All I will say about this mess.....

[ukbob]

Thank God it is over.

I feel terrible for Michael Bush. Hopefully, he will recover well.

As for the game...quite frankly, I was embarrassed to watch it. My expectations were not extremely high for this group, but I expected them to compete. We did not compete. We were fortunate they did not score 70.

And this is strictly my opinion.....

UK looked totally unprepared and incapable of adjusting to the game. They looked flat. That is totally inexcusable in my book, but not uncommon in the Brooks era. I had hoped we would shed this trend with more and talented players, but alas.....

And Mike Archer is possibly worse than Mike Majors. Players constantly out of position...arm tackling....LBers playing 5 yds off. Who teaches this? Hudson was run off, but they forgot to take Archer with him. His defenses, even with more depth and talent, get worse. (Yeah...I know...it was against the great UL team.....BALONEY) Our D-Line, which had good experience and depth, was pushed around like HS kids by their O-Line....ALL NIGHT.Inexcusable. Archer was not good the last time here and is worse now.

As for the offense......and this will likely tick off some...but I am trying to decide if Joker is better than Hudson (other than recruiting, which is obvious). The offense is stale, unimaginative and SLOW. Burton is our offense and he didn't touch the ball until we were down by 28 points. Our vaunted O-Line was manhandled by a D=Line that lost some very fine players. No blocking...no running....no nothing really.

Not all was bad however. It was great to see young Lyons make some catches and Burton is one of the best athletes to ever wear the Blue and White, IMO. He is a playmaker and a darn fine one. Woodyard is our stud on defense. The guy is everywhere. (He has to be)

My expectations were not much for this year. I did expect 6 wins and that could still happen. (Certainly not with this kind of effort). I did expect for us to be competitive in each game. I expected us to be prepared and make proper adjustments. I expected us to be more physical and make plays. I didn't see any of this tonight.

No more spin. Even Brooks refuses the use the probation talk and I will too. I expect this team and this staff to learn something from this embarrassment. (Yes....it was embarrassing. We are now Little Brother, IMO) I expect them to get pissed off and coach up this team. We have good players in lots of positions. COACH THEM UP. Put them in positions to succeed, not fail (as Pulley was a couple of times tonight. That 3rd and 4 substitution with Pulley running the sneak was a real winner. Nobody knew that was coming. :rolleyes:)

Uk needs to move forward. I will be watching. I fully expect MY TEAM to be prepared to compete each week. I fully expect to see improvement each week. If I don't, then I fully expect Mr. Barnhartto replace the whole bunch with a staff that can.

The motto this year is ..We Believe. Well, I still don't. The only thing I believe is that we are still the doormat in football and will never be competitive in the SEC. And games like this make me think I am right. And I want to be proven wrong.

I will see you guys later in the year. Let's hope it is for happier times and planning for a Bowl game.

[Littlemeyer]

ukbob wrote: That 3rd and 4 substitution with Pulley running the sneak was a real winner. Nobody knew that was coming. :rolleyes:

That, IMO, was the worst call of the game. MUCH, MUCH worse than going for it on 4th down early in the second half.

Good post, Bob. (as usual)

[TrueblueCATfan]

I am glad it is over too...............what I am upset over the most is Bush getting hurt....what a great football player to go down like that in the first game.........it just seemed to put a damper on the whole game....IMO

[CATHYnKY]

Come on guys. We have 11 more games to play. We had the 13th ??? ranked team in the country worrying. I'm disappointed , but NOT discouraged. See you all next week in Lexington, GO CATS!

