lot of that had to do with UK's defense, but they both were playing, I believe in their first game.
SJ looked like it was his first game. Bad throws and he looked very immobile to me. I think his left leg is hurt more than they are saying. Snell didn't seem to have the same pop as last year. Given part of that was the poor O-line play.
SJ is limited. The way defenses don't respect his arm and Gran's play-calling last year and this year should be telling.
I don't know if Barker would be better, but SJ's skill set isn't enough to win more than 6-7 games (which is fine with me btw). To his credit, he doesn't have a play-maker besides Conrad to help him out this year.
Barker would at least open up the playbook which would keep defenses honest. Barker might be a disaster, but I don't think it can be reasonably argued he doesn't open up the playbook and give the team a higher ceiling.
I get the coaches quandary: how do you bench a QB with an 8-3 record. That's why I think SJ starts until the team starts the season 2-2.
I don't know if Barker would be better, but SJ's skill set isn't enough to win more than 6-7 games (which is fine with me btw). To his credit, he doesn't have a play-maker besides Conrad to help him out this year.
Barker would at least open up the playbook which would keep defenses honest. Barker might be a disaster, but I don't think it can be reasonably argued he doesn't open up the playbook and give the team a higher ceiling.
I get the coaches quandary: how do you bench a QB with an 8-3 record. That's why I think SJ starts until the team starts the season 2-2.
I'm not yet ready to write off Johnson. However, we have to start running less wildcat. Johnson didn't throw too many short or intermediate throws yesterday. He threw a lot of deeper throws that were incomplete. I recall him missing two intermediate throws that he should have made but the others were deep throws and you're not going to connect on those regularly. I want to see Johnson run a more typical offense this year before I call for him to be replaced.
Honestly, I feel pretty good about yesterday's game. I give it a B minus. It's a road win and we are "+1" against an opponent we lost to last year.
SJ didn't have a bad game, he missed a couple of throws but O-Line made some mistakes and we couldn't establish a rhythm.
Defense was really good. USM did most of their damage late when defense was getting gassed by our offense not keeping them off the field but they stepped up time and again. I never felt we were going to lose the game.
Even our good teams have clunker games. 2006 when we beat MSU at Starkville and beat UGA at home, we damn near threw it all away with a 2-point win against La.-Monroe. In 1984, when we went 9-3, beat Tennessee at Knoxville, beat a ranked Wisconsin team in the Hall of Fame Bowl, we went to New Orleans to play a crappy Tulane team early in the season and won 30-26 only because a Tulane player didn't realize a punted ball hit his helmet, UK recovered and scored a touchdown on the play.
It's way too early to get worked up about anything.
SJ didn't have a bad game, he missed a couple of throws but O-Line made some mistakes and we couldn't establish a rhythm.
Defense was really good. USM did most of their damage late when defense was getting gassed by our offense not keeping them off the field but they stepped up time and again. I never felt we were going to lose the game.
Even our good teams have clunker games. 2006 when we beat MSU at Starkville and beat UGA at home, we damn near threw it all away with a 2-point win against La.-Monroe. In 1984, when we went 9-3, beat Tennessee at Knoxville, beat a ranked Wisconsin team in the Hall of Fame Bowl, we went to New Orleans to play a crappy Tulane team early in the season and won 30-26 only because a Tulane player didn't realize a punted ball hit his helmet, UK recovered and scored a touchdown on the play.
It's way too early to get worked up about anything.
I always love reading your posts, and respect the heck outta your opinion. However, I totally disagree with you about Stephen Johnson. SJ was solid yesterday and Eddie Gran ruined any possible flow that Johnson tried to get into by consistently going to the Wildcat formation for no reason at hall. Johnson had a bad miss over the middle, but Hart dropped two right in his chest, and the WR's did him no favors on the 50-50 balls.
Eddie Gran was the biggest problem yesterday. He knew that UK was more talented, and instead of putting their foot on SMiss' throats, he went ultra-conservative and tried to bully out of the Wildcat. On that note, Benny Snell has to be more patient with the blockers out of the Wildcat. In the second half, Snell just lowered his head and went dead smack in the middle of the pack. From the fumbles to not looking for holes, I was EXTREMELY dissapointed in Benny Snell yesterday.
