http://http://www.kentucky.com/287/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2009 Kentucky.com Mark Story 60 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:59:04 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench interactive-ops@herald-leader.com http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1007694.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1007694.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:33 EST
If Kentucky college football had a similar exercise, it might be called The One Degree of Dean Hood.

The Eastern Kentucky University head coach who will lead the Colonels into Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday to face Kentucky has direct ties to some of the biggest names in college football coaching.

Take Florida's Urban Meyer.

In the early 1980s, Meyer and Hood were star athletes at rival high schools in Ashtabula, Ohio. Hood was a tight end and middle linebacker for Harbor High, a public school. Meyer was a tailback and free safety for St. John's High, a Catholic school.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1003284.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1003284.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:57 EST
Not in a college basketball exhibition with a (very talented) major college team against an NAIA squad of uncertain pedigree.

Especially not when the major college program is in the first game of a brand-new coaching regime.

Ah, but making judgments out of games like Kentucky's 74-38 exhibition victory over Campbellsville is irresistible.

So let's not fight it.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1001074.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1001074.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:54 EST
In a game the Wildcats really needed, they had no luck stopping the attack of Meyer's old offensive coordinator.

With running back Anthony Dixon running around, through and over a shockingly porous Kentucky defensive front, Mississippi State hung a 31-24 defeat on UK Saturday in a chilled Commonwealth Stadium.

Dan Mullen, who called the plays for the Florida offense that hung 63 points on the Cats last season in The Swamp, is the new Mississippi State head man.

At MSU, he doesn't have a Tim Tebow or a fleet of sleek skill players surrounding him.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1000649.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1000649.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:14 EST
It didn't help that injury had created instability at the quarterback position.

After that happened, the idea took shape of trying the team's best receiver at QB.

UK football with Randall Cobb in 2009?

Yes.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/998249.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/998249.html Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:45 EDT
Which is why the recruiting victory that Matthew Mitchell and Co. had in the Derby City last fall was especially sweet.

From the moment Iroquois High School star A'dia Mathies said no to Florida and hometown U of L and yes to UK in the early signing period, she says she started fielding the same question over and over and over in Jefferson County.

"It wasn't that people in Louisville gave me a lot of grief," Mathies said Thursday at Kentucky's women's basketball Media Day. "They just wanted to know why."

After Louisville which has beaten Kentucky five years in a row advanced to last season's national championship game, the questions for Mathies only increased.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/993422.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/993422.html Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:44 EDT
Yet rather than a vertical challenge, maybe UK football's greatest obstacle of geography is horizontal.

Since 2006, when the Rich Brooks era uptick in Kentucky's football fortunes commenced, UK is a most respectable 7-4 in contests against foes from the SEC West.

In the past four seasons, Kentucky has beaten every team in the West except for Alabama.

If the Cats can defeat Mississippi State on Halloween Night in Commonwealth Stadium, they will clinch their fourth-straight season with a winning record (all 2-1 marks) against the West.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/991280.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/991280.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:46 EST
Since the Mike Hartline injury, Kentucky is trying to play not two, but three quarterbacks.

So far, UK's three-headed quarterback platoon has managed to spit in the eye of pigskin convention.

"We've made some mistakes but we're 2-0 in that situation," said Kentucky tri-quarterback Will Fidler. "So you have to say it is going pretty well."

Kentucky beat Louisiana-Monroe by the deceptive score of 36-13 Saturday night before 68,203 chilled fans in Commonwealth Stadium. A Randall Cobb punt return touchdown and a Randall Burden TD off an interception (it was a good night for Randalls) helped Kentucky win decisively in a game in which it was outgained (377-330) by the visitors from the Sun Belt Conference.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/988287.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/988287.html Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:08 EDT
Who knows what kind of object that one wouldn't want to step on might be dropped along a sideline?

College football players wear cleats; having one's toes crushed by them sounds remarkably unpleasant.

What if it snows?

As you'll see, Morehead State head football coach Matt Ballard has thought of all this. Yet for the Eagles' homecoming game Saturday, he's going barefoot anyway.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/983769.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/983769.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:32 EDT
His challenge: Come up with the best word(s) to describe Randall Cobb and the dramatic impact the sophomore playmaker is having on the 2009 Kentucky football season.

The dynamic Cobb's fourth-quarter heroics have accounted for UK's two biggest wins of the season, Saturday's uplifting road victory at Auburn and last month's narrow home escape against Louisville.

Said Brooks: "A lot of you guys who write or speak for a living will be more eloquent and find the right adjective."

Given a quest, I conferred with a panel (of Jeffs) on the best description for Randall Cobb.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/981346.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/981346.html Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:03 EDT
I imagine it is a little like asking Hugh Hefner to pick the 25 most attractive playmates. You get an impressive list but you have a whole lot of beauty left over.

Over the last 26 seasons, UK has played far more than its share of truly epic college basketball games.

Starting today and running each day in the Herald-Leader and on Kentucky-Sports.com until Nov. 11, you will see the 25 Kentucky games I have chosen.

I'd say 90 percent of the schools that play NCAA basketball would kill for a list filled with the kind of games that didn't make my list of memorable Cats contests.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/979057.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/979057.html Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:28 EDT
Well, get ready. It appears the Cats have the guard play to crank things up.

At Kentucky basketball media day, 2009, one theme was persistent: John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, UK's two lavishly hyped freshman point guards, are about to take Kentucky basketball to warp speed.