[BigblueDrew]

This was THE watershed game of the Brooks era IMO. Uof L is not as good as last year IMO, defense is much weaker. What I saw tonight was a team that was physically dominated on both sides of the ball. Mistakes didn't beat us(like last year), we were beaten because thier guys are tougher, stronger and quicker than our guys. The University of Kentucky is NOWHERE NEAR ready to play bigtime football. I shudder to think what happens to us in SEC play. We will win a few games this year, (a watered down schedule will see to that) but as far as playing competative SEC football, it isn't going to happen. After watching tonights game, I don't think Coach Brooks will ever get us there. I already see the excuses coming, but I can find no excuse for what I saw tonight.Another season as a national joke appears inevitable. We gave up almost 700 yards of offense tonight, 700 yards!!! Many, including myself, felt UK had turned a corner in the talent department, but after tonights game it is painfully obvious that we are not even close to the talent levels we need to field a competative SEC team. I am so sick of watching UK get dominated agianst good teams. I really don't see how coach Brooks can turn this around this season the talent just isn't there. Wishing to be successful will not be enough. Another year watching UK take a knife to a gun fight each week. It is so depressing.

[Trueblujr]

BigblueDrew wrote: we were beaten because thier guys are tougher, stronger and quicker than our guys.

The statement is very true, but I have to wonder how it's been allowed to get that way. UofL is not lining up 4 and 5 star guys acrossthe boardlike USC, or Texas. Their recruiting classes haven't been a whole heck of a lot better than ours, they've just benefitted from having more numbers of players to bring in. But somehow they've managed to turn mostly 2 and 3 star recruits with only a couple of 4's and 5's sprinkled in, into national tiltle contenders. Is it the system? is it the coaching? I don't know, but for some reason UofL manages to get the very most out of what they have, they are coached to execute almost flawlessly. THey are like a machine with an answer for every situation.

[Spanish Moss]

Trueblujr wrote: BigblueDrew wrote: we were beaten because thier guys are tougher, stronger and quicker than our guys.

The statement is very true, but I have to wonder how it's been allowed to get that way. UofL is not lining up 4 and 5 star guys acrossthe boardlike USC, or Texas. Their recruiting classes haven't been a whole heck of a lot better than ours, they've just benefitted from having more numbers of players to bring in. But somehow they've managed to turn mostly 2 and 3 star recruits with only a couple of 4's and 5's sprinkled in, into national tiltle contenders. Is it the system? is it the coaching? I don't know, but for some reason UofL manages to get the very most out of what they have, they are coached to execute almost flawlessly. THey are like a machine with an answer for every situation.

I know one thing they are tougher and meaner. We seem to have a nice group of young men who don't understand to win in football you have to smash somebody in the mouth. We get blown off the line of scrimmage when we should bow our neck and attack. I don't know the answer. Kentucky football is soft and everyone knows it.

Maybe it is a matter of pride. Maybe UL players have more pride and want the win a lot more than our players do. Losing breeds an attitude and that attitude is one that will give up before the fight starts. We gave up the first series and when they went through us like a knife through hot butter it was obvious, little has changed. First thing you know we are down by two touchdowns, then three touchdowns and by that time the hole is so deep you might as well cover us up. We were dead and needed to be buried.

[Caveman Catfan]

I don't think we had UL worried. I think we had Petrino mad. They stacked the line to stop the run and put pressure on Andre. It worked. When a team does that, they are apt to give up some big plays. UK had some big plays, but UL demonstrated its dominance.

Before Bush got hurt, I think this UL team was better than last year's team. Brohm was in his first game as a starter last year. That showed in the second half. Urrutia was not on the field. Bolen, Carter, Vaughn, etc. are solid athletes added to an already athletic team. Even with the loss of Dumervil, Stanley and Johnson, the defense looked solid. Harris is a stud, but he is not the only one. They had playmakers on defense. We had a couple of playmakers on defense. They had a team of them.

UK's O-Line looked awful while UL's was creating truck-sized holes for its running backs. It looked like we had 8 men on defense to their 11.

I believe that this is going to be another long season for the Cats. Can't say I have any reason to believe otherwise, except for all of the talk that we are better.

UK may be a year away from showing improvement, but I do not expect coach Brooks or his staff to see that team.

[Dr. H Lecter]

Caveman Catfan wrote:
UK's O-Line looked awful while UL's was creating truck-sized holes for its running backs. It looked like we had 8 men on defense to their 11.



It looked to me that they ran a whole bunch of long plays on simple sweeps. Our Corner Backs and ends sure went awol muc of the time. Our "D" was pretty pitiful. No pressure on the QB. He had all night to look for a receiver.

