Lemme Learn Y'all Somethin'

[JPFisher]

I will condense all the rational thought I can muster and have seen in this forum the past 18 hours...

> Kentucky played poorly, particularly Towles and the defense. Yeah, well there's a reason, folks.

> I can't speak for Towles myself, but I tend to give QB's leniency the first game of the season and think it could be rust, nerves, pressure, or a combo of all three. Towles' performance was actually worse last night than at any point last season, IMO. I doubt he's actually regressed, and I think he will come back poised. Let's see how he performs at S.Car next week. The coaches trust him.

> The Dline performed admirably even though they were down their best RUN STOPPING TACKLE. What? Yeah, the best run stopper on the team wasn't playing last night. Could ya tell?

> Flannigan, Hatcher, and Kobie Walker should've been out on that field last night. They weren't, but they will be back in week 3 (hopefully Walker's recovery is quick) Our true freshmen linebackers were playing way too much and were asked to make reads that they haven't had to work on in live-game situations. The freshmen did well until the offense went straight at them 20 times in a row. Cut the team a break when we have four guys who are all starters (or first line of backup) vital to run stopping who are all out.

> The offensive line was down a man, and GAA is a true freshman who is going to take lumps. He was missing blocks all night, bumping into his own players, and missing assignments. The rest of the line did well, IMO. When one man breaks down, though, it looks a lot worse on the unit. GAA will grow into his role, but it will hurt to watch the miscues until then.

Count me crazy, but I think UK will grow a lot in the next two weeks and become the team that some folks say we can be. That's all I've got. You people can keep freaking out and ignoring rational thought, though.

 

[Blueaz]

I just hope you are correct...
But, if not; when does Stoops make a qb change? One loss, two...maybe three?
IMO, Towles should have a very short leash.
This is unfortunate, but realistic for this team. UK just can't wait and hope he works it out, we have to have a good start to the season to make a bowl game.

 

[LordEgg]

He should only swap qbs if we have a better one.

 

[Anjiejo]

Cj is not our best run stuffer!!!!! He may be our most explosive DT but it seem our staff is more worried about our dline holding the line than exploding into the backfield and being disruptive!!!
Just don't like how they have played the last 3 years which makes me believe that's the way there scheme is designed... Melvin lewis has the potential to be a very disruptive. He should probably be around the 315-320# area but it appears our scheme calls for a 340" plus at the NG position...

 

[Rhavicc]

I will condense all the rational thought I can muster and have seen in this forum the past 18 hours...

> Kentucky played poorly, particularly Towles and the defense. Yeah, well there's a reason, folks.

> I can't speak for Towles myself, but I tend to give QB's leniency the first game of the season and think it could be rust, nerves, pressure, or a combo of all three. Towles' performance was actually worse last night than at any point last season, IMO. I doubt he's actually regressed, and I think he will come back poised. Let's see how he performs at S.Car next week. The coaches trust him.

> The Dline performed admirably even though they were down their best RUN STOPPING TACKLE. What? Yeah, the best run stopper on the team wasn't playing last night. Could ya tell?

> Flannigan, Hatcher, and Kobie Walker should've been out on that field last night. They weren't, but they will be back in week 3 (hopefully Walker's recovery is quick) Our true freshmen linebackers were playing way too much and were asked to make reads that they haven't had to work on in live-game situations. The freshmen did well until the offense went straight at them 20 times in a row. Cut the team a break when we have four guys who are all starters (or first line of backup) vital to run stopping who are all out.

> The offensive line was down a man, and GAA is a true freshman who is going to take lumps. He was missing blocks all night, bumping into his own players, and missing assignments. The rest of the line did well, IMO. When one man breaks down, though, it looks a lot worse on the unit. GAA will grow into his role, but it will hurt to watch the miscues until then.

Count me crazy, but I think UK will grow a lot in the next two weeks and become the team that some folks say we can be. That's all I've got. You people can keep freaking out and ignoring rational thought, though.

