The House of Blue

Check back in a bit for some additional thoughts and insights from offensive coordinator Randy Sanders, including a classic Sanders one-liner about the young running backs.

+++Getting your QB update out of the way early. There is really no change. It appears it pretty much goes: 1) Maxwell Smith; 2) Morgan Newton; 3A-B) Patrick Towles/Jalen Whitlow:

“All four of those guys did some good things,” Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said. “Again, we're just a week into it. I think we've got to give it a little more time to try and figure out if there is more separation. We're trying to see separation between one and two, and three and four. That's nothing new.”

+++This is the first chance we've had to speak with Phillips since he went back and evaluated the film from Saturday's scrimmage, so here are some of his thoughts in full:

“The thing I did like was how many big plays we had on both sides of the ball, both offense and defense,” Phillips said. “We made plays. The receivers, the tight ends, the running backs hit a couple of big screens. On defense there were some takeaways for touchdowns, which we haven't had for a long time and is something we need to have. So there were big plays on both sides of the ball and that's what we've been trying to stress. It's hard to drive the ball and it's hard to have to drive the ball.”

+++Phillips singled out WR La'Rod King as a guy who had a really productive and impressive scrimmage. He also, again, couldn't help himself from talking about freshmen running backs Dyshawn Mobley and Justin Taylor. Despite the fact Joker said he didn't want to talk about individual freshmen in camp he has talked about those guys pretty much every day. When asked if they would both play this year, he was pretty clear:

“A couple of the young backs you have a good impression of them,” Phillips said. “We had a short yardage scrimmage this morning and some of those young guys, again, you talk about moving the pile. Sometimes it's not blocked clean and those guys do a really good job (getting yards) because they have some girth to them.

“Based on what I've seen both of them will play. When was the last time we got through (a season) with one back? With two backs? Three backs? When was the last time? It just doesn't happen in this league. You very seldom see a back last 12 games in this league. Right now, today, they'd all play.”

+++Phillips joined defensive coordinator Rick Minter in lavishly praising MLB Avery Williamson. He was unbelievably productive in his limited time on the field last season (49 tackles) and has always seemed to possess the born-with leadership abilities of a great player. The coaches seem to make mention of those same things on nearly a daily basis.

+++Funny moment today when Joker was asked about the backup defensive linemen. He praised Tristian Johnson but then gave him a new nickname, which is funny because it ties into the best nickname on the team last season, 'Freaky Luke':

“I really think Tristian Johnson has made as much improvement as anyone this offseason,” Phillips said. “He was a guy you couldn't really count on but now he's becoming one of those reliable guys. We think he'll get the Luke McDermott reps. He's the 'Black Luke'. He's the guy that fought his way (into the mix) because he was not always a guy we could count on, on the field or off it. He tried to be the class clown and real goofy guy and now he's become the responsible guy we thought he was when we got him. He deserves to play. We'll have a package for him. He'll have the same role Luke McDermott had.”

+++For one of the first times this camp, Joker addressed the offensive line, specifically the reserves. UK is pretty well set in terms of starters but there isn't much in the way of experienced depth and that means it's very possible more than one of the five true freshmen linemen could be on the field this year, a la Darrian Miller in 2011:
“We have to continue working (in depth) and there might be a couple of freshman that are in that group,” Phillips said. “Some people might see that as a concern but I see it as an opportunity to develop some young guys. There was a young guy that played last year that gave us some depth when we had some injuries. I expect a couple of those guys to possibly be in our two-deep (depth chart) by the time we open up.”

+++Joker was asked about LB Tyler Brause's progress and he had this to say: “I thought Tyler Brause was one of the more productive guys (in the scrimmage) also,” Phillips said. “We're starting to use him not only as the backup MIKE back but also rotate him some at the WILL too. They're the same position inside. We'll start repping him at both positions because of his intelligence and his understanding of the defense. He's got thickness to him. He's a decent athlete. Smarts pay huge dividends in this defense.”

+++It sure seems like Phillips likes the makeup and disposition of this team. I've gotten that feeling from him throughout the summer in limited interaction but now that we're seeing him and talking to him every day it seems even more clear that he really feels quietly confident about the type of players they have in the program:

“We'll just continue to work every day and try to build this team,” Phillips said. “We tried to come out of the spring and summer with a better football team. We had some guys in the offseason that left but you can make yourself better by deletions also. We've got a great locker room right now. I love this locker room. We've got guys that are doing things the right way, especially the guys up top leading the young guys. We need all 105 of these players with us when we get to Sept. 2.”

+++I've discussed this several times before on the site, but it bears mentioning again: The Kentucky football team is unthinkably young. Like absurdly young. Ben Jones and I did the math today (checking each other's work and then confirming with UK spokesperson), and it really is staggering.

Among the scholarship players, Kentucky has just 16 seniors. On the other end of the spectrum, the Cats have 25 true freshmen, 10 redshirt freshmen, 10 sophomores who played as true freshmen in 2011, and 2 additional two sophomores who have yet to play a down for Kentucky (JUCO transfer Kory Brown and prep school signee TraVaughn Paschal). That means Kentucky has 47 players who are either true/redshirt freshmen or true sophomores, many of whom are being counted on in 2012. The breakdown is below (excluding the true freshmen, which you already know):

Seniors: Neloms, Newton, King, Fields, C. Williams, Boyd, Rice, Warford, Matt Smith, McCaskill, McIntosh, Wyndham, Ukwu, Benton, Woods, Correll

True Sophomores: Dupree, D. Robinson, Lowery, Max Smith, Faulkner, Clemons, Dixon, Warren, Miller, Coleman; Plus Brown and Paschal

Redshirt Freshmen: Forrest, Caffey, Collins, J. Johnson, Rancifer, Love, West, Cunningham, Cobbins, Huguenin

+++Programming note: The team practices tomorrow but there is no media availability on account of them doing the annual post-practice pool outing. We'll be back at it on Wednesday.