The University of Kentucky football team is a good story of a long-struggling program that's finally getting off the bottom. The coaching staff there--Rich Brooks, Joker Phillips, and Steve Johnson--is good at taking medium level recruits and turning them into highly productive players in the SEC. Kentucky gone from three or four wins a season to seven or eight and they've won two bowl games in a row against good teams (Clemson and Florida State).
Even better, the UK coaches do it without being ostentatiou Bobby Petrino-like assholes, Nick Saban-like control freaks, or making a big show of the kind of "intensity" that revolves around humiliating their players.
Today, UK beat the University of Louisville in a rivalry game 27-2. It wasn't the best win in the world. UK's offense wasn't very well coordinated and only scored one touchdown after being handed field position on the seven. The main problem is receiver. UK had three receivers get drafted by the NFL last year--Keenan Burton, Steve Johnson, and Jacob Tamme. The replacements showed some potential against Louisville, but they've got a long way to go before Kentucky faces Florida, Tennessee, and SEC competition.
The UK defense scored two touchdowns off turnovers and got important stops. But Louisville's offense was wretched and they started with bad field position all day. So, it's difficult to get a read on UK's defense. One good sign is that safety Marcus McClinton didn't get much business. As the last line of defense, McClinton used to have to make a lot of tackles on opposing backs bursting through the UK defensive line and linebackers. Today, he was like the Maytag repairman in the defensive backfield, waiting for something to happen.
That's a sign that UK's defense has gotten generally stronger.
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Good comments. Didn't know you were much on college football with your hectic life around teaching and political theory. I'm very impressed. UK beat a UL team that will be lucky to have 4 wins all year. UK is down as well, but if the defense holds like it did Sunday they should be able to figure out something offensively just in time for SEC play.
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