Perry Stevenson reminisced about the first time he was on the court with Wall, the basketball prodigy some are touting for national college basketball player of the year before he's ever played in a real-life college basketball game .

"I don't even think I saw him he was moving too fast," Stevenson said.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/974774.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/974774.html Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:49 EDT
21. Morgan Newton. If it were my call, there is no way I throw a true freshman quarterback who hasn't played a down of college football into a starting role in a road game at Auburn.

20. Will Fidler. That would make the little-used, fourth-year junior from Henderson County the starter by default Saturday.

19. The ultimate, post-Mike Hartline quarterback outcome: If Fidler plays well at Auburn, he keeps the job another week. If he struggles, you give Newton his shot as starter at the beginning of the three-game home stand of Louisiana-Monroe, Mississippi State and Eastern Kentucky.

18. Rich Brooks on leaving Randall Cobb at wide receiver: "(With Cobb at QB last year) our pass offense was pretty much non-existent. To try to utilize his abilities, you have to run kind of a Wildcat (formation) the whole game. Once you do that, you get a little bit more one-dimensional and it is a little easier to defend than as a thing you throw at people every once in a while."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/972165.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/972165.html Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:25 EDT
Assuming he stays healthy, it should mean that Patrick Patterson at last gets to play in an NCAA Tournament.

You'll recall that the Kentucky power forward missed the Cats' 2008 NCAA tourney first-round loss to Marquette due to an injured ankle. Last year, all the other Wildcats joined Patterson in missing the NCAAs entirely.

This season, who knows? If John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Co. are as good as advertised, maybe UK can do more than take Patterson to the Big Dance.

They might get the Huntington, W.Va., product off of this list: ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/969503.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/969503.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:46 EST
Let's be frank: As a starting quarterback, Hartline is flawed.

Thirteen starts into his UK career, it is evident that the junior from Canton, Ohio, does not have the physical tools of the modern QB standouts — Couch, Lorenzen, Woodson — who have played for Kentucky.

With six interceptions thrown and a fumble lost already in 2009, Hartline is turning the ball over at an alarming rate for a quarterback who does not have the big-play ability to cancel out such miscues.

Yet even with Hartline's issues, Rich Brooks and Joker Phillips are correct in their stated belief that No. 5 under center is UK's best chance for success in 2009.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/965557.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/965557.html Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:47 EDT
"It was kind of weird being back in that stadium," Pulley said.

Had the grand plan for Kentucky football gone according to script, Pulley would not have been in the Commonwealth stands last Oct. 11.

He would have been on the C.M. Newton Field as UK's starting quarterback.

If things had gone according to design, Pulley would in 2009 be in his second year as Kentucky's signal caller instead of burning up the Football Championship Subdivision as a dual-threat QB at Florida A&M.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/962745.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/962745.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:46 EST
Burton. Tamme. Johnson. Lyons Jr.

For most of two seasons, the second half of 2006 and all of '07, Kentucky could spread football fields with play-making receivers that could do damage against even the most vaunted defenses.

Now, one full season and four games later, UK still hasn't come close to replacing its lost receiving firepower.

No. 3 Alabama dusted mistake-prone Kentucky 38-20 Saturday before 70,967 in a wind-swept Commonwealth Stadium.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/962677.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/962677.html Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:41 EDT
On Oct. 13, new UK basketball coach John Calipari will be the featured speaker at a fund-raising dinner in honor of the late Kentucky sports broadcaster Claude Sullivan.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Big Blue Sports Archives, a project between the University of Kentucky Libraries and the UK Athletics Association designed to preserve and make available to the public the university's ample sports history.

Old-timers will tell you that Sullivan, who did radio play-by-play work for both UK and the Cincinnati Reds, was every bit as good at calling a ball game as Cawood Ledford.

Back in the day, there was not a single "UK radio network" as now, but instead as many as five or six competing networks all broadcasting the Cats games.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/960056.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/960056.html Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:44 EDT
Which tend to be more palatable if you can show up as the classmate with bragging rights.

When Kentucky has the ball in its Saturday skirmish with No. 3 Alabama, you might want to turn the binoculars toward the line of scrimmage. Any battle between UK offensive tackle Zipp Duncan and Alabama defensive lineman Brandon Deaderick figures to carry some extra oomph.

Both are 2005 graduates of Kentucky's Elizabethtown High School.

From their years of middle school sports on, the two were constantly together because they were the biggest guys on their teams.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/952431.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/952431.html Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:16 EDT
There are oodles of people all around this commonwealth who claim they are the most passionate Kentucky Wildcats sports fans of all.

But there is a small group of guys in Central Kentucky Chris and Larry, Will and Van Meter, James and Moe who do far more than talk the Big Blue talk.

When the Kentucky Wildcats compete, these guys are there.

"I figure we go to 80, maybe 100 UK games a year," said Will Hopkins.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/955430.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/955430.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:58 EDT
21. Kentucky fans. From what I saw, any suggestions (and I got some in the e-mail in-box) that Commonwealth Stadium fans behaved inappropriately after Tim Tebow was injured are flat wrong.

20. The reaction in Commonwealth. On a night when they had precious little to yell about, the Kentucky fans initially and understandably cheered following Taylor Wyndham's sack.

But a silence fell over the stadium after it became apparent that Tebow was not getting up. When the Florida quarterback sat up on the field, he was cheered. When he walked off the field he got a standing ovation from all parts of the stadium.

19. Urban Meyer. I'm not among those criticizing the Florida coach for still having Tim Tebow in the game late in the third period while holding a 31-7 lead against Kentucky. ]]>