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Breaking: Cats add another FB verbal commmitment

  • It seems to me that recruiting is moving in the right direction, as I believe it has been for the last 4 or so years. That said, these players are still not doing what they're being coached to do. Now, with the recruiting seeming to be getting better, at some point these guys are going to have to start doing what they've been recruited, given a scholarship for and coached to do. If not, then Joker is going to be looking for another job.
    I'm still not 100% sold on Joker, but due to the circumstances I have to believe that he deserves another 2 -3 years to get this program moving the way we all want to it move, which is to actively and successfully compete for a chance to play in Atlanta in December of each season.
    But for that to occur these players need to start doing what they've been recruited to do......... WIN GAMES IN THE SEC!

    suncat05

  • suncat05 said...

    It seems to me that recruiting is moving in the right direction, as I believe it has been for the last 4 or so years. That said, these players are still not doing what they're being coached to do. Now, with the recruiting seeming to be getting better, at some point these guys are going to have to start doing what they've been recruited, given a scholarship for and coached to do. If not, then Joker is going to be looking for another job.
    I'm still not 100% sold on Joker, but due to the circumstances I have to believe that he deserves another 2 -3 years to get this program moving the way we all want to it move, which is to actively and successfully compete for a chance to play in Atlanta in December of each season.
    But for that to occur these players need to start doing what they've been recruited to do......... WIN GAMES IN THE SEC!

    I wish it was as easy as just doing what the coaches say and you will win football games in the SEC. I agree our players' execution has been lacking, but the ability to execute plays and play-specific duties against elite competition is a large part of what separates the good ffrom the great. I have always said its one of the intangible qualities you don't see in recruiting profiles or on the back of bubble gum cards, but its there. Simply being faster, bigger and stronger doesn't always win if you don't have the requisite amount of skill and "smarts" to execute at a high level.

    mjdotson

  • mjdotson said...

    Agreed. Too many people forget (or don't realize) that the all-time leading scorer for most schools is a kicker. That is b/c they have more opportunities to put points on the board than any other position. They also determine, in large part, where the other team starts out field position after we score. 2 HUGE parts of the game that I would prefer to get from an elite guy when we can. Anyone complaining about us giving a schollie to a top 10 kicker is just bitching for the sake of bitching. WE WILL NOT SIGN ONLY 16 OR 17 PLAYERS!!!! ENOUGH OF THAT ARGUMENT. Some people are acting like taking him stole a ride from an elite 5* who was just about to commit.

    1. UK's last 2 commits last year (Henderson and Taylor) were 2 of the 5 highest rated kids in last year's class. So saving a few spots for those kids that get left out or have coaching changes, to me, is a best case use of scholarships than snagging up low rated kids with no tangible offers. Other signing day kids we got due to having rides available were Elliot Porter, Brandon Gainer, Alex Smith. Or taking chances on kids with academic issues that are close enough...Sam Maxwell, Ventrell Jenkins, Ellery Moore, etc..
    - I know with no oversigning, academic kids are harder to pull the trigger on than used to. But I'd have no problem taking a chance on 1-2 kids a year that don't make and some do make it.

    2. Leading scorer on every team in America is a kicker...but why does practically no other school use as many rides on kickers as we are. Prefer walk-on some and 1 ride every other year is how 95% of teams do it. Why we think this staff is on to something is beyond reasonable to me. McIntosh is not as important as Clemons, King, Warford, Darian Miller, probably even Demarco Robinson, etc..will be way more important than a kicker.

    3. Let's be realistic...Only 2 of the 6 kids we have committed have any other reasonable offers. This is like washing hair.."rinse/repeat' recruiting. We can't get any of the kids in Ky (Trinity kids, Bivins, Timmons, etc..) to pull the trigger. This year feels like kids are very unsure of Joker being at UK, we don't have a ton to sell regardless, and back to competing with MAC, Sunbelt, etc...schools for kids.

    K__TIME

  • I agree with your observation.

    Each time an athlete moves up to the next higher level of competition, the athlete's combination of athleticism, skill, and tactical wherewithal is challenged against more talented opponenets.

    You often hear athletes who progress from high school-, to college-, to professional-level competition talk about the "speed of the game" to which they must adapt each time they move up.

    The successful players adapt to the faster pace of the game at the next level.

    For many of the others, the pace of the game at the next level renders all of their raw talent ineffective. They are never able to consistently execute at the faster pace.

    I think most would agree that, in football, certain key positions, expose this inability to adapt to a faster pace more obviously than other positions do.

    QB would be perhaps the best example of a position at which a very talented, very successful high school player could struggle with the challenge of both making decisions and executing plays on those decisions with much less time.

    I wouldn't even chalk it up to "smarts" so much as to the ability to quickly process information (e.g., read coverage, read keys, recognize blitz/fake blitz, go to standard or hot routes, etc.) and then pull the trigger on the decision. I would even go so far as to say that, for some players, their academic intellect seems to get in the way of their instinctive/intuitive/innate decision-making. That is, they think too much.

    RocknRollCats

  • K__TIME said...

    1. UK's last 2 commits last year (Henderson and Taylor) were 2 of the 5 highest rated kids in last year's class. So saving a few spots for those kids that get left out or have coaching changes, to me, is a best case use of scholarships than snagging up low rated kids with no tangible offers. Other signing day kids we got due to having rides available were Elliot Porter, Brandon Gainer, Alex Smith. Or taking chances on kids with academic issues that are close enough...Sam Maxwell, Ventrell Jenkins, Ellery Moore, etc.. - I know with no oversigning, academic kids are harder to pull the trigger on than used to. But I'd have no problem taking a chance on 1-2 kids a year that don't make and some do make it.

