Thoughts last night . . .

[Tskware]

- for all the folks beating up on Towles, and to be sure, that was not his best game, we still managed to scratch out a measly 40 points (plus a missed XP and FG). That ought to be plenty to win comfortably

- should have found a way to get Barker in the game, even after they scored, we always had a 16 or 17 point lead until late in the game

- Kentucky has plenty of receivers and RBs who can hurt you, that was the best takeaway from last night

- after the first long run by Boom, was really disappointed in our interior run game, expected way better than that from the O line. But the last TD run by Horton (right in front of me by the way) was terrific, some WR made a great block on the edge then Horton just blasted the safety trying to make the tackle.

- But . . . Defense is as bad as ever. Wonder what team Stoops watches in practice when he says that we will be vastly improved.

- For those of you counting, last night was 7th time in last nine games giving up 30+ points. Last two games, we have scored 40 points, yet lost one game and, but for a couple of late breaks, certainly could have lost last night

- I will ask a hard question: Can this staff sign and develop HS talent on the defensive side? In year three, look at all the JUCOs we are playing: Johnson, Flannigan, Miggins, Lewis, Stamps, Bell, and last year's 2nd best player was Z. Yet Elam is still a role player, Hatcher has yet to justify his HS hype, etc. We can't expect to compete in this league by plugging holes every year with JUCOs.

- lots of Power 5 teams struggled yesterday (anybody still want to hire Mike Leach? ), God, how did Temple crush Penn State so easily? But the worrisome thing is that we have seen this defensive scenario many times before.

- lots can happen though during a season, putting Hatcher, Johnson and Flannigan back in the lineup will be a big help. We need a pass rusher, for sure, the Allen kid may be fast as hell, but looks about like one of Cal's shooting guards right now, needed to RS for sure.

- all in all, a sloppy disheartening win is 100 times better than a devastating loss, especially in the first game of the season

 

[Aces Fan]

Agree with everything you said. Towles was not good but the defense was embarrassing.

The LBs look like the worst unit on the team, possibly the conference. When ULL decided to stop the run their LBs were stepping up into holes and playing aggressive, our LBs on the other hand are staring at the gaps and not filling it and making a play.

Our CBs, except for Westry, give way to much cushion on WRs that are not any good.

Our DL looks big but that's about it.

 

[dorkmeister]

Tsk.....great post. We need a little sanity around here today.

 

[KentuckyRLD]

If the defense does not improve greatly, and quickly, this is going to be a very long and embarrassing year. ULL is better than Vandy but the rest of the SEC will shred this defense. Frankly, if UK cannot dominate a team like ULL there is no chance of being competitive with the better teams in the SEC and little chance of beating any other SEC team except Vandy. On the offensive side, we cannot expect 40 points against the SEC. Either way, assuming no major changes, this is going to be a long, ugly season.

 

[Kennedy_UK]

Agree with everything you said. Towles was not good but the defense was embarrassing.

I think these two issues went hand-in-hand last night. Towles' inaccuracy kept the offense on the sideline and defense on the field. Defense played way too many downs, which required us to rotate players in that were further down the depth chart.

 

[Onomatopoeia]

I was at the game as well. Things I noticed.

Towles was bad to inconsistent at best. Early in the game, he was just throwing the ball up and letting our tall wide receivers go up and pull them down. Of course Towles still has to make these passes so he did well there. But a lot of the success was just because the receivers. ULL must have made the necessary changes because those passes just weren't there in the 2nd half and forced Towles to be more accurate and he couldn't do it.

Running backs look great. I like the way they are using Horton. He is a bruiser.

Wide receivers look great as well. Timmons is a little disappointing to be honest.

Tight ends weren't really used. Not sure why.

O-line looks bad. Those commits can't get here soon enough.

D-line was bad, but maybe not as bad as we think. I think the line was brought down by our atrocious linebacker play. I think Elam looked good. He has slimmed down big time. And once he reaches "game shape" he is gonna be a real disruptive force.

Linebackers were pretty sad in my opinion. It's gonna be a long year. We really need to shore this area up soon. One has to wonder why Firios has cracked the lineup yet.

