A Cinderella Story

The match up seemed hopeless on paper, and Kentucky appeared just as daunting when it took the floor before a Big Blue mass of 24,402 Saturday night.

But the Cinderella Vols believed they could win, and for 30 minutes the glass slipper fit in Rupp Arena.

Thats the way the story starts at govolsextra.com.

Its a given that Tennessee played a good game against the Cat’s and its a given that barring a complete collapse by the Vols and a few more arrests they will be playing come March Madness time.

I don’t mind giving credit where credit is due but calling them the Cinderella Vols is stretching the amount of credit I’m really able to extend them.

Don’t they know the story of Cinderella? For those of you who haven’t read it or at least heard of the story I will tell it to you.

Once upon a time there was a basketball team that lived in a conference call the SEC. They cried because they couldn’t win a national championship and a low and behold a fast talking coach magically appeared who promised them they could dance with the trophy.

Now there were a couple of problems for the coach to overcome before this could happen. They didn’t have any designer clothes but that was easily fixed by trips to the mall and the county clothing store. They didn’t have a ride to the big dance so he would turn a pumpkin into a shiny city car come time for the dance and low and behold their problems were solved.

Sadly their two wicked step sisters Kentucky and Vanderbilt wanted them to stay home the evening of the dance so they resorted to judicial magic to escape. The pumpkin changed into a beautiful car with pretty flashing lights and their rags turned into beautiful orange jump suits.

Of course we all know how the story turns out, one and done. It would be a sad story but they got to keep the beautiful orange jump suits.

I know I know its not that good a story but desperation forces a man to write something like this to compete with story like Cinderella Vols. Cornell advancing to the final four would be a Cinderella story but calling Tennessee a Cinderella is a sign or increasing desperation.

The auctioneer is in the house

Did anyone besides me get the feeling that the old fast talking auctioneer Lane Kiffin sold out Tennessee in record time.

Has there ever been a faster talking SEC coach? The fast talking old balls coach at South Carolina couldn’t come close to matching Kiffen’s speed with his mouth and Spurrier at least is willing to give a school his best. Kiffin on the other hand is willing to give a school his dads best shot. If it wasn’t for his dads defensive coaching what would Tennessee have done this season.

Has anyone seen a reason he should be described as a good head coach? I thought not.

He spends not even a year with the Raiders, has a losing record and is fired and called a liar by Al Davis. And you betcha he is a liar as Tennessee fans and players will tell you. All you have to do is watch his lips move to know that.

He wins barely half of his games and hes considered a good coach at Tennessee but his lips were moving there all the time too.

Hes an embarrassment to not only Tennessee fans but all of us SEC fans as well and USC fans will find that out quickly. Thanks Lane and your dad would be ashamed of you but hes watched your lips move your whole life and knows not to get involved watching them and forget whats hes doing.

About the only thing left for Tennessee to do is put the head coaching job up for auction and let the fastest auctioneer get the school a new coach in record time.

The Hard Fall

The higher you go, the harder you fall.  Its been a long time since UK fans have had to experience the long fall, and never from football.  But here we were yesterday, watching the possibility of all things new.  UK could beat UT and move into the upper levels of the SEC all in one game.  Then it came down to all in one set of overtime series.  All UK had to do was score and they probably only needed three points if the D could hold for three downs, possibly four.  UK did neither and fell right back into the hole they have taken decades to dig.  Maybe the long fall in football will help prepare us for the long falls we may have coming up in basketball?  It’s not much of a silver lining, but at least its something I guess.

There are plenty of reasons UK fell down in the UT game.  The D could not stop the run once again, but they’ve had trouble with big strong backs all year so this wasn’t a big surprise.  UK did find a way to put enough points on the board, but I had that, “doomed” feeling when I felt UK needed to produce on demand in OT.  The reason was at quarterback.  Newton hasn’t performed all year, never seemed to grow at all, and especially not to a level that you would expect from a future savior.  The bottom line with me comes down to what I consider to be the huge mistake at passing over Fidler.  First, UK simply GAVE the kid a job he did not earn, and the players never seemed to play as hard for him.  He never seemed to have their respect and was lost in most games and was totally lost in the entire UT game.  All the while, Fidler read defenses much better, and let’s face it, reading anything at all was light years better than Newton.  Fidler’s passes were more on time and on target, his decisions were that of a fourth year guy, the team played for him and he ran just as well as Newton.  Of course if your end goal was to run Fidler off, I say mission accomplished as he was honored on senior day following his announcement that he wasn’t coming back next year. 