Agreed on all points. People don't consider that the youth will learn quickly at this point in the year, and when you're missing so many key players on defense, it can really damage your performance, especially with freshmen at the 2 deep.
When we get back to full strength (around week 3, against Florida at home), there's a solid chance that the defense will look entirely different. It should make reads better, it should react better, and it should play better. We get important parts of our depth back, we get our starters back, which means we get continuity back.
I have no complaints about the defense really, up until the final 3 drives of the game last night, where La-Laf gained about 220 yards in that time. That's simply being worn down, needed the depth, needed the experience, would have made a world of different. Could have been the difference between only giving up 50 yards and 0 touchdowns, or what they actually did gain in that time.

Cj is not our best run stuffer!!!!! He may be our most explosive DT but it seem our staff is more worried about our dline holding the line than exploding into the backfield and being disruptive!!!
Just don't like how they have played the last 3 years which makes me believe that's the way there scheme is designed... Melvin lewis has the potential to be a very disruptive. He should probably be around the 315-320# area but it appears our scheme calls for a 340" plus at the NG position...

You know nothing about football if you want your nose tackle in a 3-4 to not be around 340# (not 340 inches as you stated, 340 pounds). Quite frankly, I may not mind being in a 4-3 from time to time, and having Elam and Lewis as the interior tackles. Seems like a good idea to me.

 

[Hoskins21]

Patrick's nerves won't be any better next week on the road.

 

[rudd1]

-solid first half.

-receivers look great. Backs are strong.

-defense was understandably gassed mid 3rd quarter on.

-created turnovers.

-didnt run the ball enough with the big lead.

-PT needs to become more consistent.

-Dawson needs to run more.

-if CMS is what i believe him to be...last nights game will give him a hell of an opportunity to coach a young team. If he isnt...this year is gonna suck.

 

[JPFisher]

Who would you take in place of Johnson to stop the run?

 

[BlueTick2]

So why wasn't their defense "gassed" ?

 

[docinjax]

I will condense all the rational thought I can muster and have seen in this forum the past 18 hours...

> Kentucky played poorly, particularly Towles and the defense. Yeah, well there's a reason, folks.

> I can't speak for Towles myself, but I tend to give QB's leniency the first game of the season and think it could be rust, nerves, pressure, or a combo of all three. Towles' performance was actually worse last night than at any point last season, IMO. I doubt he's actually regressed, and I think he will come back poised. Let's see how he performs at S.Car next week. The coaches trust him.

> The Dline performed admirably even though they were down their best RUN STOPPING TACKLE. What? Yeah, the best run stopper on the team wasn't playing last night. Could ya tell?

> Flannigan, Hatcher, and Kobie Walker should've been out on that field last night. They weren't, but they will be back in week 3 (hopefully Walker's recovery is quick) Our true freshmen linebackers were playing way too much and were asked to make reads that they haven't had to work on in live-game situations. The freshmen did well until the offense went straight at them 20 times in a row. Cut the team a break when we have four guys who are all starters (or first line of backup) vital to run stopping who are all out.

> The offensive line was down a man, and GAA is a true freshman who is going to take lumps. He was missing blocks all night, bumping into his own players, and missing assignments. The rest of the line did well, IMO. When one man breaks down, though, it looks a lot worse on the unit. GAA will grow into his role, but it will hurt to watch the miscues until then.

Count me crazy, but I think UK will grow a lot in the next two weeks and become the team that some folks say we can be. That's all I've got. You people can keep freaking out and ignoring rational thought, though.

A agree on most things. Except QB. Towles is a 4th year quarterback, not a freshman. He played some as a freshman, redshirted his second year, and then started 12 games as a 3rd year player. He's now in his 4th year. You can expect some of this from our true freshman LB's or CB's, or GAA. Not a QB with the experience he has.

 

[JPFisher]

Probably because we either scored ASAP or had a three and out and their defense found a way to get off the field whereas ours couldn't stop the run plays focused on the freshmen. Not many big time-consuming drives for us.