Same could be said for the offensive line. Not only did UK not run the ball well, but the line didn't do a good job of pass blocking either. UK has way too many studs up front not to totally dominate the LOS against teams like Southern Miss. Had the Cats played anyone of any significance yesterday, it wouldn't have been good for UK.
On the bright side, the defense was very solid. Only two things that worry me a little: 1-inability to get a pass rush in the second half and 2-the inability of the secondary to wrap up in space. I think the latter is easily fixable, but the D-line MUST generate some kind of pass rush late in games. They faded like Vanilla Ice from the 90's.
All in all, I'm very happy with a win on the road. It wouldn't hurt my feeling at all if UK didn't run the Wildcat one time against EKU. I think developing Johnson is priority #1, and getting him in a rythm with this receiving corps is of upmost importance. I also agree that CJ Conrad needs to be targeted at least 3 times in each half. And lastly, they need to try and get a few touches for Lynn Bowden. I know he's a freshman, and I know he doesn't know the offense that well, but the kid does things with the ball that you can't coach. He didn't come to Lexington to set on the pine.
Hopefully UK takes care of business next week and we can talk more about how the backups fared as we look to the trip to Columbia in 2 weeks.
Offense was bad, no denying that but I think a lot of people are underestimating the SM D. This offensive performance was partly due to poor execution and predictable play calling and partly solid D on their part. UK has to make major improvements in nearly every facet on O to have any chance of making a bowl but their guys deserve some credit too.
They're not SEC quality and their DC had a ridiculously easy game to call but they have some good players on that side of the ball. Ruff is a very good LB, he could play for anybody.
They're undersized but have good speed and quickness up front. Their pass rush and coverage was solid and they were fundamentally sound tacklers. BS is not an easy guy to bring down even if you know exactly where he's going. Both Ds did a good job of limiting very good RBs (OL play was pretty terrible on both sides though).
I think they're probably gonna put up solid defensive stats if they can get any help at all from their O. They know Griggs is their guy going forward (Howard should move to a different position, he was pathetic) so they should be able to build around him now. I'm thankful he didn't get the start, could've been a different game with him taking snaps from the beginning.
Just wanted to chime in and give their guys some respect.
They're not SEC quality and their DC had a ridiculously easy game to call but they have some good players on that side of the ball. Ruff is a very good LB, he could play for anybody.
They're undersized but have good speed and quickness up front. Their pass rush and coverage was solid and they were fundamentally sound tacklers. BS is not an easy guy to bring down even if you know exactly where he's going. Both Ds did a good job of limiting very good RBs (OL play was pretty terrible on both sides though).
I think they're probably gonna put up solid defensive stats if they can get any help at all from their O. They know Griggs is their guy going forward (Howard should move to a different position, he was pathetic) so they should be able to build around him now. I'm thankful he didn't get the start, could've been a different game with him taking snaps from the beginning.
Just wanted to chime in and give their guys some respect.
"for my personal satisfaction"? lmbo. come on dude. why the absolutist jargon? yeah I'm the only one who feels this way.
99%? . that's BS. right off the top of my head I can name florida and south Carolina. florida played Michigan and will play florida state, south Carolina plays Clemson and played NC state. both are right here in our division.
what we have to gain is better ticket sales and more respectability.
At this point, we are not at the level of USC or Fla. USC has a history of playing the likes of East Carolina (equal to S. Miss) Furman, West Carolina, The Citadel, Umass
Fla traditionally plays schools like ECU, South Alabama, Florida Atlantic, New Mexico St, Eastern Michigan, North Texas
More years than not, even the USC's and Floridas play weak ooc schedules plus one game against a P5 team. Even ohiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiio st plays at least a couple of weak sisters every year.
of course they did but out of the 14 schools in the conference, only 2 play more than 1 cupcake in their out of conference schedule, ga and fl. the rest of the schools play 1 or none tough out of conference opponents. look at their schedules and see. some such as lsu play no tough opponents. ut's toughest out of conference game is ga tech. just because its the 1st game what does it matter. move ul to the first game like it used to be. why should a fledgling program like uk play a tougher out of conference schedule. i.e. u of al. beside fl state plays powerhouses fresno st., colorado st. and mercer. it is hard enough with the 8 conference games
Less wildcat, more Conrad. Maybe more WR screens. We were clunky, but a road opener against a team that's probably closer to the bottom half of the SEC than we'd like to admit is a good win. There's work to be done for sure, but we aren't a dumpster fire.