Defensive backs. The silver lining on the defense. Westry is gonna be a lock down corner. There was a few mistakes in the secondary, but one has to be excited about the future. I was really glad UK ran the clock down before scoring the last TD. Because if ULL had enough time to run the ball, they would have scored again. But I was fairly confident in the pass defense to stop them.

Other things

The play calling on offense was very vanilla. The team did quit after getting the big lead.

ULL is 36-16 in the past 4 seasons. They have won 4 bowls in a row. Not spinning it, but ULL knows how to win games.

Next week against South Carolina comes down to one issue mainly...Spurriers stubbornness. If he comes out and actually runs the ball, USC will walk away with this game easily. If Spurrier is dead set on airing it out, UK can actually stay in the game. One has to hope that he goes away from running like last year and allows UK to hang around.

 

[Smashcat]

If he comes out and actually runs the ball, USC will walk away with this game easily.

Cant disagree.

 

[Rockford]

QB was not sharp.

Hard to risk giving your backup QB a shot when your D is giving up 88 plays and almost 500 yards

 

[tdcat]

- for all the folks beating up on Towles, and to be sure, that was not his best game, we still managed to scratch out a measly 40 points (plus a missed XP and FG). That ought to be plenty to win comfortably

- should have found a way to get Barker in the game, even after they scored, we always had a 16 or 17 point lead until late in the game

- Kentucky has plenty of receivers and RBs who can hurt you, that was the best takeaway from last night

- after the first long run by Boom, was really disappointed in our interior run game, expected way better than that from the O line. But the last TD run by Horton (right in front of me by the way) was terrific, some WR made a great block on the edge then Horton just blasted the safety trying to make the tackle.

- But . . . Defense is as bad as ever. Wonder what team Stoops watches in practice when he says that we will be vastly improved.

- For those of you counting, last night was 7th time in last nine games giving up 30+ points. Last two games, we have scored 40 points, yet lost one game and, but for a couple of late breaks, certainly could have lost last night

- I will ask a hard question: Can this staff sign and develop HS talent on the defensive side? In year three, look at all the JUCOs we are playing: Johnson, Flannigan, Miggins, Lewis, Stamps, Bell, and last year's 2nd best player was Z. Yet Elam is still a role player, Hatcher has yet to justify his HS hype, etc. We can't expect to compete in this league by plugging holes every year with JUCOs.

- lots of Power 5 teams struggled yesterday (anybody still want to hire Mike Leach? ), God, how did Temple crush Penn State so easily? But the worrisome thing is that we have seen this defensive scenario many times before.

- lots can happen though during a season, putting Hatcher, Johnson and Flannigan back in the lineup will be a big help. We need a pass rusher, for sure, the Allen kid may be fast as hell, but looks about like one of Cal's shooting guards right now, needed to RS for sure.

- all in all, a sloppy disheartening win is 100 times better than a devastating loss, especially in the first game of the season

Not sure DL was as bad as people think. Meant had some nice plays and the play that turned the game back to UK was Lewis's tackle for loss on their star RB. Biggest problem was LB play. Flannigan's presence would have made a huge difference. Hatcher would have helped too. Ware got caught crashing down several times and was burned by read option. He gave up contain...rookie mistake.

 

[hmt5000]

time of possession was still very one sided. we hit on a few big plays and that is awesome but we have to put together some drives that eat up some clock and rest our D. those guys were getting stops and then back out on the field in 5 minutes. 37 to 23 in TOP is ridiculous. flip that around and their D looks gassed at the end of the game and we are running against them at will and our d-line and lb'ers are wayyyy fresher.

the young guys looked really raw and we need hatch, flannigan and johnson back and forrest has got to attack toward the line of scrimmage. he just cannot keep getting tackles 5 to 10 yards downfield. ware looked really lost most of the game and hopefully that is just 1st game jitters and he gets better each game going forward.