The "D" has a long way to go for us to be very good.

[poodoo]

I know one thing they are tougher and meaner. We seem to have a nice group of young men who don't understand to win in football you have to smash somebody in the mouth. We get blown off the line of scrimmage when we should bow our neck and attack. I don't know the answer. Kentucky football is soft and everyone knows it. QUOTE by Spanish Moss

__________

On his postgame Coach Brooks was bemoaning our not being physical enough, something that he had been telling the players, to no avail. Ironically, he also mentioned whata nice group of young men these guys are.

Well, on the call-in show after the game, former UK linebacker Marty Moore was saying almost exactly what you are saying here, Spanish Moss. He said that we PLAY SOFT, in particular criticizing both lines AND the linebackers. He said that you need to be NASTY on the football field and that these guys are not, FWIW. Let's hope they were embarrassed enough to be TOUGHER and MEANER from here on out.

[poodoo]

Uk needs to move forward. I will be watching. I fully expect MY TEAM to be prepared to compete each week. I fully expect to see improvement each week. If I don't, then I fully expect Mr. Barnhartto replace the whole bunch with a staff that can. QUOTE by ukbob

___________

That sounds pretty fair to me, ukbob. No doubt, last night's performance, overall, was a "mess." :(Too, you are, at the same time,still hoping to see that improvement and for us to be planning for a bowl game later in the year(while far too many fans have totally given up after this first, so disappointing performance).

Thatstill can happen, but only with that weekly improvement of which you speak. May it happen, for the taste inside my mouth right now is, admittedly, not so good.

[lighthouse]

It looked to me like UL was more prepared physically than we were. We looked weak and out of shape. I kept hearing all year how the ul team was working on their own to be stronger and in better shape, obviously it worked. I'm still not convinced that the actual talent level difference between the 2 teams is very much. Other than Bush, Braum, and Harris. I think we match up well. But the huge difference is preparation.

[CatFanForLife]

I am sorry that I will be unable to listen to Coach Brooks' show tomorrow night, but if anyone here is planning to listen, and even call in to ask a question, I'd like to know this...

How in the world do we not come out prepared, and have the ball crammed down our throats from the veryfirst kickoff? What is up with our arm tackling??? year after year after year...Can our coachesteach proper tackling technique?

How are our opponents pretty much able to do ANYTHING they want for the first 6-7 series before you see any type of response from us? We scuffle around and fart away precious time, and by the time we make any type of noticeableadjustment, or even score our first points, the game is over.

I still support this team and this staff, but I will start to question that support (at least for this coaching staff) if I see another lackluster performance like we had last night.

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for the lack of preparation we saw last night, especially with all of the hype and all of the player's comments about how things were changing for the better. Looks like the same old s*** and I am getting tired of seeing this.

[dpinlex]

poodoo wrote: Uk needs to move forward. I will be watching. I fully expect MY TEAM to be prepared to compete each week. I fully expect to see improvement each week. If I don't, then I fully expect Mr. Barnhartto replace the whole bunch with a staff that can. QUOTE by ukbob

___________



i don't think it is too much to expect our dc to put together a gameplan that will give the defense an opportunity to compete. There is more talent on this team than what was shown last night. At least go into a game with the mindset of trying to take "something" away from an opponent. We currently do not and will most likely never have the talent to play most opponents "straight-up". I would much rather know we are trying to stop the run and pressure the qb and know the risk is getting beat over the top a few times a game than to continually watch opponents methodically march up and down the flipping field for another fall.

As for the offensive, I don't have a clue.Wewere already down double digitsbefore the smoke cleared from the pregame fireworks.

[UKHAS7NCAA]

I've noticed a difference in the ul players versus our players. They seem to have a mean streak about them alot more than our players. We MUST strart recruiting the south ALOT better to compete with the big boys.

[graham51]

UK may be a year away from showing improvement, but I do not expect coach Brooks or his staff to see that team.

CC would you want to give an estimate of what YEAR that will be?

