Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down - EKU Edition

Thumbs Up:


Winning - It wasn't pretty, it wasn't exciting, heck, it was barely entertaining, but it was a victory and that's all that matters.

Morgan Newton - Continues to improve and show why he was so highly rated coming out of high school. Throws his 1st and 2nd career TD pass in route to 187 yard passing day, finishing 20 of 29. To me his best moment came in the 2nd half when he picked up the offsides by EKU and threw deep to the end zone. The play was incomplete, but it's the kind of read big time QB's make and one that has been nonexistent under Hartline, even Andre Woodson would often fail to pick it up and run the called play instead of taking the free deep shot. The kid has the talent, knowledge, and the experience is starting to come around.

Moncell Allen -Glad to see Moncell work his way back on to the field. "Turtle" had 14 carries for 62 yards in a touchdown. Hopefully this will get him back on to the field more, even with the other RB's coming back from injuries; especially in the 4th quarter where previous to the season Brooks brought him in with fresh legs and he ran over people. Haven't seen that much this year, though.

LaRod King - Continues to show a good rhythm with Newton and elevate his game. His improvement along with Matthews gives me great hope for the WR staff in 2010.

Sam Maxwell - The LB continues to outplay his All-SEC counterpart and again comes up with another interception.

Donald Russell - Led the Cats in rushing with 92 yards. Of course almost all of that came on a nice 79 yard run for a touchdown in the 4th quarter. His development will be crucial for the RB position next year, unless of course Raymond Sanders is as good as he looks to be. Also nice to see Coshik Williams get a a few runs.

No turnovers - The Cats need to stay on this side of the turnover margin as it can make a good team great and a so-so team good. See UK football 2006 for a perfect example.

John Conner - The Terminator played in his 50th career game as a Wildcat, tying the school record. Congrats.

The weather - We asked last week for good weather and we got some, finally. It was an absolutely wonderful afternoon in Lexington.

Thumbs Down:

Joker Phillips - There is absolutely zero imagination in UK's playcalling. Every pass route is either a curl, hitch, or comeback. No fades, posts, or slant patterns. We never actually throw to guys on the run towards the end zone. They are always coming back to the QB or stationary near the sideline. We also never throw over the middle unless it is on 3rd down. Is it a run or a pass? Just watch to see who is coming in... if it's a TE we run... if it is a 3rd or 4th WR it's a pass. Don't expect it would be that hard to coach a defense against us... and if we continue this junk, inept offense we will be spending the holidays in Lexington nowhere near a bowl game.

Micah Johnson - Not falling on that loose ball was one of the absolute worst plays I've ever seen a UK player make. How does a defensive player not fall on a loose ball, especially when a whistle has not been blown. Thankfully it was ruled an incomplete pass, but it could have been very embarrassing and it reaked of lazy play by someone who wants to be a big time NFL player.

Offensive line - Again, struggled to open up holes especially in short yard situations. Apparently Brooks was right when he said o-lines usually play worse after you show them praise.

Lones Seiber - Mansour can't get here quick enough. After a few weeks of consistent play Seiber once again missed an extra point and an easy field goal. He was dealing with a backup holder with Cobb out, but a senior kicker has to be more reliable especially on the easy ones.

Crowd- A lot of empty seats on a glorious day for football, UK fans should be ashamed. However, not making noise I can't complain about since it looked like the coaching staff and some players had already phoned it in.

Rich Brooks - I put this in here based on the post game comments. I can appreciate making Vandy wonder about who will be quarterback, but if Mike Hartline opens up at QB next Saturday he will have made his biggest mistake ever as UK coach. (This saying a lot for a man who hired and wouldn't fire Ron Hudson.) If that were to happen and UK lost, he would lose the fan base and just brutalize Hartline even worse than the coaching staff has already done.