Most people think UK error by not going to the Wildcat more in the UT game, which is completely an error in judgment if you ask me.  The Wildcat is a wrinkle set designed to give the other team something else to prepare for.  What those calling for more Wildcat fail to understand is all UT had to prepare for was the Wildcat and they bottled up every single option once they had a chance to see their guys defending it one time.  There is a reason Cobb had twice as many fumbles in the UT game as all the others combined (and his other fumble was actually a backward pass he dropped).  UT almost forced two other Cobb fumbles but he was able to pull it back in long enough to go down.

I love all the UK players, but when it comes to Newton, I just don’t know if he’s going to be a fit.  He’s the reactional type QB in a pro style offense that requires a thinker as much as a drop back passer.  Trading a number two position in the SEC for getting him some reps was a horrid mistake in my mind, especially considering he’s of the same mold as Pulley.  People might point to this year, where Pulley did finally have passing numbers in a lower division, but let’s also consider it took him five years to finally get numbers in one.  UK simply can’t waste two more years of dismal QB play to get one OK year and blowing this year on Newton was the worst coaching move of the year.

It doesnt Glow Orange in Tennessee

After news of three players being arrested last week on attempted armed robbery charges, its emerging that Tennessee has another player in trouble with the law.

Freshman defensive back Nyshier Oliver was cited for theft after shoplifting at a Knoxville mall on Nov. 7. Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin emphasized Wednesday morning that defensive back Nyshier Oliver was not arrested in his first public comments since news broke. Apparently cited and arrested are two different ways of going to court. Way to split hairs Kiffin, you do it as well as phat Phil did over academic fraud.

Four days after Oliver’s run-in with the law, Lane Kiffin went on the SEC coaches teleconference and outright fudged when he praised his team for not having any arrests in 11 months.

I mean what is it about Tennessee that causes such behavior. Their former coach was afraid to go to Alabama because he might be served papers. There present coach fudges when talking to the fans. They were involved in massive academic fraud that by the way wasn’t investigated by the SEC till almost two years had elapsed. Probably as a present to phat Phil for his ecstatic cooperation over the Alabama recruiting scandal. During a four-year period Tennessee has tallied 21 arrests, make that 25 now with 10 of those being felonies. Still behind Georgia’s 30+ but who’s counting when its Tennessee.

And don’t get me started on how the Tennessee cheerleaders improve the face of the Tennessee football program.

I’ve been to Tennessee its a beautiful state. It sent a scoundrel like Andrew Jackson to the White House and a handful of volunteers to the Alamo. Its also the home of the country music recording industry and a first rate university named Vanderbilt.

On one visit I stood on a railing looking down into the water at the beautiful green glow of a atomic reaction at Oak Ridge and realized that if God really loved Tennessee football he would have made the glow Orange.

Keep up the good work Tennessee. Louisville and Rick Pitino thank you for keeping them out of the spotlight.

The beauty of a sport

This is a good piece about soccer and a very good read. Why is it here in the basketball section. Because of something said below that I disagree with.

On the way back to our hotel, driving in our bulletproof car, we passed under a bridge on the highway and noticed one lone Mexican man happily swinging a flag back and forth. He had to have been 45 minutes from the stadium. There was nobody around him. He just kept swinging that flag with a joyous grin on his face. I remember thinking to myself, “Nobody in America will ever care about a sport that much.” And we won’t.

Obviously he has never been to Kentucky to know how much our fans care about the sport. Of course we Kentucky fans would never throw bags of urine at Indiana or Tennessee fans or Coach Calipari would walk off the court hiding a smile hopefully.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090817

And just as obviously we American love the beauty of the sport of soccer as much as anyone in the world. So much in fact that our passions boil at the thought of the game.

USA Today Poll

USA Today has released there preseason top 25. The Cats got 9 votes and are ranked 42 in the nation.