[sardiscat]

"What is up with our arm tackling??? year after year after year...Can our coachesteach proper tackling technique?"

The problem is that UK does not recruit tackling ability. Have you ever heard a UK coach say about a signee that he's a good tackler? No, you just hear about the program he comes from and his size, frame, speed and strength. I've heard a number of coaches, including Joe Lee Dunn and Tommy Tuberville, say that tackling is very hard to teach at the college level, that if a player is not a good tackler when he arrives on campus as a freshman,that player most likely is never going to be a good tackler. Dunn said that the ability to tackle is the first thing he looks for when evaluating a defensive recruit.

[Mr. T]

CATHYnKY wrote: Come on guys. We have 11 more games to play. We had the 13th ??? ranked team in the country worrying. I'm disappointed , but NOT discouraged. See you all next week in Lexington, GO CATS!




I may need to check my sarcasm meter, but I don't really think UL was worrying too awful much at any point in the game. Even if we were scoring, it didn't really matter because we couldn't' stop THEM from scoring.

It was just really a pathetic display. The offense was bad save for a couple homerun balls. The defense was beyond inept. I really think you could go grab 11 guys from Haggin Hall and not have done much worse. Worst of all was the apparent unwillingness to try and change it up on the D side. Why not mix it up some? Maybe bring a few everyone including the kitchen sink blitzes? Maybe put the linebackers right at the LOS. Maybe even try some 5-2 (or even 4-4) and put the CB's in bump coverage. Maybe we get beat deep, but make UL show us that they can do it instead of just letting them run for 8 yards per carry. Also, (and maybe this is a new concept to Archer) disguise your coverage.

[Mike B]

Brooks shouldn't have been brought back this year. If he is back next year, it's time to fire Mitch.

[CatsSaintsFan]

Mike B wrote:
Brooks shouldn't have been brought back this year.Â* If he is back next year, it's time to fire Mitch.



If they look like that against the better teams in our schedule, he'll be fired at the end of the year. If they look like that against the 3 non conference games, Vandy, or MSU, he will get fired DURING the year.

[Art Vandelay]

Great post Bob, you summed up my feelings perfectly. The thing that has most puzzeled me about the Brooks era is the complete lack of passion most games, the constant flat play. How do you come out flat in a game like this?

I expected UL to score a lot of points on us. Frankly, I expected them to win, but I certainly expected us to compete. This game was not only embarassing, I think it set the program back years.

Barnhart needs to wake up a realize that Tom Jurich has us in his cross hairs. He knows if he can continue to rack up victories against Kentucky, UL will start to dominate instate recruiting and may even start to erode fan support - especially in Jefferson County.

[The Old School JPS]

ukbob wrote: That 3rd and 4 substitution with Pulley running the sneak was a real winner. Nobody knew that was coming. :rolleyes:)

That call was utterly pathetic.

Vis a vis your observations about Joker Phillips vs. Ron Hudson vs. Mike Archer vs. Mike Major:

Phillips is not doing as well as we'd hoped but he is worlds better than Hudson was. Phillips has fromtime to time sent out some imaginative plays that worked and put up some points.Hudson was capable of neither. At this point I'd also say Phillips is doinga better job than Archer is.

Archer vs. Major - I gave Archer the benefit of the doubt for a long time but Major's defenses actually turned in solid, game winning performances from time to time (Arkansas and Vanderbilt, 1999) and played admirably at other times (Indiana, Georgia and Vanderbilt in 1997; LSU, South Carolina and Mississippi State in 1999, South Carolina in 2000 and the Outback Bowl vs. Penn State where the Lions were held to field goals for most of their scores and the UK D continued to hold late when the UK O was repeatedly stymied) and this hasn't yet happened under Archer as often unfortunately (UT in 2003, Florida in 2003 and 2004, South Carolina and Vanderbilt in 2004, Ole Miss and Mississippi State last year) and unfortunately for Archer when the defense does play well (those games, or UL in 2004) the offense is usually AWOL. As a result, we easily forget the handful of games when the UK D has played fairly well under Archer.

