The House of Blue

Howdy, folks. I’m on football practice duty today, so here we go.

Joker Phillips’ injury list was pretty long today. Morgan Newton was “very limited” today, Phillips said, and Newton took no team reps. Newton was limping off the field during the interview with Phillips; based on his limp, I would be extremely surprised to see him on the field Saturday. But these trainers are very good at what they do, so all of that remains to be seen. Phillips said tomorrow will be the cutoff to determine if Newton could possibly be well enough to start. So stay tuned.

CoShik Williams practiced about half of the practice and then he went down, Phillips said. He tweaked a previous injury and pulled himself out of practice. Phillips was asked how concerning it is.

“Hey, we gotta play. They’re not going to cancel the game,” Phillips said. “They won’t give us another week. Brandon Gainer got reps. Some of the other young backs got reps. They’ve got to step up.”

Donte Rumph practiced today—he injured himself against Mississippi State. Randall Burden got stepped on yesterday but he practiced today and will be fine for Saturday.

Beyond injuries:

-Phillips said that Maxwell Smith has been really good in practice this week, and he was again today. The coach said it’s amazing what one well-played game did for his demeanor, like his solid game against Mississippi State.

“I’ve never heard him go out and tell anyone what to do because he’s always been worried about what he has to do,” Phillips said. “I saw a lot of that today. I really like the way he’s carrying himself. We’ve always talked about body language with our quarterbacks. He’s carried himself well.”

-Phillips said that Ole Miss is another team that’s still trying to find their identity. They’ve played three quarterbacks this year, though they seem to have to have settled on junior Randall Mackey. Where Ole Miss has the ability to outclass its opponents is its offensive line. The Rebels have size to spare. Their five starters, in order from left tackle to right tackle: 6-7, 315; 6-5, 325; 6-2, 300; 6-9, 340 (!); 6-6, 325. They’re big. They aren’t particularly fast, so if the Cats’ second line of rushers can get past them, that’s the way to shut down Ole Miss. The Cats haven’t had a huge amount of success this year getting to quarterbacks and getting in backfields, though they have done it at times. Either way, if anyone’s going to get in the backfield this week, it’s going to be guys like Danny Trevathan and Winston Guy. It very likely won’t be defensive linemen.

-Phillips was asked about “getting juiced” in recruiting, and he said that what recruiting is about is getting your staff to sell your program. He said there’s no shortage of things to sell at Kentucky. He said one of the things they can use that people wouldn’t necessarily think of is the basketball program.

“We can absolutely sell that,” Phillips said. “We’re long-time Kentuckians. Come watch them play. Who wouldn’t want to come watch them play? We’ve got another dream team here now. Kids want to come watch them play.”

As irrelevant as it may seem—why would a football player care?—I think Joker is on to something with that. A lot of these kids are about school spirit more than anything else in their lives, and they obviously want to represent that first in the sport they play (whether it’s football, women’s soccer, rifle, whatever). But the other stuff matters, too. If Kentucky’s basketball program is as good as it is, why wouldn’t they sell it in recruiting kids to the school in other sports? Not every angle works with every kid—every kid doesn’t necessarily want immediate playing time, just as every kid doesn’t necessarily want to play in the SEC, just as every kid doesn’t necessarily want to play in a certain kind of offense or defense. The more angles you pitch, the more likely one is to catch on.

-Phillips was asked what UK saw in Maxwell Smith that other schools maybe didn’t. He didn’t sign until March of his class, a month after Signing Day, and he was there to be had.

“He didn’t play a lot of high school football. He moved to a bunch of different schools until he found the right fit for him,” Phillips said. “He found a school that threw the ball around, which is what he does the best. We didn’t sign him until March. The thing you have to know when you’re recruiting a guy like him, you have to have a guy out there you can trust. Erik Kramer coached Max, and Coach (Tee) Martin knew Kramer. Kramer actually trained Maxwell. We trusted in Kramer.”