Not sure if you were being rhetorical so I covered my bases. Lol.

Part of this season's success will be determined a lot by how well UK can sustain drives. Not just scoring, but also giving the defense a breather with rhythmic drives that last longer than a minute.

 

[JPFisher]

A agree on most things. Except QB. Towles is a 4th year quarterback, not a freshman. He played some as a freshman, redshirted his second year, and then started 12 games as a 3rd year player. He's now in his 4th year. You can expect some of this from our true freshman LB's or CB's, or GAA. Not a QB with the experience he has.

He is indeed in his fourth year. He wasn't even considered a threat for the starting spot up until last season. This is the start of only his second season of playing that actually matters. I can tell that the coaches were surprised by how poorly Pat played and I think he's showed out in practice but lost it in game. I really do think that. I'm not saying we can't sub in Barker if it gets bad enough, but let's give Towles the chance to redeem himself.

 

[yoshukai]

A agree on most things. Except QB. Towles is a 4th year quarterback, not a freshman. He played some as a freshman, redshirted his second year, and then started 12 games as a 3rd year player. He's now in his 4th year. You can expect some of this from our true freshman LB's or CB's, or GAA. Not a QB with the experience he has.

Towles worst game IMO was the louisville game last year . My lack of confidence in Towles is based on his seemingly total lack of improvement over the course of a complete season as a starting quarterback . He should have more poise and look like a more seasoned quarterback at this point . IMO he looked like a true freshmen last night instead of a player that has been in the program 3 years .

 

[CCSteamRoller]

He is indeed in his fourth year. He wasn't even considered a threat for the starting spot up until last season. This is the start of only his second season of playing that actually matters. I can tell that the coaches were surprised by how poorly Pat played and I think he's showed out in practice but lost it in game. I really do think that. I'm not saying we can't sub in Barker if it gets bad enough, but let's give Towles the chance to redeem himself.

I don't believe the coaches would have played Towles against ULL let alone start him if they knew how poorly he would play beforehand. I believe the practice quarterback version of Towles in fall camp was impressive or he wouldn't have been named the starter. The question is, can Towles consistently play the way he played in practice when the results matter? My concern about playing Barker is that he makes bad decisions too frequently. The only way to work that problem out is with game experience.

 

[4UK]

-solid first half.

-receivers look great. Backs are strong.

-defense was understandably gassed mid 3rd quarter on.

-created turnovers.

-didnt run the ball enough with the big lead.

-PT needs to become more consistent.

-Dawson needs to run more.

-if CMS is what i believe him to be...last nights game will give him a hell of an opportunity to coach a young team. If he isnt...this year is gonna suck.

Why would you run the ball more? It's not too much for the OC to expect his QB, in his second year as a starter, to hit WIDE open receivers. The plays were there; Towles just couldn't make them. After the first play of the game, ULL looked around and said there's no way we're stopping the run playing straight up. So they packed the box, put their DBs in tight press coverage and said we don't think your QB can consistently hit receivers down the field, even if they do get wide open. They were right.

 

[jauk11]

Why would you run the ball more? It's not too much for the OC to expect his QB, in his second year as a starter, to hit WIDE open receivers. The plays were there; Towles just couldn't make them. After the first play of the game, ULL looked around and said there's no way we're stopping the run playing straight up. So they packed the box, put their DBs in tight press coverage and said we don't think your QB can consistently hit receivers down the field, even if they do get wide open. They were right.

They might have been right the second half, but they were certainly wrong the first half.

So, the question is, which Towles will we see next week? I am betting on the first half one.

 

[TNTUK]

Why would you run the ball more? It's not too much for the OC to expect his QB, in his second year as a starter, to hit WIDE open receivers. The plays were there; Towles just couldn't make them. After the first play of the game, ULL looked around and said there's no way we're stopping the run playing straight up. So they packed the box, put their DBs in tight press coverage and said we don't think your QB can consistently hit receivers down the field, even if they do get wide open. They were right.