What shouldn’t surprise anyone is that there are no Big East teams ranked to start the season. Cincinnati, Pittsburg, W. Va, Rutgers and S. Florida all got votes. Its hard to see anyone besides Cincinnati or W. Virginia making a climb in to the top 25 due to the strength of their non-conference schedules.

The MWC and the WAC have four teams in the top 25 and a fifth Nevada got a few votes. Its easier to see some of them staying in the top 25 since they have teams that stand a fair chance of winning games against the BCS teams on their non-conference schedules.

USA Today Poll

1. Florida (53) 0-0 1,466

2. Texas (4) 0-0 1,386
3. Oklahoma (1) 0-0 1,358
4. USC (1) 0-0 1,321
5. Alabama 0-0 1,134
6. Ohio State 0-0 1,126
7. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,020
8. Penn State 0-0 988
9. LSU 0-0 917
10. Mississippi 0-0 889
11. Oklahoma State 0-0 861
12. California 0-0 711
13. Georgia 0-0 707
14. Oregon 0-0 694
15. Georgia Tech 0-0 559
16. Boise State 0-0 542
17. TCU 0-0 461
18. Utah 0-0 404
19. Florida State 0-0 371
20. North Carolina 0-0 293
21. Iowa 0-0 257
22. Nebraska 0-0 236
23. Notre Dame 0-0 194
24. Brigham Young 0-0 178
25. Oregon State 0-0 165

Others Receiving Votes: Kansas 138, Michigan State 136, Texas Tech 114, Cincinnati 90, Pittsburgh 64, West Virginia 55, Rutgers 51, Miami (FL) 46, Missouri 44, Illinois 38, Clemson 30, South Carolina 18, UCLA 14, Auburn 12, South Florida 11, Nevada 11, Kentucky 9, North Carolina State 7, Wisconsin 6, Arkansas 6, Northwestern 5, Southern Miss 4, Wake Forest 4, Arizona 3, Boston College 3, CENTRL MICHIGAN 3, East Carolina 3, Colorado 2, Maryland 2, Navy 2, Tennessee 2, TROY 1, Minnesota 1, Michigan 1, Houston 1.

SEC Recruiting Expenses

Here are the figures for the last three years on recruiting expenses for football, baseball and basketball in the SEC. The final number following football spending indicates the recruiting ranking according to Rivals.com for that year.

One thing that stands out is that Kentucky was ranked 1st, 3rd and 2nd in spending for baseball. I wonder what would have happened if we had ranked like that in football spending. A second is that Tennessee is spending a lot of money to be as bad as they have become. Finally the name Alabama must still be strong for them to be as good as they are with as little as they spend on recruiting.

FOOTBALL

2005-06

Tennessee: $1,071,264 (23)
Florida: $643,406 (2)
Auburn: $621,115 (10)
LSU: $577,393 (7)
Georgia: $534,004 (4)
Arkansas: $490,771 (26)
Ole Miss: $436,948 (16)
Miss. State: $300,100 (44)
Kentucky: $291,370 (36)
S. Carolina: $248,585 (24)
Alabama: $237,774 (11)
Vanderbilt: N/A (60)

2006-07

Tennessee: $1,311,894 (3)
Auburn: $756,880 (7)
Florida: $649,375 (1)
LSU: $634,896 (4)
Arkansas: $513,784 (31)
Georgia: $506,462 (9)
Ole Miss: $389,224 (27)
Kentucky: $319,289 (54)
Miss. State: $286,430 (39)
S. Carolina: $283,505 (6)
Alabama: $258,846 (10)
Vanderbilt: N/A (67)

2007-08

Tennessee: $1,081,250 (35)
LSU: $776,029 (11)
Auburn: $737,380 (20)
Georgia: $523,056 (7)
Florida: $506,673 (3)
Arkansas: $494,181 (36)
Ole Miss: $405,654 (29)
Alabama: $360,327 (1)
Kentucky: $312,056 (57)
S. Carolina: $289,639 (22)
Miss. State: $272,872 (44)
Vanderbilt: N/A (90)

3-YEAR AVERAGE

Tennessee: $1,154,802
Auburn: $705,125
LSU: $662,772
Florida: $599,818
Georgia: $521,174
Arkansas: $499,578
Ole Miss: $410,608
Kentucky: $307,571
Miss. State: $286,467
Alabama: $285,649
S. Carolina: $273,909
Vanderbilt: N/A