 

[CCSteamRoller]

This near-loss falls squarely on the shoulders of the QB play and to a lesser extent, the offensive line. Accuracy-challenged is about the kindest thing I can say about the passer. His 2nd half interception only happened because Towles underthrew his receiver. Not hitting receivers in stride cost at least 17 points. One has to think either Barker is worse or he is being quietly disciplined for his off-season shenanigans.

O-line should be able to work out a lot of their issues. I think they will be better next game. Towles on the other hand, very talented but struggles with the mental aspect of the game.

 

[ktbug]

After watching it , I am much happier. Was very disappointed with the play calling when I went to bed. There were some very good calls that ULL made good plays on. A screen pass that would have probably been 6 is batted down. On Towles int Timmons is wwwwwwiiiiiidddeee opennnn.
The freshmen on defense played like freshmen. Ware, Jones, and Westry did some good, but they also made some bad mistakes. Lost contain on the 2nd 2pt conversion. On the 1st conversion they ran a perfect pick that Jones got caught on. Missed some tackles if they make that make a big difference.
Defensive play calling had men in position who didn't execute. We got caught a couple of times and they took advantage with some perfect play calls.

All of it fixable, players do get better with experience!!!

 

[JPFisher]

How the hell you gonna rag on Hatcher when he hasn't even played this season? Hard to be a stand-out when you're mopping up for Bud and Z. McClain, Forrest, Huguenin, McWilson, Harmon, Quinn, Meant... Who do you want the staff to magically transform into an All-SEC candidate? Those guys are pretty good... High school guys, too.

Agree with some of what you said.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

If he comes out and actually runs the ball, USC will walk away with this game easily.

Cant disagree.

Yup, all depends on Spurrier.

 

[CCSteamRoller]

After watching it , I am much happier. Was very disappointed with the play calling when I went to bed. There were some very good calls that ULL made good plays on. A screen pass that would have probably been 6 is batted down. On Towles int Timmons is wwwwwwiiiiiidddeee opennnn.
The freshmen on defense played like freshmen. Ware, Jones, and Westry did some good, but they also made some bad mistakes. Lost contain on the 2nd 2pt conversion. On the 1st conversion they ran a perfect pick that Jones got caught on. Missed some tackles if they make that make a big difference.
Defensive play calling had men in position who didn't execute. We got caught a couple of times and they took advantage with some perfect play calls.

All of it fixable, players do get better with experience!!!

How do you fix Towles' accuracy problem? Sports psychologist?

 

[cole854]

-

- Kentucky has plenty of receivers and RBs who can hurt you, that was the best takeaway from last night

The WR's saved Towles early on some high risk lobs. Would love to see those on a rope instead of the high arc every single time.

3 runs netted 145 of the 197 yds by the backs. 19 total carries. That is asinine. You could have watched last night w/o knowing there was an OC change and wouldn't have known that Boy Genius had left for Troy.

UK didn't have consecutive running plays until the last drive. Ridiculous.

 

[Poetax]

This near-loss falls squarely on the shoulders of the QB play and to a lesser extent, the offensive line. Accuracy-challenged is about the kindest thing I can say about the passer. His 2nd half interception only happened because Towles underthrew his receiver. Not hitting receivers in stride cost at least 17 points. One has to think either Barker is worse or he is being quietly disciplined for his off-season shenanigans.

O-line should be able to work out a lot of their issues. I think they will be better next game. Towles on the other hand, very talented but struggles with the mental aspect of the game.

Not sure why some think Drew is being punished, he's not. He didn't win the job and like some mentioned the defense giving up 88 plays and 500 yds, made it a little more difficult to try Drew. I won't deny that another game like this and someone better step up on both sides of the ball and ST.

 

[ktbug]

I have seen Towles be very accurate, and I have seen him miss like he did last night. I think he will, not giving up after one game. PLayers tend to get better over the course of the year.

 

[ktbug]

BTW, I have heard some say the line got dominated. Our dl played fine, our lbs were the reason for the sub-par defense. On offense they did a solid job, not great, but not bad either. That wasn't a bad OL we played last night.

 

[JPFisher]

Cole, you're moaning about our running? Taking out the massive gains (for whatever reason) still gives the team an average of 3.25 yards per touch. Not anything remarkable, but you've reached the marker after three plays. Four if you're daring. Our running is serviceable.

