Notes from a one of the best victory hangovers I can recall since I've been watching sports (and that's a lot): Thanks for all the comments in last night's post celebrating the UK win, because believe me, that's exactly what I did.
UK's victory over the 9th ranked University of Louisville Cardinals helped slay some demons -- Devery Henderson and the demon who bestowed 30 years of futility against top-10 teams to name a couple. The outcome of the UofL game was, to me, more satisfying than UK's 96 NCAA Basketball Championship, and that's not just hyperbole talking.
Consider this, when the Cats won in 96, it had been 18 years since UK had cut the Final Four nets down. The football team hasn't beaten a top-10 team since 1977, and like I said earlier, that's a whopping 30 years between such victories. Besides, it's not like our basketball team wasn't successful in that 18 year period, we just couldn't finish the deal.
On the other hand, our football program (I say "our" because I went to UK), save for a couple of seasons here and there, has, well, sucked for lack of a better term. Anyway, enough of the fluff piece. What follows are some player highlights, things of interest and some wrap-up thoughts concerning UK's big win:
Andre Woodson Dre had a fantastic game, throwing for 275 yards and 4 touchdown passes. He also extended his pass attempts without an interception streak to 257, now tops in the SEC. His performance against UofL, who was playing a lot better defense than they did against MTSU, cannot be understated. His TD passes to Conner, Tamme and of course Johnson were things of beauty. He took what the defense gave him and responded in a big way.
In fact, Andre's performance against UofL has led to a A####mp;T All-America Player of the Week award nomination... and even though it's only the 3rd week of the CFB season, people are starting to mention the word "Heisman" and "Woodson" in the same sentence. I'm going to leave that alone for a while because there are some BIG games left to play.
Rafael Little Number 22 had a big, bruising game against the Cards. Little rushed 27 times for 151 yards and a big touchdown. Louisville had no answer for Little's powerful runs up the middle and if UK's passing game wasn't so effective, he would've had over 200 yards, easily. Not only that, but he was quite effective when he was asked to block during passing downs.
Little continues to perform like the best running back no one knows about. However, in a conference that features Darren McFadden, the oversight is understandable.
Wesley Woodyard The captain of UK's defense had a commanding game delivering 13 tackles, a big pass break-up and a huge stop of UofL tight end Gary Barnidge at the 2 yard line on a HUGE 4th down play in the game's final quarter. Woodyard was all over the field and had a hand in just about every other stop of note.
In fact, the entire defense deserves credit because believe it or not, for a maligned unit like UK's defense to hold the high-powered Cardinals to 34 points is a victory unto itself -- a victory that was secured by Marcus McClinton's tackle of Harry Douglas at the Kentucky 11... of course, when the Brian Brohm's batted-down pass landed in Douglas' hands, the entire Commonwealth undoubtedly flashbacked to LSU and the aforementioned Devery Henderson. NOT THIS TIME!
"I was telling the guys I've lost this game the last three years, so I
never got to touch that trophy before," UK's senior linebacker said.
"It was great to finally get it."
Keenan Burton Watch Playing on a sprained ankle, number 19 turned in one of his normally-brilliant games, catching 9 passes for 99 yards. Many of Burton's catches were of the acrobatic type, making his performance all the more impressive when you consider his injury. In 3 games, Keenan has 257 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns, 1st on the team.
Maybe someday, the Mel Kiper's of the world will recognize Keenan's ability.
Jacob Tamme Tamme's touchdown catch in the 4th quarter was sick. He out-jumped Louisville's defender in the end zone and just made a great play. I can only hope UK continues to use one of the best middle-of-the-field threats in Division 1.
You can't stop Tamme. You can't even contain him!
Steve Johnson I've had some fun with Johnson's traffic stop earlier in the season, but after Saturday's 2-touchdown performance, there's only one thing people want to talk about when his name is brought up: the 57-yard game-winning touchdown that took the crowd by storm.
Welcome to the UK history books Steve. You certainly deserve it.
Touchdown KENTUCKY!!!!!!!!!!
WTF Moments The UK special teams played like garbage. They allowed a 100-yard kick-off return and Lones Seiber's extra-point struggles continued. He missed one and had another block... however, the blocked one actually made it over the uprights. Of course, these maddening struggles were magnified because Seiber was 2 for 2 on field goals, hitting from 36 and 31 yards.
Coach Brooks obviously shares this frustration because you could visibly see him telling Seiber to kick his extra points higher to prevent them being blocked. Now if he can just keep them from shanking to the right...
Another WTF moment came when UK had a 4th and 1 in the first half and decided to run the option. Going for the conversion was the smart choice because UK was on the UofL side of the 50. Using a slow-developing option to accomplish this goal was not. Please remove all option plays from the UK playbook.
Going Forward UK cannot afford to let this victory go to their head. Next week, they have to take a trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas to face a pissed-off Arkansas Razorback team who is coming off a tough loss against Nick Saban's Alabama team. I'm expecting an angry Darren McFadden to let out his frustrations against a UK defense that has had some interesting times with good running backs.
Can UK overcome their elation in time to prepare for hornet's nest that will be the Arkansas Razorbacks? If not, this Cloud-9 feeling will come to an end pretty quickly. Thankfully, we have an offense that can score on anybody. Let's hope they all come to play next Saturday.
Besides the Razorbacks, UK has a lot of tough games remaining on their schedule and if they really want this win over UofL to signify a turning-point for the football program, they have to capitalize on what they've started.
What do you think? Can UK continue forward or will they falter in the eyes of the SEC?