[CatsSaintsFan]

ukbob wrote:
Thank God it is over.

I feel terrible for Michael Bush. Hopefully, he will recover well.

As for the game...quite frankly, I was embarrassed to watch it. My expectations were not extremely high for this group, but I expected them to compete. We did not compete. We were fortunate they did not score 70.

And this is strictly my opinion.....

UK looked totally unprepared and incapable of adjusting to the game. They looked flat. That is totally inexcusable in my book, but not uncommon in the Brooks era. I had hoped we would shed this trend with more and talented players, but alas.....

And Mike Archer is possibly worse than Mike Majors. Players constantly out of position...arm tackling....LBers playing 5 yds off. Who teaches this? Hudson was run off, but they forgot to take Archer with him. His defenses, even with more depth and talent, get worse. (Yeah...I know...it was against the great UL team.....BALONEY) Our D-Line, which had good experience and depth, was pushed around like HS kids by their O-Line....ALL NIGHT.Â*Inexcusable. Archer was not good the last time here and is worse now.

As for the offense......and this will likely tick off some...but I am trying to decide if Joker is better than Hudson (other than recruiting, which is obvious). The offense is stale, unimaginative and SLOW. Burton is our offense and he didn't touch the ball until we were down by 28 points. Our vaunted O-Line was manhandled by a D=Line that lost some very fine players. No blocking...no running....no nothing really.

Not all was bad however. It was great to see young Lyons make some catches and Burton is one of the best athletes to ever wear the Blue and White, IMO. He is a playmaker and a darn fine one. Woodyard is our stud on defense. The guy is everywhere. (He has to be)

My expectations were not much for this year. I did expect 6 wins and that could still happen. (Certainly not with this kind of effort). I did expect for us to be competitive in each game. I expected us to be prepared and make proper adjustments. I expected us to be more physical and make plays. I didn't see any of this tonight.

No more spin. Even Brooks refuses the use the probation talk and I will too. I expect this team and this staff to learn something from this embarrassment. (Yes....it was embarrassing. We are now Little Brother, IMO) I expect them to get pissed off and coach up this team. We have good players in lots of positions. COACH THEM UP. Put them in positions to succeed, not fail (as Pulley was a couple of times tonight. That 3rd and 4 substitution with Pulley running the sneak was a real winner. Nobody knew that was coming. :rolleyes:)

Uk needs to move forward. I will be watching. I fully expect MY TEAM to be prepared to compete each week. I fully expect to see improvement each week. If I don't, then I fully expect Mr. BarnhartÂ*to replace the whole bunch with a staff that can.

The motto this year is ..We Believe. Well, I still don't. The only thing I believe is that we are still the doormat in football and will never be competitive in the SEC. And games like this make me think I am right.Â* And I want to be proven wrong.

I will see you guys later in the year. Let's hope it is for happier times and planning for a Bowl game.



Bob, I know how hard it was for you to write that. I really wanted the feel good atmosphere to carry over from week one but was afraid it would be this bad.

It's a long season. I pray for improvement or it really will be a loooooong season.

[poodoo]

UKHAS7NCAA wrote: I've noticed a difference in the ul players versus our players. They seem to have a mean streak about them alot more than our players.


As I posted on another thread, specifically, former UK linebacker Marty Mooresaid last nightthat our guys MUST GET NASTY, for playing football is about being nasty on the field. He said that we play SOFT, and it was most obvious that he was upset about that, especially in regard to both lines and the linebackers.

Brooks also complained about our not being PHYSICAL enough. He then went on to say what a nice group of young men we have on this football team.

Having said that, I think Michael Bush is a really nice young man, just for an example. Yet, he is really TOUGH on that football field. Perhaps Marty Moore, Coach Brooks, and you are right. The UK players need more ofa MEAN STREAK out on the field.