 

[CCSteamRoller]

I have seen Towles be very accurate, and I have seen him miss like he did last night. I think he will, not giving up after one game. PLayers tend to get better over the course of the year.

You are correct. He is capable of being very accurate. When he wasn't accurate last year, his jitters could be blamed on a weak O-line that allowed too many sacks. Last night, the pass protection was pretty solid yet Towles still had the jitters. First game nerves usually go away after a few series. He got worse as the night went on. My guess is he was unhappy with his performance and panicked a bit to try to correct his mistakes and instead compounded them.

His teammates are going to lose confidence in him if he can't be more consistent. They'll lose confidence in him faster if he makes more throws like he did on the screen pass to JoJo that Kemp caught a half second before the ULL linebacker just laid him out. That type of play is how players get hurt.

 

[zcats]

Towles is a career 55.7 % completion rate passer with 18 TD's and 11 int's. He has taken a whopping 43 sacks including 3 last night. He is not a very quick decision maker and does not get himself out of trouble. He cannot scramble and pass. He can run but just not pass outside of the pocket. I don't see where people think he is accurate. He completed 47% last night and a number of his completions were possible because of great receiver play.

 

[ktbug]

He made some nice throws and some bad ones. He made some good decisions and some bad ones. I am looking forward to Saturday, lets see what PT can do.

 

[SaguaroCat]

Towles is a career 55.7 % completion rate passer with 18 TD's and 11 int's. He has taken a whopping 43 sacks including 3 last night. He is not a very quick decision maker and does not get himself out of trouble. He cannot scramble and pass. He can run but just not pass outside of the pocket. I don't see where people think he is accurate. He completed 47% last night and a number of his completions were possible because of great receiver play.

After two years, Woodson completed 58.7%, 8 touchdowns, 7 interceptions 2163 yards. Towles was the above with 2951 yards.

 

[Mojocat]

It wasn't a "tale of two halves" as I've seen said. UK didn't have a bad second half - it had a bad 11 minutes. During that time, from 3:47 of the 3rd when we scored to go up 33-10, until 7:36 of the 4th when they scored to tie it at 33, this is the story:

UK 3 possessions, 5 total yards, 1:50 of game clock

ULL 3 possessions, 212 total yards, 9:21 of game clock

They switched to a read-option quarterback, and we had zero ability to contain that. At the same time, our offense went completely in the tank. So all 3 phases (counting the missed PAT and missed FG) decided to take a break at the same moment. The first 41 minutes and the last 7, we fairly dominated....

 

[SanAntonioCat]

How many of you play decent, but erratic golf? You go four holes playing like Arnold Palmer and the next hole come over the top pulling or pushing the ball into who knows where. Immediately, your mind begins to mess with you. Who among us can recover and play well the rest of the round? It's tough. The mental challenge of the game is the most difficult to overcome. This is Pat Towles at quarterback. Can he ever overcome his mental issues to be the best he can be?

 

[WizardWCN]

- I will ask a hard question: Can this staff sign and develop HS talent on the defensive side? In year three, look at all the JUCOs we are playing: Johnson, Flannigan, Miggins, Lewis, Stamps, Bell, and last year's 2nd best player was Z. Yet Elam is still a role player, Hatcher has yet to justify his HS hype, etc. We can't expect to compete in this league by plugging holes every year with JUCOs.
Miggins, and Bell, I did not see on the field. 2 of the 3 Johnsons have been here since their freshman year. Forrest looked to be a wasted ride, until last year. I'm sure a lot of teams would love to have Jones, the Mac brothers, Meant, Ware, West, Allen, and Westry. Why all the Jucos? maybe because there was no D when they got here, and you need some experience to teach the freshman. How many players have we had make it to the pros in the past 4 years (one of them was Stoops recruit)? I bet we more then double that in the next 4.

