• Jobs
• Cars
• Real Estate
• Apartments
• Shop Local
• Classifieds
• Dating

UK's football season so far

The good, the bad, the ugly

Kentucky's football season through a Clint Eastwood prism:

The Good: The record.

The Middle Tennessee muddle may have left a bad taste, but at 3-0 Kentucky is exactly where it needs to be.

The whole goal of this UK season is to make a third straight bowl trip for the first time since the days of Bear Bryant — which will take at least six wins.

If the Cats beat Western Kentucky, the season probably comes down to how UK fares in its four SEC swing games: South Carolina, Arkansas and Vanderbilt at home, and Mississippi State on the road.

The Bad: The running game.

The pre-season talk that UK would go old school and rely on defense and its running game has been half right.

The Cats defense has rocked.

Search UK football game stories

UK's running game has mostly been docked. Take out Derrick Locke's 68-yard scamper against Norfolk State, and UK is averaging a pedestrian 3.6 yards a carry for the season.

True, two projected starting offensive linemen, Garry Williams and Christian Johnson, are sidelined. Yet it also seems apparent that the Cats are still not good enough to line up and run the ball when teams know they are going to do so.

The Ugly: The place-kicking.

After poor Lones Seiber's 2-for-6 meltdown against Middle Tennessee, UK is 5-for-10 for the year on field goals.

If Kentucky doesn't get the place-kicking fixed, this is going to cost the Cats a game this year. That could be the difference between bowl eligibility and staying home for the holidays.

It seems apparent that Seiber always outperforms the other Kentucky kickers in practice. But at what point do you decide that his lack of reliability in games means you have to give someone else a chance?

The Good: The defense.

In three whole games, the UK 'D' has had two bad plays — the 62-yard first-half scoring pass and the last-play Hail Mary by MTSU.

Most impressive: A Kentucky defense that was last in the SEC a year ago in third-down conversion percentage allowed has held foes to 11 first downs on 44 third-down plays in 2008.

The Bad: Wide receiver play (non-Dicky Lyons Jr. division).

UK's five leading receivers a year ago were four seniors and a fourth-year junior (Lyons). Three of those players are now on active NFL rosters.

At Kentucky, you're not going to replace that combination of talent and experience without a significant drop-off.

Still, there have been far too many dropped passes and poorly run routes. This is a position where it may be time to go all in (except for Lyons) with true freshmen.

The Ugly: Injuries.

Before the season, if you'd made a list of Kentucky's 25 most physically gifted players, five names on that list would have been Garry Williams, Christian Johnson, Micah Johnson, Ricky Lumpkin and Randall Cobb.

As of now, all five are sidelined.

The Good: Mike Hartline.

Without a lot of help, Kentucky's starting quarterback has played better than a fan base spoiled by stellar recent QB play has acknowledged.

With UK in danger of a bad loss against MTSU, Hartline completed nine of 12 first-down passes in the second half and rallied the Cats from a 14-10 fourth-quarter deficit.

The Bad: That late field-goal call.

Kentucky courted disaster by going for that ill-advised late field goal against Middle Tennessee.

In a basketball game, say you have a three-point lead with seven seconds to go. You have the ball at midcourt with only one defender between the man with the ball and the basket.

If you score, there is no realistic way for your foe to beat you.

But even so, the smart play is to pull the ball out and either run clock or force your opponent to foul.

The situation that faced Kentucky football Saturday night was analogous. The Cats had a six-point lead, faced fourth-and-8 at MTSU's 15-yard line with only 20 seconds left and the Blue Raiders having no timeouts.

Given the time left, the reward of making a field goal to go up nine was not worth the risk it could get blocked and run back — which, as we all know, almost happened.

The Ugly: Curtis Pulley.

Twice in three years, Pulley's lack of personal accountability cost him the Kentucky starting quarterback job.

Now, if Hartline were to join Randall Cobb on UK's injury list, Pulley's self-inflicted absence may yet undermine the season of the Kentucky teammates he left behind.

The Good: The fun stuff.

Tim Masthay's booming kickoffs. Myron Pryor's shake-the-earth fumble return against Louisville. Randall Cobb's dynamic Commonwealth Stadium debut versus Norfolk State. Robbie McAtee saving the Middle Tennessee game by a shoestring.

Not even Sergio Leone could have found anything bad or ugly to pair with these.

reprint or license Print E-Mail

tool name close tool goes here

The Herald-Leader allows readers to comment on stories. The views expressed here are not those of the Herald-Leader or its staff. Readers must avoid personal attacks and libelous or inappropriate remarks. See our commenting policy here. Some comments may be reprinted in the newspaper. Registered user names are posted with comments.

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@