MEN’S BASKETBALL

2005-06

Auburn: $311,113
Arkansas: $220,669
Florida: $206,346
Georgia: $196,482
Kentucky: $169,498
Tennessee: $144,240
S. Carolina: $122,819
Alabama: $110,591
Ole Miss: $84,968
LSU: $83,599
Miss. State: $83,374
Vanderbilt: N/A

2006-07

Auburn: $306,000
Arkansas: $286,007
Florida: $283,078
Georgia: $196,437
Kentucky: $165,123
LSU: $152,015
Alabama: $126,649
Tennessee: $125,528
S. Carolina: $98,340
Ole Miss: $93,759
Miss. State: $85,064
Vanderbilt: N/A

2007-08

Florida: $354,208
Arkansas: $304,275
Auburn: $293,000
Kentucky: $211,253
Georgia: $155,152
Alabama: $138,332
LSU: $127,021
Tennessee: $124,244
S. Carolina: $117,713
Ole Miss: $104,829
Miss. State: $100,058
Vanderbilt: N/A

3-YEAR AVERAGE

Auburn: $303,371
Florida: $281,210
Arkansas: $270,317
Georgia: $182,690
Kentucky: $181,958
Tennessee: $131,337
Alabama: $125,190
LSU: $120,878
S. Carolina: $112,957
Ole Miss: $94,518
Miss. State: $89,498
Vanderbilt: N/A

BASEBALL

2005-06

Kentucky: $80,449
Arkansas: $69,140
Auburn: $65,883
Florida: $62,210
Alabama: $53,703
Tennessee: $50,308
Ole Miss: $43,921
S. Carolina: $42,164
Georgia: $40,868
LSU: $28,150
Miss. State: $23,325
Vanderbilt: N/A

2006-07

Arkansas: $91,756
LSU: $80,348
Kentucky: $72,458
Auburn: $68,500
Alabama: $57,325
Florida: $47,514
Tennessee: $47,440
Georgia: $45,829
Ole Miss: $42,460
S. Carolina: $31,804
Miss. State: $18,342
Vanderbilt: N/A

2007-08

Arkansas: $87,115
Kentucky: $71,849
LSU: $70,493
Auburn: $68,500
S. Carolina: $53,196
Tennessee: $50,282
Georgia: $47,962
Florida: $47,612
Ole Miss: $46,868
Alabama: $38,609
Miss. State: $26,518
Vanderbilt: N/A

3-YEAR AVERAGE

Arkansas: $82,670
Kentucky: $74,918
Auburn: $67,627
LSU: $59,663
Florida: $52,445
Alabama: $49,879
Tennessee: $49,343
Georgia: $44,886
Ole Miss: $44,416
S. Carolina: $42,388
Miss. State: $22,728
Vanderbilt: N/A

Preseason All-SEC Team

Kentucky has six players named to the Preseason All-SEC Team. The surprise player might be Mike Hartline being named 3rd team. If he lives up to this billing we might be in good shape especially now that the flap over the rumble with the Tennessee players has proved to be less than what was spread about on the blogs and boards. Congratulations to the players for representing UK so well.

1st Team
DB Trevard Lindley

2nd Team
LB Micah Johnson

3rd Team
DL Corey Peters
QB Mike Hartline
OL Zipp Duncan
C Jorge Gonzalez

http://www.secsports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=2&url_article_id=12867&change_well_id=2

Is it time to worry yet

Looking at the 2010 recruits signed so far you have to wonder if its time to worry yet. There is a lot of time before we need to worry but from looking at the SEC schools so far we should at least think about worrying. Its been said that we are recruiting players who are ranked higher than we normally do and they tend to sign later so there is no need to worry yet. Here is what scout.com is showing about the SEC teams recruiting so far.

Alabama: 16 HS players. 7 ranked top 150, 7 ranked in the 70’s and 2 ranked 40’s. They also have 2 JC commitments.

Arkansas: 8 HS players. 1 ranked top 150, 4 ranked in the 70’s and 3 ranked in the 40’s. They have 1 JC commitment.