 

[Onomatopoeia]

- I will ask a hard question: Can this staff sign and develop HS talent on the defensive side? In year three, look at all the JUCOs we are playing: Johnson, Flannigan, Miggins, Lewis, Stamps, Bell, and last year's 2nd best player was Z. Yet Elam is still a role player, Hatcher has yet to justify his HS hype, etc. We can't expect to compete in this league by plugging holes every year with JUCOs.
Miggins, and Bell, I did not see on the field. 2 of the 3 Johnsons have been here since their freshman year. Forrest looked to be a wasted ride, until last year. I'm sure a lot of teams would love to have Jones, the Mac brothers, Meant, Ware, West, Allen, and Westry. Why all the Jucos? maybe because there was no D when they got here, and you need some experience to teach the freshman. How many players have we had make it to the pros in the past 4 years (one of them was Stoops recruit)? I bet we more then double that in the next 4.

I'll attempt to answer it.

Can this staff sign and develop HS talent on the defensive side? Yes they can.

First of all you gotta understand that it does take around 3 years for a player to start significantly contributing. Unless they are elite caliber players or unless your team is very bad.

Secondly, Stoops first class was a rushed class. If you remember when he came, our class under Joker was ranked in the 70's. Stoops spent the first few weeks just trying to let Joker commits know they weren't needed anymore. Lots of these guys would end up going to play at FCS and MAC schools. So if you ever get real down on Stoops, just think of how much worse it could be.

The class would end up finishing in 30's. Remarkable when you think we moved up 40 spots in a very short window. Also, the late rush would force the staff to take on many JUCO's. And the staff has had to take many JUCO's because they simply dont have the luxury of having years to develop these guys. Fans want wins now. So the option is to bring in JUCOS and sprinkle in freshman that you can hope to develop behind them. Instead of signing many freshman and throwing them out to the wolves of the SEC.

The defensive players from that class - These guys should be contributing this season.

Jason Hatcher - Has played behind 2 of UK's best defensive ends in the last decade. So really not had a chance to shine. No reason to get down on him until we see what he does this season.
Marcus McWilson - Hasn't done a lot yet but had a few good plays Saturday. Excited about this season for him.
Za'Darius Smith - N/A Great JUCO defensive end that played 2 seasons.
Jacob Hyde - Not really shown any signs of development.
Jaleel Hytchye - Transfer
Blake McClain - I thought this guy looked good last year. Didn't hear his name Saturday but still think he will have a stellar season.
Regie Meant - Originally a Joker recruit, one of the few Stoops kept. Hasn't really been impressive.
Melvin Lewis - N/A Another JUCO. Lewis has developed into a better player than most people thought he would.
Nate Willis - N/A Another JUCO that had to take out of necessity.
Alvonte Bell - Never made it to campus that season.

So out of 10 defensive guys, 7 remain. Out of those 7, only 3 have failed to make an impact. Hyde, Meant, and Bell.

Stoops 2nd class would ideally be serving as backups and role players as they should have spent the first season just conditioning their body. But as redshirts couldn't be afforded, players like Elam spent his first year balancing his weight and trying to learn football in the SEC. This has put him behind.

Ware is a redshirt freshman who has been thrust into a starting role when he should be coming off the bench like Hatcher did with Dupree. Again, not afforded the opportunity.

Last years class should all be redshirted but Westry has already threw himself into a starting role.

Simple answer is takes a little time to sign and develop the talent. It's especially hard when your starting in a hole like Stoops had to.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

- for all the folks beating up on Towles, and to be sure, that was not his best game, we still managed to scratch out a measly 40 points (plus a missed XP and FG). That ought to be plenty to win comfortably

- should have found a way to get Barker in the game, even after they scored, we always had a 16 or 17 point lead until late in the game

- Kentucky has plenty of receivers and RBs who can hurt you, that was the best takeaway from last night

- after the first long run by Boom, was really disappointed in our interior run game, expected way better than that from the O line. But the last TD run by Horton (right in front of me by the way) was terrific, some WR made a great block on the edge then Horton just blasted the safety trying to make the tackle.

- But . . . Defense is as bad as ever. Wonder what team Stoops watches in practice when he says that we will be vastly improved.

