UK player who criticized coaches is back. Will outburst mean a new social media policy?

After significant drama on Thursday that included an offensive lineman blasting his Kentucky coaches on social media and saying he was leaving the team, E.J. Price is back at practice.

The offensive tackle had some outside things he brought into practice on Thursday and handled some things poorly, Coach Mark Stoops said on Saturday after a mini-scrimmage.

“It’s my job to save each and every one of these guys, to the best I can,” Stoops said of the player’s status. “E.J. is a good kid. He tries to do the best he can and it’s our job to help in all areas of his life.”

After missing a significant chunk of Tuesday’s practice, the transfer from Southern Cal left early and criticized his coaches on social media, saying players had been “silenced in the past” and that coaches “can’t preach accountability and you don’t even hold yourself accountable to your players.”

In a wide-ranging tweet storm, which he later deleted, Price called out the nutrition program among other things and called his coaches mediocre.

Later in the day, he tweeted an open apology to his coaches and teammates for “bringing unwanted attention to our locker room.”

The later tweet said he was “extremely stressed and frustrated,” and added that he: “should have handled myself in a much better manner and for that I apologize. I love my team.”

It was the second social media call out by an offensive lineman in the past few months, but Stoops said on Saturday that just banning players from social media isn’t an option.

“I can’t see even trying to put a complete stop to it,” he said. “I don’t even know how you can. It’s like asking somebody not to talk.”

Saying he wasn’t speaking directly about Price, Stoops said some players aren’t “equipped communicating the best way,” he said. “That’s their way of expressing themselves.”

It’s a frustrating reality for college coaches who oversee more than 100 college-aged players, who use social media in its many forms all day every day.

“Kids need to find a way to express themselves,” Stoops continued. “Do we agree with it? Do we like it? No. … It’s a distraction; you don’t love it.

“We educate them and continue to educate them on that. The minute you hit send, it’s news; it’s printed. It’s out there. There’s no erasing it. We need to help them through that as best we can.”

While there won’t be new social media policies governing players, there will be more internal accountability for behavior that reflects poorly on the team, Stoops offered.

“That’s got to come from the team, come from our leaders,” he said. “We will talk about that and see what they want to do. That’s a team issue, what the players want and how they hold themselves accountable, what their expectations are.”

Key role player injures leg

A key role player at one of the few defensive positions without much depth and experience injured his leg this week, Stoops confirmed on Saturday.

Jamin Davis, who has been “cross training” at both the middle and weakside linebacker spots, according to UK’s defensive coaches, hurt his left leg and is being evaluated this weekend.

“We’re going to find out more on Monday,” Stoops confirmed after Davis was spotted leaving the practice facility on crutches on Saturday.

“It’s hopefully not serious. He’s got an injury, a leg injury. We were worried. We’ll let them look at it tomorrow.”

The injury happened during a ball security drill on Thursday in the indoor practice facility.

“Basically an up-tempo walk through,” Stoops described. “He got caught up and that’s the bad thing about going inside sometimes is it’s just the turf grabbed him and we’ve got old turf and it’s tight in there. I wish we could get outside, but it’s not always the case.”

Kentucky’s defense returns all but one starter from last season’s team — middle linebacker Courtney Love graduated. His backup, Kash Daniel, is expected to play significant snaps there this season, but coaches also have been working redshirt freshman Alex King and Davis at that spot.

Davis, a 6-foot-4, 224-pounder from Ludowici, Ga., also was working at weakside linebacker behind Jordan Jones, a spot that opened up when Eli Brown decided to transfer this winter.

Davis, who had a team-best eight tackles including one for loss in the spring game a season ago before redshirting, was considered one of the nation’s top 50 outside linebackers by one recruiting service.

Shortened practice, scrimmage

Because of the inclement weather on Saturday in Lexington, UK had to change its plans for holding a first scrimmage at Kroger Field. Instead, the Cats had an abbreviated, but “good physical” practice, Stoops said.

And then there was a scrimmage of sorts, but nothing significant.

“I would’ve liked to have gotten outside, but overall good work,” Stoops said, offering few details other than that cornerback Chris Westry ended the scrimmage with an interception.

“Both quarterbacks — all three of the quarterbacks — did a good job at times,” Stoops said. “There’s work to be done of course. Certainly wasn’t very smooth today, that’s for sure. We need as many live reps as we can get.”

The Cats have three more weeks of practice and at least two more opportunities for scrimmaging before the Blue-White Spring Game on April 13.

This story was originally published March 24, 2018 at 3:52 PM with the headline "UK player who criticized coaches is back. Will outburst mean a new social media policy?."