You run the ball more to control the clock while having a big lead.

 

[buckkiller]

3 and out after 3 and out just spells disaster for any Defense.

 

[ukalum1988]

They might have been right the second half, but they were certainly wrong the first half.

So, the question is, which Towles will we see next week? I am betting on the first half one.

Actually ULL changed their coverage later in the second half - they moved their DBs off the line a little bit and gave up some cushion. Unfortunately, the UK offense was unable to exploit this tactical shift.

 

[UKErik]

Towles really struggled last night. I thought he was worse in last years Missouri game though. Going forward, I think the best thing to do with Towles is to hit the brakes on expectations. Towles is a 4th year QB that misses a lot of open WR's. He's also a QB that can make plays and help you win. He's going to be inconsistent. Hopefully, Dawson is able to identify throws that he's good at and is able to emphasize those in the gameplan. One huge positive...UK is pretty damned good at WR. Those guys will be able to bail him out on occasion as long as the pass is in the vicinity.

The d-line didn't perform anything close to admirably, IMO. They were pushed around for just about the entire night. UK has bigger issues than having one tackle suspended. Like I've said before, you can correct mistakes. You can't correct shortcomings. You can try to work around them, but it's tough at this level. The UK d-line, IMHO, is going to struggle all season long. There are some solid guys in the rotation, but none that really standout. From a talent standpoint, it's a mediocre group (I know that might be surprising considering the presence of Elam, but the youngster isn't explosive enough *yet* to be called anything beyond that). Hence, we're probably going to get a lot of mediocre play.

I couldn't agree more that UK ***BADLY*** missed Flannigan and Hatcher. IMO, linebacker is the toughest defensive position to pick up mentally. So many responsibilities. So much ability and experience required to recognize formations/personnel and react quickly. Asking freshman to play in the season opener is, well, too much to ask. Kentucky really needs to get Flannigan and Hatcher back tonight (LOL).

I wasn't as disappointed in the o-line as some others. Honestly, ULL did a good job of putting a lot of people near the LOS. They blitzed from all over the place. I think UK's o-line did a worse job mentally than physically, and having a true freshman out there certainly contributed to that. ULL also did a tremendous job of setting the edge. They were able to keep the football between the tackles more often than not (i.e., kept Towles in the pocket and mostly kept UK's backs in the middle third of the field).

I agree that UK will grow a lot in the next two weeks. Getting Flannigan and Hatcher back are musts. Hopefully, JP is right about Towles just having opening night nerves. If Towles can get up into the low 60's with completion percentage, this offense is going to be dominant.

GBB!!!

 

[BlueRunner11]

Patrick's nerves won't be any better next week on the road.

It wasn't "nerves." Maybe the hair, maybe the hype. He makes Shane Boyd look like Peyton Manning.

On a positive note, our receivers are as talented and as deep as I've seen here at UK.

 

[brianpoe]

I will condense all the rational thought I can muster and have seen in this forum the past 18 hours...

> Kentucky played poorly, particularly Towles and the defense. Yeah, well there's a reason, folks.

> I can't speak for Towles myself, but I tend to give QB's leniency the first game of the season and think it could be rust, nerves, pressure, or a combo of all three. Towles' performance was actually worse last night than at any point last season, IMO. I doubt he's actually regressed, and I think he will come back poised. Let's see how he performs at S.Car next week. The coaches trust him.

> The Dline performed admirably even though they were down their best RUN STOPPING TACKLE. What? Yeah, the best run stopper on the team wasn't playing last night. Could ya tell?

> Flannigan, Hatcher, and Kobie Walker should've been out on that field last night. They weren't, but they will be back in week 3 (hopefully Walker's recovery is quick) Our true freshmen linebackers were playing way too much and were asked to make reads that they haven't had to work on in live-game situations. The freshmen did well until the offense went straight at them 20 times in a row. Cut the team a break when we have four guys who are all starters (or first line of backup) vital to run stopping who are all out.