Regardless, although we witnessed a "mess" Sunday night, I refuse to give up. Bad taste or not after the way we played (and I guarantee that the players and coaches have an even worse taste in their mouths after the performance), I still believe, and, most of all, the players themselves must still believe. Otherwise, we are in for a long year, as someone just said. We must continue to believe, and the players must feel that we believe. I reallybelieve that. :)

[Mr. T]

The Old School JPS wrote: ukbob wrote: That 3rd and 4 substitution with Pulley running the sneak was a real winner. Nobody knew that was coming. :rolleyes:)

That call was utterly pathetic.

Vis a vis your observations about Joker Phillips vs. Ron Hudson vs. Mike Archer vs. Mike Major:

Phillips is not doing as well as we'd hoped but he is worlds better than Hudson was. Phillips has fromtime to time sent out some imaginative plays that worked and put up some points.Hudson was capable of neither. At this point I'd also say Phillips is doinga better job than Archer is.

Archer vs. Major - I gave Archer the benefit of the doubt for a long time but Major's defenses actually turned in solid, game winning performances from time to time (Arkansas and Vanderbilt, 1999) and played admirably at other times (Indiana, Georgia and Vanderbilt in 1997; LSU, South Carolina and Mississippi State in 1999, South Carolina in 2000 and the Outback Bowl vs. Penn State where the Lions were held to field goals for most of their scores and the UK D continued to hold late when the UK O was repeatedly stymied) and this hasn't yet happened under Archer as often unfortunately (UT in 2003, Florida in 2003 and 2004, South Carolina and Vanderbilt in 2004, Ole Miss and Mississippi State last year) and unfortunately for Archer when the defense does play well (those games, or UL in 2004) the offense is usually AWOL. As a result, we easily forget the handful of games when the UK D has played fairly well under Archer.


One thing about Majors defense, while it gave up a lot of yards and scoring(mainly in big plays, it was more of a if your gonna break do it right now kind of D), if I am not mistaken it also caused a lot of turnovers, which can really help an offense.

I don't want to sound like I am defending Mike Majors defense, but I think I would prefer the gambling, blitzing style over having LB's 6+ yards of the LOS and CB lined up 10+ yards off the receivers so that we can watch the other team chew up the field 12 yards at a time.

[Blue Heaven]

The players are an extension of their coach. I beleive 18-22 year old FOOTBALL players want to hear it from someone who exudes a confident fiery attitude that resembles more of themselves, than they want to hear it from someone who brings it as if the Whist national title were on the line. Or Bridge or whatever. Brooks is, And forgive me for saying 'cause I like the guy, too old and too soft to be trying to turn around a program that has been soft for eternity. I want Brooks to suceed as much as the next guy, and the man deserves our respect, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that he is/ was the wrong man for the job. That's why I miss Guy-Mo. For that team to go 7-5 was an enormous feat. The Cats have better athletes than they do now and what have we got to show for it? I guess what I am trying to sat is I don't see Brooks breaking his hand punching a locker to get this team fired up. Follow me?

[Spanish Moss]

You know our defense is in trouble when we can look back and find something good about Mike Majors defense. This is very depressing.

[Mr. T]

Spanish Moss wrote: You know our defense is in trouble when we can look back and find something good about Mike Majors defense. This is very depressing.

:cry: I know, but the sad part is...... that it's true.

[uk7274]

UK Bob, you are right, right and right.

[Athens2005]

ukbob wrote:

Put them in positions to succeed, not fail (as Pulley was a couple of times tonight. That 3rd and 4 substitution with Pulley running the sneak was a real winner. Nobody knew that was coming. :rolleyes:)




I thought both times that Pulley was brought in to play QB were strange.

1) The referenced play
2) The series where we were pinned deep in our own territory and he fumbled.

Not exactly setting him or the team up for success. :thumbdown

[I. Melvin]

If it is indeed true that Leach made it known he was interested, it is a firing offense for Mitch to keep Brooks this year.

I like to believe that Barnhart took the temperature of potential replacements and found things too iffy to pull the trigger - especially when recruiting seemed to be going well.

Sorry. But enough is enough. No more excuses. No more Curryesque performances.

We need a winner in here now.

Mike B wrote: Brooks shouldn't have been brought back this year. If he is back next year, it's time to fire Mitch.