Hartline? Fidler? Newton? Mossakowski?

Rating: No Rating

After UK's 38-20 loss to third ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, Rich Brooks was asked specifically about his starting quarterback, Mike Hartline. Brooks said that Hartline was basically "a work in progress". He admitted that Hartline didn't play "as well as we would have liked, but he's our best option right now."

Granted Hartline made some mistakes against Alabama. His first interception was horrible - a very bad decision. However, I would like to point out that it is going to be extremely hard for anybody to throw against Alabama's defense or Florida's defense this year.

With that said, I really think that this offense did some things that the needed to do to be able to move forward. Let's be honest - the Cats weren't going to beat Florida, and they weren't going to beat Alabama, but they were able to have some success running the football against Alabama. That surprised me. Alabama was only giving up something like 40 rushing yards a game. Kentucky rushed for 133 yards against Bama. I will be curious to see if anyone is able to rush for that many yards against Alabama the rest of the year.

I also liked the fact that UK kept competing. After giving up the opening touchdown to Bama, the Cats forced the Tide to punt on four straight possessions. UK surprisingly took a 7-6 lead into the 2nd quarter. What a big turn-around that was from last week's 31-0 meltdown in the first quarter to Florida.

How different could this game have been if the Cats were able to get the safety in the 2nd quarter when they had Bama pinned down on their own 3 yard line. If UK gets the safety, the Cats take an 8-6 lead and get the football when all the momentum was going UK's way. Instead, Alabama marches 99 1/2 yards to score to go up 14-6. On UK's next play from scrimmage, fumble - touchdown - 21-6. In the blink of an eye, a possible 8-6 UK lead turns into a 21-6 hole that the Cats could never crawl out of.

Do the Cats make a quarterback change? I don't think so. I think there is still enough improvement to look optimistically toward the rest of the season. A loss is never good, but this one may have been a "constructive loss" (to steal a line from Leland Conway). I think they showed enough improvement to move forward and improve with several winnable games coming up.

Do you play Will Fidler? Maybe a little, but you still want Hartline to get as many reps as possible because he is still improving. He is still learning. He is "our best option". I want him to learn as much as possible against some of the best defenses he'll face all year, so when he steps up against teams the rest of the season, he'll make the play!

I'm content with living with Hartline for now, but I can't wait to see what Newton and Mossakowski can do next year - when they are ready.

Tags: brooks, fidler, football, hartline, kentucky, mike, morgan, mossakowski, newton, rich

Comment

You need to be a member of Kentucky Sports Network to add comments!

Join Kentucky Sports Network

Comment by C Dogg on October 5, 2009 at 11:20am: I agree with every thing Rphelps wrote. I love our coaching staff but they do make mistakes. (Hayden Lane and James Alexander started the 2006 opener against Louisville over Garry Williams; Demoreo Ford started over Dicky Lyons in the same game). Unlike WR or OT, QB is the one position where coaches are extremely reluctant to give the backup a chance. Tom Brady may still be a backup today if Drew Bledsoe had never been injured (sames goes for Kurt Warner and Trent Green). While Fidler is no Tom Brady, Hartline isn't Drew Blesoe either. I have to question whether Hartline is UK's best option. How does anybody know? Coach Brooks talks about the difference between "practice speed" versus "game speed" and yet Fidler is never given the opportunity to play in a game, even a blowout against Florida. Maybe he is more of a gamer than Hartline. Was Hartline any better than Fidler in the Blue/White game? No. Joker implicitly admitted that Fidler has a stronger arm than Hartline when he said Hartine made himself able to throw the deep fade because Fidler was able to throw it.

The Tom Brady and Kurt Warner examples show that there is no way to know who gives UK the best chance to win. UK fans always want to play the talent card and believe UK is inferior to top SEC teams. The truth is that Saturday's game was a winnable game. UK ran the ball well and defended Bama well most of the day, except for Bama's TE. It wasn't all Hartline's fault by any stretch but he too often threw behind or ahead of his receivers on even simple passes. He threw 2 interceptions that were clearly his fault and one that wasn't his fault. He refuses to throw a deep sideline pass to the 6'5" Chris Matthews without leading Matthews out-of-bounds. He's 6'5" with great hands. Give him a chance to go up and get it.

I'm excited about Newton and Mossakowski. We all know that Mossakowski is recovering from shoulder surgery. Newton may never have a better offensive line at UK than this year's line. Still, if he isn't ready yet, I don't want him forced into action.

Having said all that, Hartline is my man as long as he runs out of the field. People who boo their own players are pathetic. Hartline is trying and I will hope for his success as long as he is playing for UK.

Comment by Gary on October 4, 2009 at 8:21pm: Take "Hart" Cat Fans-basketball season is just around the corner!

Comment by SaveUK on October 4, 2009 at 12:05pm: I think Carl Ray said it right. Why not run the Wildcat with Cobb, it worked yesterday when they did it

Comment by Carl Ray on October 4, 2009 at 11:10am: I agree with not throwing newton in the lions den, the only other option is to keep the ball in cobbs hands as much as possible.

Comment by C Diesel on October 4, 2009 at 9:29am: Hartline= terrible. Im nervous everytime he lets the ball go. Just an absolutely terrible game. You wont see as poor a throw as two of his ints. Right into the numbers of the Bama defenders. When he attempts to move around in the pocket you can just sense the panic coming from him,then he throws to the first reciever he sees regardless of how covered he is. Take away the ints and the other stupid usual Kentucky mistakes and we wouldve had a game on our hands. 133 rushing yards against BAMA,and we controlled the game until late in the second quarter and we blow it?You have to question what the outcome would have been if instead of Hartline we had a mobile qb,that didnt run like a frightened little girl if he scrambles. Like others have said if Hartlines our "best option" then pleeease run the wildcat more. Cobb getting more touches is deffinately the answer.I dont think Newton should be thrown into the lions den so quickly.Especially with a grueling stretch of SEC road games but I think the kid needs to get some snaps in during garbage time at least.After all he is our future.(I hope)

Comment by Carl Ray on October 4, 2009 at 2:24am: I think adolph is right , put newton in now,or just run the wildcat formation 75% of the time, and lets win or lose with cobb touching the ball ,instead of heartline killing us.

Comment by The Krystal Ball on October 3, 2009 at 10:40pm: I don't know if Hartline is the best option...but I am also not sure about sticking a freshman out there with no experience against the Florida's and Bama's of the world.

Anyone remember Tim Couch's first year....and the Florida game...yikes..

I still think you send Newton out there in clean-up time and see what he can do. They could have done that at least against Miami.

Comment by SaveUK on October 3, 2009 at 7:04pm: what rphelps said! I don't think anyone could have said it better than that.

Comment by rphelps on October 3, 2009 at 6:52pm: I just can't believe Hartline is the best option. If he is we are in real trouble because Hartline plays like a scared freshman. I know that is harsh but it is the truth. Do you know what losing by 18 while your quarterback throws 3 interceptions tells me? UK was only a decent quarterback away from going toe to toe with one of the best teams in the country. There are several guys on this team that are GREAT football players and they deserve to be in a position to do there best as a team. If you ask me, had we had of had a quarterback today that could tuck the ball and run to keep the defense on their heels there is no telling how many yards we would have gained on the ground. I know Bama is a Great defensive team but we saw today that we have athletes that can make plays with the best but we don't have a qb that makes anyone nervous.

Comment by SaveUK on October 3, 2009 at 6:18pm: and to say that we were never going to beat Bama. I have a problem using that justification for defending Hartline. 3 less interceptions in this game and it might have been a totally different story.