The House of Blue

Kentucky's second – and final – live scrimmage took place on a picture perfect August morning at Commonwealth Stadium, as the Cats completed the second week of camp. Here s what Joker Phillips had to say and some additional notes:

+++The quarterback battle appears to be ready to reach a conclusion. Reading between the lines since the last scrimmage, Maxwell Smith has been the leader in the clubhouse with that job and I'd guess by what we heard today he will likely be the starter sooner rather than later. I'd guess Joker Phillips makes that call public after Monday's practice (the team doesn't practice Sunday).

“They didn't turn the ball over, operated for the most part with efficiency,” Phillips said of the quarterbacks. “I'm looking forward to watching this tape and hopefully coming out of this thing with a decision tomorrow. I think we have to make sure we take a look at this thing and be fair to everybody involved. It's hard to say now we've come up with a decision we know. I think to be fair we have to go look at the film because sometimes out here with the naked eye it's hard to evaluate. We'll go look at the film and come up with a decision.”

I'd be shocked if Smith isn't named the starter at this point. He also led the 98-yard scoring drive today, although Joker said much of it was power running game generated.

+++Joker was as animated and fired up as I've seen him in a while. I'm not sure what to take from that but he clearly was juiced up today. Could have been what he saw on the field, the 70-something former players that returned to watch the scrimmage or a combination thereof”

“A very, very competitive scrimmage. We had some huge plays,” Phillips said. “We saw some good things out of these young guys. We've got us a young receiver I can tell you that. He's got a chance to be a special guy. You guys figure out which one, there are only two of them. We've got two really good young backs. We did a lot of good things in the run game and in the passing game. The defense bowed their necks and stopped them when they needed to.

“We put the ball on the 2-yard line and the defense has to get themselves off the field and the offense has to get one first down so we get a chance to operate after that and the offense took it 98 yards so that was a positive thing - 98 yards, 14 plays. That's hard to do. There wasn't any huge plays in it but there was consistency. There were no penalties, no turnovers, no sacks and no negative yard plays. That's a good teaching point. I'm excited to get that on film. That will help us defensively and offensively. Nobody drives the ball 98 yards on our defense and offensively we have to drive the ball on people.”

+++Joker again talked about how competitive things have been during camp and the fact players are pushing to be on special teams. Maybe it's because guys know that's their ticket on the field, but Joker said today he thinks it's more than that:

“There were guys competing for jobs and you have to plat this game like you're competing for a job,” Phillips said. “The last game we played here gave us a lot to teach off of on how important all three phases are. We've got guys begging to be on special teams. We haven't had that here. We've got returners who guys want to make block for. You can remember when Derek Abney was here and guys wanted to block for him because they wanted to be in the end zone celebrating with him and be on SportsCenter. We're getting that with the guys we've got returning. I think we've got some special guys returning for us.”

+++Joker was asked about the running backs and he again praised youngsters Dyshawn Mobley and Justin Taylor, although he continues to not say their names. He's been very tight-lipped (as the WR comment above suggests, although it's pretty clear he was talking about DeMarcus Sweat) about the freshmen:

“All of them did well playing behind their pads,” Phillips said. “When you rush the ball 98 yards you've had some powerful runs by your backs. It was just grind it out after grind it out. Those two freshmen backs have a chance to be special. WE'll have to play them all.”

+++I asked Joker if today was really the final scrimmage for young players to make their move on the depth chart and he said it was. They''ll be off Sunday, have workouts Monday and Tuesday, be off Wednesday (first day of classes) and then start getting into game routine for Louisville on Thursday:

“We'll have a mock scrimmage and a special teams scrimmage about mid-week and a mock scrimmage, which is a dress rehearsal for the Louisville game with situations,” Phillips said. “With what we have in these 16 practices (so far) it gives us a chance to know which 70 guys are going to make the bus. Where can we plug them in on all the different teams? It's cutdown list, cutdown day. It's time for us to start cutting it down and getting ready for the game. We'll have two more training camp practices where we try to get Kentucky better and then start working on Louisville on Thursday.”

+++The stadium was more abuzz than usual for a preseason scrimmage, as an estimated 70 or so former players were in the house to watch. Joker was thrilled with the turnout:

“That's huge,” Phillips said. “I didn't decided this until last Saturday when I saw a couple of guys here and in the middle of the scrimmage I thought, 'How good would it be to reach out to those guys and allow those guys to come? They're allowed (to come) but many of them don't know they're allowed (to come). We sent out an e-mail and got an unbelievable response.

“You guys heard we watched the movie Act of Valor and there was a quote that really hit home with me: 'Here's to us and those like us, and there's damn few.' That hit home to me and these guys need to know they are one of us so I wanted to reach out to them.”

+++ Defensive coordinator Rick Minter was none too happy today. Said his defense showed effort but was basically flat terrible all across the board, especially against the run. Said outside of a few players (Cobble, Ukwu, Rumph, Neloms, Benton, Lowery, Williamson) every job is up for grabs.

+++Injuries: RB CoShik Williams sprained his foot today. He'll have it looked at tomorrow. They were also without Anthony Kendrick, Tyler Robinson and Jordan Aumiller at tight end.

+++Joker said WR La'Rod King had two touchdowns, WR E.J. Fields had one, WR Demarco Robinson had one, the freshmen backs too.

+++Talked to one former player as he left and he said the one thing that concerned him was the sound and pace of action when the backups were in the game was much different than the starters. Sounds like, as always, staying injury free while those young kids grow up is going to be critical.