> The offensive line was down a man, and GAA is a true freshman who is going to take lumps. He was missing blocks all night, bumping into his own players, and missing assignments. The rest of the line did well, IMO. When one man breaks down, though, it looks a lot worse on the unit. GAA will grow into his role, but it will hurt to watch the miscues until then.

Count me crazy, but I think UK will grow a lot in the next two weeks and become the team that some folks say we can be. That's all I've got. You people can keep freaking out and ignoring rational thought, though.

JP no one can criticize those facts. We were short some very good players, and we cannot succeed in the SEC with a handful of good players out. We are simply not there yet.

But I would hope we are deep enough to have our way with a Sun Belt team if we expect to beat the USC's, FL's and Missouri's.

 

[Blueaz]

It wasn't "nerves." Maybe the hair, maybe the hype. He makes Shane Boyd look like Peyton Manning.

On a positive note, our receivers are as talented and as deep as I've seen here at UK.

 

[MrHotDice]

Do the other players have confidence in Towles to win games? In my mind, nothing is more important.

 

[docinjax]

Do the other players have confidence in Towles to win games? In my mind, nothing is more important.

Here's how I measure progress. We lost to Western Kentucky and this team refused to lose to ULL. That's progress. Our last few teams would have lost that game last night. And ULL is not a bad team at all.

 

[JPFisher]

The Dline will shore up when the linebackers are making correct reads I think. Just looks bad right now. I could be wrong, though. I also feel like the coaches wouldn't have told us that Meant, Elam, and Lewis were hugely improved if they weren't. Meant is supposed to be extremely violent at the point of contact, Lewis is supposed to have it put together, and Elam is supposed to be coming into his own. I will hold out on judging until we see this team against our first SEC foe.

Erik's opinion is huge.

 

[TBCat]

The Dline will shore up when the linebackers are making correct reads I think. Just looks bad right now. I could be wrong, though. I also feel like the coaches wouldn't have told us that Meant, Elam, and Lewis were hugely improved if they weren't. Meant is supposed to be extremely violent at the point of contact, Lewis is supposed to have it put together, and Elam is supposed to be coming into his own. I will hold out on judging until we see this team against our first SEC foe.

Erik's opinion is huge.

I don't think you are wrong about the Dline. Watching the game live I felt that at least 70% of the break downs were the fault of the LBs. Watching the replay it is probably closer to 90% in actuality. Good news here is that those guys are younger and will get better. The NTs Elam and Lewis were excellent last night. The DTs seemed like they mostly just ended up in draws with the OL but they weren't getting beat. Another factor is that we badly missed Zadarius and Bud last night. Everything looked worse not having that one guy that can be counted on to make the extraordinary play from time to time. We may not miss Bud and Z's stats but we will miss their wow plays.

 

[catben]

Our LB's made the D-Line look worse than they actually played. All of our LB's,even Josh Forrest, had a hard time getting off of blocks and finding the football. Even though Forrest had 15 tackles, very few if any were at the point of attack. Most of the big stops that were made at the line of scrimmage were by the D-Line or a blitzing DB.

Our LB's have got to get better if we are going to stop the run in the SEC.

 

[Anjiejo]

J.p.. I might not know much about football,but iv seen more DT get drafted in the 290-320 range than I do 340# or bigger range...It depends on your frame and body build there are few college guys developed to carry 340# without it effecting there quickness/explosiveness and we have Elam who might be OK at that size.But I thought lewis lost some explosivesness from last year! We shall see very soon...
Pryor was only 320#,peters was 300# range D Robertson was in the 320# range.
IMO There is way to much attention given to there size and not nearly enough emphasis put on there explosion off the line quickness leverage ect..To me its much more important to keep your quicks than adding 20#

 

[Anjiejo]

Also agree the lb didn't give a lot of run support,the long runs I believe were freshman that got burned...but I went back and watched just the line, and was disappointed how little of a push we got up front..Some of this could be due to the read option which requires assignment football which is what makes the read option so effective...But we need our front to control the line against a team like ull..
Next week will tell us a lot more..I think this team is very talented if they can put it together and not let a few positions ruin there season.. I still think we have a shot at 6-7 wins but also think we could end up with 4-5..