If this staff doesn't give him a chance when the "number one" can't make any other throws other than lobbing it up for a 50-50 ball then why would he stick around and play for them? Johnson cannot make any throw that requires precision...period. When he has to aim he is going to miss his target 9/10 times. We don't have the line and run game from last year, so we have to be able to throw the football. Johnson cannot do that and if he is under center against USC and Missouri this year we will lose both.
Barker never lost his position and played the first half of the Southern Miss game last year like a top tier D1 QB. Second half he had 14 plays and tried to hard and then the next game he was injured.
I have yet to see a snap...the same as 99% of this board. What I have done though is paid attention to practice reports, coach comments and spring game performances and the kid is not ready and may never see a snap as the starter for UK. Barker takes the reigns this year and next and then a redshirt freshmen Williams hopefully has the talent to take over.
It's hard to bench a guy that is winning. I'd like to see better passing numbers too but I'll take the wins every time. I'm hoping we'll get to see Barker against EKU in mop up duty.
What long passes did he miss on? Our receivers were covered, but the throws weren't off. Hart dropped two passes right in his hands, one for a sure first down. Johnson wasn't super, but he was certainly decent.
Good and bad to take away but happy we won on the road.
I wonder how things would've looked minus the bad snap to Snell on the first drive and the fumble inside the 5 from Snell. Both plays were momentum killers IMO.
Not saying the play calling was stellar but clean up those two plays and maybe some flow could've been established earlier.
I wonder how things would've looked minus the bad snap to Snell on the first drive and the fumble inside the 5 from Snell. Both plays were momentum killers IMO.
Not saying the play calling was stellar but clean up those two plays and maybe some flow could've been established earlier.
It's one game. Every week is different. Gran was smart enough to give us a run first IDENTITY last year. He was trying to force that identity vs usm but this isn't the same team. I thought we ran the ball ok out of the pistol but the wildcat was awful. Johnson never got into a rhythm because of the playcalling but it can be fixed.
Defense was lights out but the qb play of usm is well below average. I'm eager to see them develop as season progresses.
Not ready to throw in the towel on this team especially after a win but most on here are overreacting after one game
Defense was lights out but the qb play of usm is well below average. I'm eager to see them develop as season progresses.
Not ready to throw in the towel on this team especially after a win but most on here are overreacting after one game
False. The Cats won yesterday IN SPITE of Johnson, not because of him. If anyone thinks that this team can play like that in the Sec and challenge for the east, you need to have your head examined.
SJ is not the answer at QB. PERIOD. And if he is the best we have, then that sucks. Because Stoops has assembled a helluva lot of talent. But youre only as good as your QB. And he is really, really mediocre.
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No doubt, but his record is misleading in the fact some people try and put the wins all on him. More times than not our offensive line dominated the game and our two backs ran wild. Johnson had little to do with actually winning many of the games he has under his record. I love winning...just don't want to give up a game due to his horrendous passing that we could have won with an actual passing QB back there. I put hope in Barkers first half of last years Southern Miss game.
These people want variety in the schedule. I understand that, but for anyone to want our schedule to be more difficult, it shows a lack of understanding of how to schedule in team sports. There are three categories of teams: Those you should beat relatively easily, those that are your peers and those that are clearly better than you (those are the teams you aspire to be like). A smart scheduler will develop a schedule that includes an equal number of teams from each category.
I think we are agreeing with each other lol. I said that we his stats werent great but he needs to play. He just threw some passes into coverage that he didn't have a chance with. We are on the same page though