- For those of you counting, last night was 7th time in last nine games giving up 30+ points. Last two games, we have scored 40 points, yet lost one game and, but for a couple of late breaks, certainly could have lost last night

- I will ask a hard question: Can this staff sign and develop HS talent on the defensive side? In year three, look at all the JUCOs we are playing: Johnson, Flannigan, Miggins, Lewis, Stamps, Bell, and last year's 2nd best player was Z. Yet Elam is still a role player, Hatcher has yet to justify his HS hype, etc. We can't expect to compete in this league by plugging holes every year with JUCOs.

- lots of Power 5 teams struggled yesterday (anybody still want to hire Mike Leach? ), God, how did Temple crush Penn State so easily? But the worrisome thing is that we have seen this defensive scenario many times before.

- lots can happen though during a season, putting Hatcher, Johnson and Flannigan back in the lineup will be a big help. We need a pass rusher, for sure, the Allen kid may be fast as hell, but looks about like one of Cal's shooting guards right now, needed to RS for sure.

- all in all, a sloppy disheartening win is 100 times better than a devastating loss, especially in the first game of the season

Got to watch the replay and have some random thoughts. UK's skill guys, DB, WR, RB are very athletic, fast, quick and look very much the part of SEC level football players. The OL play was inconsistent, block great for one play, not so great the next and it was like that most of the game, some credit could be given to LLA for changing things up on their slants and stunts too. DL just isn't there yet, they don't look like an SEC DL, they made a play here and there but they were playing against a Sunbelt OL. I have seen people complain about the LB being slow, that didn't stand out to me as being an issue, LLA's most success came inside the tackles when running the ball and the read option with the 2nd qb. Towles started the game on fire, he put the ball where it needed to be for his receivers to make a play on it, mostly over the top, LLA made some adjustments in coverage and disrupted his timing, he never really adjusted to that coverage and was off on his medium range throws. I think a lot of the flack he is catching is because he was hitting everything early and people thought he should be able to do that every play, offense scored 40, he didn't suck. Like I said the WR pass every eye test, showed good hands for the most part, need to work on their blocking which is to be expected.

But overall a good win against a good team, I said last week that this team couldn't be taken lightly, they have a very good coach and know how to win and would get here expecting to win and the game would be closer than UK fans wanted. They weren't like most of the check grabbers from the smaller conference who show up to take their butt kicking and check most of the rest of us had for an opener. UK found out they could fight back from adversity and overcome which is good to know.

Nice win, season is 1-0, always a great way to start.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

This^^^^^

 

[anon_q409idbs5m40a]

I still can't understand why our defense is so bad. The last time I remember UK having a good defensive team was when Guy Morris was in his second season. Normally, it takes more time for a program that's rebuilding to develop offensively but that's not the case with this team. Stoops is supposed to be a defensive coach so it really doesn't make sense.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

When 2 or 3 of the defense's best players are injured it makes perfect sense that they would struggle.

 

[anon_q409idbs5m40a]

When 2 or 3 of the defenses best players are i jured it makes perfect sense that they would struggle.

I agree that the current injuries don't help the situation but our line was dominated by a Sunbelt team Saturday. ULL is not a bad team but certainly not the same caliber as SEC teams.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Catscratch, it has been documented on these boards many times that it takes time and development to build a two deep quality defense. This doesn't happen overnight. I know you and others want it right now. It simply doesn't work that way.

This is not about instant gratification, it's about recruiting and developing. The defense will be one of the nation's best. Go with the process.

 

[anon_q409idbs5m40a]

Catscratch, it has been documented on these boards many times that it takes time and development to build a two deep quality defense. This doesn't happen overnight. I know you and others want it right now. It simply doesn't work that way.

This is not about instant gratification, it's about recruiting and developing. The defense will be one of the nation's best. Go with the process.

True, and in reality it takes about five years to build a competitive program in this era of college football, however, it just seems that the defense should be better than what we saw Saturday night. My point is that if one looks back at teams that have been in ashes over the years and have shown great improvement (TCU, Northwestern, K-State, Baylor, etc.) the common denominator has been an improved defense. I realize that these teams don't play in the SEC which makes the task way more difficult but we didn't stop anything Saturday.