 

[Rhavicc]

So why wasn't their defense "gassed" ?

Missed the part where Kentucky scored 40 points, did ya? That's okay, I guess it was just easy to forget that UK actually won the football game.

 

[BlueTick2]

Missed the part where Kentucky scored 40 points, did ya? That's okay, I guess it was just easy to forget that UK actually won the football game.

I guess I did forget. But I remember a 33 point tie with a Sunbelt team late in the 4th.
Ull looked better in the loss than UK did in the win.

 

[Levibooty]

So why wasn't their defense "gassed" ?

They only played 22 minutes

 

[meteordealer]

I believe the problem was having a young team who thought the game was over at halftime and decided to stop playing. Just like half of our fans who left early.

 

[docholiday51]

Sure we did some good things in the game.

We had the game well in hand but let a team way below SEC standards back into it (with a chance to win)

One can spin it however they see fit,but the bottom line is - In the 4th qtr ULL was one lucky play away from beating UK.You can blame Towles,the D line or the LB's take your pick





















































Sure we did some good things in the game.The bottom line is that we had the game well in hand and let a below average team back in the game(with a chance to win)You can blame Towles,the D line or the LB's take your pick.The fact is that ULL was one lucky play away from beating UK late in the 4th qtr(a position they should never have had a snowball's chance in hell to be in)

Maybe we play better next week,if not we will lose to a South Carolina team that we should be able to beat.
We all had high hopes for this team but after 1 game they have done nothing to justify those hopes.A team either plays well or they don't,this team didn't in a position that they had every chance to do so.

 

[JPFisher]

I'm sorry, but you can't convince me that we had a chance to prove anyone anything. We had FIVE true freshmen on the defensive side of the field at one point last night. I'm sorry if you expected anything more from a group of freshmen playing college ball for the very first time, but the loss of Johnson, Flannigan, Hatcher, and Walker is causing the team some major headaches. As more of that experience comes back from suspension and as the true freshmen gain some much needed experience, you will see a completely different unit.

 

[brianpoe]

I'm sorry, but you can't convince me that we had a chance to prove anyone anything. We had FIVE true freshmen on the defensive side of the field at one point last night. I'm sorry if you expected anything more from a group of freshmen playing college ball for the very first time, but the loss of Johnson, Flannigan, Hatcher, and Walker is causing the team some major headaches. As more of that experience comes back from suspension and as the true freshmen gain some much needed experience, you will see a completely different unit.

JP, do we know if any of those 3 will be available against SC?

 

[aikenite4uk]

A agree on most things. Except QB. Towles is a 4th year quarterback, not a freshman. He played some as a freshman, redshirted his second year, and then started 12 games as a 3rd year player. He's now in his 4th year. You can expect some of this from our true freshman LB's or CB's, or GAA. Not a QB with the experience he has.

Doc, did you ever consider that he just had a bad second half? I've seen a lot of good QB's, collegiate and pros, who had a bad half. Haven't you?

 

[tbrooster]

I like JPFisher's analysis. Like a lot of people, I too was quick to judge based upon ULL. BUT I think a lot of people (including myself) expected a better performance based upon everything we heard from camp. We won, lets wipe the sweat from our brow and move on to the next game. Hopefully, we'll shore up some weak spots and keep improving - a lot of these guys are still wet behind the ears.

1. I would really like to see better play from the trenches on both sides of the ball.
2. I would also like to see the offense sustain drives.

 

[CCSteamRoller]

Doc, did you ever consider that he just had a bad second half? I've seen a lot of good QB's, collegiate and pros, who had a bad half. Haven't you?

He didn't have a great first half either. His receivers made him look better than he played.