UK football: Cats basking in Javess Blue's breakout game against Louisiana-Monroe
Javess Blue plans to spend the rest of this season making up for lost time.
Time lost when the Kentucky wide receiver missed all of spring practice trying to heal a recently repaired shoulder.
Time lost when he missed large chunks of fall camp with a hamstring injury.
Time lost when he missed big parts of this season with an ankle injury.
So think of Blue's three catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe as his second coming out party.
"Been really waiting for him to come out, have a breakout," offensive coordinator Neal Brown said of Blue, who nearly matched his season total of 116 yards in the previous games in just three catches on Saturday.
"We really need him to get going," Brown said. "He's a guy who I thought played really well at the end of last year, just had some bad luck with some injuries. So I've been waiting, been waiting. He's been practicing better, so I think he's finally getting back in the flow. I think he needed this today."
Blue wouldn't disagree with that assessment.
Having to miss spring practice and so much of fall camp was frustrating for the junior college transfer from Babson Park, Fla., who led the Cats in receiving last season with 43 catches for 586 yards and four touchdowns.
Blue guessed that he'd only missed three games in his entire football playing career, so being so limited this season was a struggle.
"Sitting out a couple of games, it was something I rather didn't do," he smiled.
Blue likely won't be sitting much more this season as long as he can stay healthy.
When Brown talked about his offense's potential this summer, it was Blue that made him optimistic that the Air Raid could get going, that Kentucky had a senior leader to help the young receiving group get up to speed.
Waiting for Blue to heal up from his multiple injuries was difficult for Brown, who knew that his senior wide out wasn't playing at 100 percent even when he was able to play.
"My expectations with what I've seen and where he actually is are a little bit different just because he hasn't been out there," Brown continued. "He's practiced well. Last week wasn't his best game and I think he took that to heart and made a bunch of plays for us today."
One person that was excited to see Blue back was quarterback Patrick Towles, who threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Blue in the third quarter.
"Best catch I've ever seen," Towles said after the victory that moved UK to 5-1 as it heads to Louisiana State on Saturday. "I threw it and then I kind of was like, 'I missed him a little bit, missed it behind him.' He made, hands down, the best play I've ever seen."
Freshman wide receiver Dorian Baker's eyes got big as he described that catch, which eventually would be the No. 1 play of the day on ESPN's SportsCenter.
"Man, that was so live," Baker said. "I saw it, I was just like ... 'Oh, my God, this is crazy.' "
Even Brown, who isn't usually easily impressed, couldn't believe Blue's one-handed grab.
"That was as good a catch as I can remember being part of," Brown said. "That was unbelievable. ... To hold onto it. He (caught) it one handed, but to hold onto it as he's hitting the ground."
The only one who seemed unaffected by the catch was Blue, who is in rarefied air as the only UK player to have two catches for 80 or more yards in his career. He caught an 83-yard touchdown pass from Towles in the second quarter.
When asked if the 21-yard catch was his best, he simply said it was "one of them."
What one was better? "Back in junior college," he continued. "It was a game winning touchdown, same, one-handed. It was amazing."
The thing that made Blue's big day even more impressive to Towles was that the quarterback still doesn't think his wide receiver is back to full strength yet.
"Which should tell you how good he is," Towles said. "But he's great player. He just stretches the defense. He's just so fast — so fast. He's got really, really soft hands."
The goal moving forward as Kentucky enters the back end of its schedule, which features four of the final six on the road as well as matchups against No. 1 Mississippi State and No. 10 Georgia, will be to get Blue as involved as possible.
"He's a heck of a football player, as you can see," Coach Mark Stoops said. "He's just been a little bit off, whether it be him or the quarterback or protection. So he's had some opportunities set up for him. We just didn't get it to him, we'll continue to work on that.
"We have some other weapons, but Javess is a very good football player. We knew he could play like that."
This story was originally published October 12, 2014 at 10:26 PM with the headline "UK football: Cats basking in Javess Blue's breakout game against Louisiana-Monroe."