Tom's Take: job one accomplished

November 15th 2009
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The 24-13 win at Vandy assured Kentucky of bowl eligibility and if nothing else, the extra month of practice will be huge for a lot of young players--most notably quarterback Morgan Newton.  Just getting bowl eligible was a significant accomplishment for last year's UK team, because of what they had lost from the previous season.  But this team is better than that, so let's see if they can rise to the challenge of proving it.  At the time of the Mississippi State defeat, it looked like Kentucky's goal of getting to a bigger bowl was gone.  Now, however, the Wildcats still control their own destiny on that subject.  Beat Georgia and Tennessee and we'll all meet in Tampa on New Year's morning for the Outback Bowl.  Win just one of those two and I think it'll be a New Year's Eve party in Atlanta for the Chick-fil-a Bowl.
 
As for yesterday's game, that was just a helluva tough performance.  Rich Brooks no doubt challenged his team at halftime and they dominated the second half of that game, outgaining Vanderbilt 225-31.  It's time somebody came up with a nickname for Randall Cobb & Derrick Locke--"Slash and Dash"?  If there are two tougher players in the SEC, show them to me.
 
On the topic of quarterbacks, Morgan Newton is growing substantially as a QB every week and hopefully the coaches have reached the point where they'll let him do a little more in the passing game.  Newton's two second-half throws to LaRod King were big-time.   I don't think UK can beat Georgia and Tennessee with only a running attack.  I can understand Mike Hartline getting a chance to see what he could do because you had to find out in a game how he would respond off that knee injury.  But it seems clear that Hartline's role is the bullpen for now because he just didn't look anything close to the Mike Hartline we saw in the first half of the South Carolina game, before he got hurt.

Comments

Dwayne Marcum said...

First things first. Thanks to coach Brooks and his staff for being dedicated to UK and doing something historic for our football program. Bowl games four years in a row is a feat especially when taking into consideration our previous history. Now I think it is time for some breaks to go our way. I have heard it said that we make our own "luck" or the team best prepared gets the breaks. Our football team has been knocking on the door to get to the next level for the past four years and I for one think it is time for that door to crack open. The game is a game of inches some have said. How true only six inches deeper in the backfield against Bama and Micah's tackle would have been for a safety giving us the lead and the ball back half way through the second qtr. Time after time we could count only a few plays here or there and things would look far different. One knocked down pass in the USC game and that turns into a win instead of how Spurrier has beaten us for ten years. On and on it goes. Well enough is enough. Let the sun shine for the UK football program. Our coaches and our players deserve it not to mention our loyal fans. God bless everyone involved with football at UK and thanks for all you do. Go Big Blue and beat Georgia. Nothing else matters right now just beat Georgia that is it.

posted at 5:14 AM on Nov 16th 2009

robert said...

If kentucky wins both games they will be in second place in the east because of the tie breaker with ga. If that puts in that place we will play in the outback bowl for sure or will we play in a better or worse bowl any clue????

Nothing is "for sure" because the bowls don't have to extend invitations based on finish position. Most likely, Florida and Alabama go to BCS, LSU goes to Capital One Bowl and then the Outback, Chick-fil-a and Cotton work with the league to fill those next three slots.

posted at 1:13 AM on Nov 16th 2009

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