    2. Leading scorer on every team in America is a kicker...but why does practically no other school use as many rides on kickers as we are. Prefer walk-on some and 1 ride every other year is how 95% of teams do it. Why we think this staff is on to something is beyond reasonable to me. McIntosh is not as important as Clemons, King, Warford, Darian Miller, probably even Demarco Robinson, etc..will be way more important than a kicker.

    3. Let's be realistic...Only 2 of the 6 kids we have committed have any other reasonable offers. This is like washing hair.."rinse/repeat' recruiting. We can't get any of the kids in Ky (Trinity kids, Bivins, Timmons, etc..) to pull the trigger. This year feels like kids are very unsure of Joker being at UK, we don't have a ton to sell regardless, and back to competing with MAC, Sunbelt, etc...schools for kids.

    this argument has been rinsed and repeated over and over again. Have fun holding your breath for ANY of the Trinity kids to commit to UK, because that might not ever happen. IDK what it is, but they're just not going to Kentucky. And we have to use scholarships on specialists because the big boys CAN AFFORD to have them walk on. The Alabama's of the world have FAR more prestige than us, and the opportunity to make a name for yourself and be in the national spotlight is greater there than here IMO, just simple facts. Giving them scholarships gives them an incentive to play here rather than those places.

    Hogan_Ryan

  • Speaking of Alabama, they had two kickers on scholarship (Cade Foster and Jeremy Shelley) in 2011 and added a third (Adam Griffith) in 2012. These are all KO/PK guys. I believe they also have at least one punter on scholarship as well in Jay Williams.

    JDHLaw11

  • JDHLaw11 said...

    Speaking of Alabama, they had two kickers on scholarship (Cade Foster and Jeremy Shelley) in 2011 and added a third (Adam Griffith) in 2012. These are all KO/PK guys. I believe they also have at least one punter on scholarship as well in Jay Williams.

    What the hell are those idiots trying to do down there?

    signature image

    rompcat

  • RocknRollCats said...

    I agree with your observation.

    Each time an athlete moves up to the next higher level of competition, the athlete's combination of athleticism, skill, and tactical wherewithal is challenged against more talented opponenets.

    You often hear athletes who progress from high school-, to college-, to professional-level competition talk about the "speed of the game" to which they must adapt each time they move up.

    The successful players adapt to the faster pace of the game at the next level.

    For many of the others, the pace of the game at the next level renders all of their raw talent ineffective. They are never able to consistently execute at the faster pace.

    I think most would agree that, in football, certain key positions, expose this inability to adapt to a faster pace more obviously than other positions do.

    QB would be perhaps the best example of a position at which a very talented, very successful high school player could struggle with the challenge of both making decisions and executing plays on those decisions with much less time.

    I wouldn't even chalk it up to "smarts" so much as to the ability to quickly process information (e.g., read coverage, read keys, recognize blitz/fake blitz, go to standard or hot routes, etc.) and then pull the trigger on the decision. I would even go so far as to say that, for some players, their academic intellect seems to get in the way of their instinctive/intuitive/innate decision-making. That is, they think too much.

    Yeah, that's what I meant by "smarts" and is why I put it in quotes. I didn't mean pure academic intelligence. You explained it perfectly.

    mjdotson

  • Clear evidence of the incompetence of Saban and his staff...

    RocknRollCats

  • K__TIME said...

    1. UK's last 2 commits last year (Henderson and Taylor) were 2 of the 5 highest rated kids in last year's class. So saving a few spots for those kids that get left out or have coaching changes, to me, is a best case use of scholarships than snagging up low rated kids with no tangible offers. Other signing day kids we got due to having rides available were Elliot Porter, Brandon Gainer, Alex Smith. Or taking chances on kids with academic issues that are close enough...Sam Maxwell, Ventrell Jenkins, Ellery Moore, etc..
    - I know with no oversigning, academic kids are harder to pull the trigger on than used to. But I'd have no problem taking a chance on 1-2 kids a year that don't make and some do make it.

    2. Leading scorer on every team in America is a kicker...but why does practically no other school use as many rides on kickers as we are. Prefer walk-on some and 1 ride every other year is how 95% of teams do it. Why we think this staff is on to something is beyond reasonable to me. McIntosh is not as important as Clemons, King, Warford, Darian Miller, probably even Demarco Robinson, etc..will be way more important than a kicker.

    3. Let's be realistic...Only 2 of the 6 kids we have committed have any other reasonable offers. This is like washing hair.."rinse/repeat' recruiting. We can't get any of the kids in Ky (Trinity kids, Bivins, Timmons, etc..) to pull the trigger. This year feels like kids are very unsure of Joker being at UK, we don't have a ton to sell regardless, and back to competing with MAC, Sunbelt, etc...schools for kids.

    Let's just clean house and hire you. It's obvious you know more than any coach we've ever had.

    hoptownukfan

  • If most agree that we can't just line up and beat the elite teams in the SEC, then why not try something different? If having an elite kicker means we can go for points 10-15 yards further out, or pin an offense back on the 5 yard line, it sounds to me that this is a way to somewhat level the playing field. It's ideas like a no huddle offense, Minter's defense, and elite kicking that COULD make the difference in games when our straight up talent isn't comparable. We're Kentucky football...we simply cannot do things the way Alabama and LSU do things with the same results. This kid sounds like a winner by all accounts and I'm glad we have him. Go Big Blue.

    Catfanin502

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