Auburn: 8 HS players. 2 ranked top 150, 5 ranked in the 70’s and 1 ranked in the 40’s.

Florida: 14 HS players. 9 ranked top 150. 1 ranked in the 80’s, 2 ranked in the 70’s and 3 ranked in the 40’s.

Georgia: 13 HS players. 7 ranked top 150, 4 ranked in the 70’s and 1 ranked in the 40’s. They have 1 JC commitment.

Kentucky: 1 ranked in the 70’s and 1 ranked in the 40’s.

LSU: 14 HS players. 7 ranked top 150 and 7 ranked in the 70’s. They have 1 JC commitment.

Mississippi: 2 HS players. 1 top 150 and 1 in the 40’s.

Mississippi St: 5 HS players. 2 top 150 players and 3 ranked in the 70’s. They also have 1 JC player.

South Carolina: 12 HS players. 4 ranked in the top 150, 5 ranked in the 70’s and 3 ranked in the 40’s. They also have 1 JC commitment.

Tennessee: 9 HS players. 3 ranked in the top 150 and 2 in the 40’s. They also have 3 JC commitments.

Vanderbilt: 13 HS commitments. 1 top 150 commitment. 11 ranked in the 70’s and 1 in the 40’s.

Scouts.com shows 84 players still considering the Cats including 4 top 150 players who are being recruited by teams we should be able to out recruit. Given the odds we should sign some good players but still we need to start worrying a little.

Never to early to go out on a limb

With a little over two months left till the football season starts its time to talk about what sort of season the Cats will have this year.

Starting off the season with Miami of Ohio 2-10 last year should give the Cats an easy win although the hiring of Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood as head coach should put a little spunk in the Redhawks offense. Haywood has worked as an assistant at Texas, LSU, Ball State, Ohio, Army and Minnesota and in 2005, he was named NCAA Division I-A assistant coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association. Kentucky 1-0.

Louisville 5-7 last year should be another win but this is a rivalry game. With Hunter Cantwell’s back up Matt Simms transferring Louisville has no experience at quarterback making it a little more difficult for Louisville to come away with win. Kentucky 2-0.

The third game of the season brings Florida 13-1 to Lexington. The best we can realistically hope for is that the Gators stomp Tennessee the week before and the Cats play the Gators much better than they did last year. A good game could be a launching board for a great season. Kentucky 2-1.

Alabama 12-2 last year is the next visitor to Lexington. Last year with one or two breaks the Cats could have beaten the Tide. Having them in Lexington and without an experienced quarterback they can be beaten. If Mike Hartline can connect with our receivers and couple of defensive stops go our way and this could be a big upset. Kentucky 2-2.

OK the Really Ole Ball Coach thinks he’s finally found his quarter back at South Carolina 7-6 last year. The Cats are due to win this game. Kentucky 3-2.

Auburn 5-7 last year had a problem the Cats use to have. According to Gene Chizik “Depth is an issue at this point, and I think that’s glaring”. Their offense also stinks so this is close but another winnable game. Kentucky 4-2.

We then get Louisiana Monroe 4-8 last year at home. The Warhawks beat Alabama in 2007 but wont beat the Cats in Lexington. This will be the game where a freshman quarterback gets a decent amount of playing time. Kentucky 5-2.

Mississippi State 4-8 last year doesn’t come to Lexington and win. Kentucky 6-2.

Eastern Kentucky 8-4 won the OVC last year but don’t look to match up with the Cats although they might play them better than people expect. Kentucky 7-2.

Vanderbilt 7-6 came into Lexington and beat the Cats. Mackenzi Adams is a good quarterback and running back Jared Hawkins should be much improved as a senior. This game is a toss up but I think injuries will be starting to plague the Cats by this time of the season. Kentucky 7-3.

Georgia 10-3 last year will be a tough game for the Cats. If they can go thru the season without as many injuries as last year they should beat the Cats. Kentucky 7-4.

The final game of the season is against Tennessee 5-7 last year. With Lane Kiffin bringing the Vols to Lexington the Cats welcome him to Kentucky. I’m gonna get out on my limb and say the Cats win with Morgan Newton running for a touchdown and tossing a touchdown to Cobb with little time left in the game. Kentucky 8-4.

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