UK football notes: 'Weird' neck injury could sideline Zach West for a while

What Mark Stoops referred to as a "weird injury" for starting left guard Zach West could keep him out for the foreseeable future.

"Could be a couple days, a week, a month," the Kentucky coach said of the neck injury. "I have no clue.

"He will not be cleared to play until he gets full range and full strength. They have no idea when that will be."

West's neck discomfort started late last week, with Stoops even wondering aloud if the former Lexington Christian standout "slept on it wrong or something that caused him a little bit of nerve damage."

But the area has some fluid around it and trainers are taking it seriously.

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West's backup, red-shirt freshman walk-on Cole Mosier, will start in his place again at Florida on Saturday, but on the depth chart West is listed as the backup at that spot.

"We'll look at several options in there, mix some guys around this week; we'll see," Stoops said.

West, who has been a main stay at left guard for each of the past two seasons, wasn't the only injury news to come out of the head coach's regular weekly news conference.

■ The ankle injuries for wide receiver Javess Blue and running back Braylon Heard still have them listed as day to day, Stoops said, but he added that he didn't "feel great about Blue" or the senior's chances to play on Saturday.

Heard, who injured his ankle on his second touchdown (in as many carries) in the opener against Tennessee-Martin, was able to run some late last week.

■ Alexander Montgomery, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament late last season, likely will play sometime this season, his head coach said on Monday. "I do expect him back this year. Not this week."

Fellow sophomore wideout Jeff Badet, who has missed the first two games of the season after being hit in the eye with a tennis ball during drills, was seen on the sidelines Saturday wearing a large pair of sunglasses.

"He had to get clearance from me to wear sunglasses on the sideline," Stoops said joking. "But he's got the eye issue and, really, there's some things that we're still working out with the leg as well."

Badet saw a specialist late last week for the eye injury, but Stoops didn't elaborate on the findings. The sophomore, who had 22 catches for 285 yards and a touchdown last season, broke his leg on a freak injury late in the spring.

"It was very difficult to come back from," Badet said in early August. "I'd never (broken) anything, so it was difficult to come back from. It's just hard work. ... It was hard, I'm not going to say it wasn't hard, but I got through it."

With the absence of Blue, Badet and Montgomery, UK is without three of its top five returning threats at wide out.

■ Kentucky isn't the only team battling injuries. Florida Coach Will Muschamp announced on Monday that the Gators will be without starting left tackle D.J. Humphries for the next two to three weeks. Right tackle Chaz Green will move over to the left side and 6-foot-6, 310-pound red-shirt freshman Rod Johnson will start at right tackle.

Quarterback clarity

Stoops fielded some questions on Monday about the status of Kentucky's backups to quarterback Patrick Towles, and said that red-shirt freshman Reese Phillips is officially the backup (with a twist).

"If something happened where Patrick was going to be out for a long period of time, then we would address the situation," Stoops said. "If we can redshirt Drew (Barker), then that's what we're going to do. ...

"I don't know what the future holds as far as injuries and things like that. If we can redshirt him, we will."

Stoops said Barker, the true freshman who helped recruit much of the 2014 class that has been so productive for the Cats, has handled his likely red-shirt season well.

"He's been good; he's still been right in there with all the game-planning and he's been involved and he's been engaged," Stoops said. "And he's still getting some reps, so it's been good."

A movie with a message

As a break from the rigors of fall camp, Stoops called the team into the meeting room one day and had a showing of the movie Secretariat for them.

While it offered a bit of a break, it also had another message, Stoops said: "To identify with Kentucky, to identify with the colors that we wear on our uniform and the fact that some of that was patterned after Secretariat."

For running back Jojo Kemp, a DeLand, Fla. native, it made him appreciate the state he resides in now.

"I feel like I'm more of a Kentuckian than I was before," he said. "Watching that movie and seeing how passionate those people were about their horses. ... It makes me want to play not just for my hometown, but for the state of Kentucky as well."

For a Kentucky native like reserve offensive lineman Max Godby, he saw it as a chance to learn about what makes this state tick for so many of the young guys that come from places like Ohio and Florida.

"It makes you proud to be from this state," Godby said. "Secretariat, that's where the checkered pattern comes from on our jerseys, the horse farms. ... There's just so much about Kentucky that we're so proud about."

This story was originally published September 8, 2014 at 1:25 PM with the headline "UK football notes: 'Weird' neck injury could sideline Zach West for a while."