My wife and I spent two weeks in Europe at the beginning of October... We flew to Paris on October 7th and was there for four days and five nights before taking a train to Germany to spend five days and attend my sister's wedding... Yes this means I missed the LSU game but the trip was well worth this sacrifice...
Paris is a wonderful city and the area that my sister lives in Germany is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too... The village we stayed in Germany was over 2000 years old!!!
My sisters wedding was a really beautiful ceremony and the reception afterwards was one of the best wedding receptions I have ever been too... I am working on a trip summary for a future blog that will detail the trip... We took over 700 pictures while we were there so the visit is well documented...
Welcome the SEC
What a ride...
Here is what I wrote at the start of the year...
"Old Brooksy just may have Kentucky on the right path… As I stated he needs to have at a minimum had a repeat of last year… They need to beat EKU, Mississippi State, Florida International (watch out for Howard) and Kent State and then win three out of the four with Arkansas, South Carolina, Vandy and Louisville… This team has confidence and confidence can be a great thing or a dangerous thing which could lead to some marquee upsets…"
So they are about where I expected them to be at this point... With that said I am bit disappointed because this team should be seven and two... The pulled the marquee upset and then cancelled it out by losing to Mississippi State... I need to see two of the last three as wins...
The SEC is a great football conference and I am happy to see the success of all the teams this year...
UK vs South Carolina
What can you say??? This was not a game that I thought UK could win and they proved me way wrong... I felt this team at the beginning of the year could beat anyone and play with anyone but I thought that LSU's team speed and size would wear UK down...
Woodson had his best game as a Wildcat and the defense stepped up when they needed to... I thought that LSU looked worn down at the end of the game and the UK players looked fresh... Derrick Locke played a great game and he wore the LSU defense down...
Although we were not there we were certainly there in spirit and via the text meassages during the game... When we got the text they were in OT I was pretty much beside myself and then when we got the one that they won it was a surreal moment and the second celebration was on...
UK Vs Florida
This was an opportunity for this team to make a statement... ESPN's game day was on site in Lexington and the game was on national TV...
The tailgate before the game was electric (we had forty plus in attendance that day alone), The Cat Walk was exciting, the ESPN Game Day crowd was out in full force and made a great showing (my wife and nephew Matt were part of that crowd)...
This game was made even tougher for UK because of where it fell in the schedule... I am not sure that there is any team in the Country that play, much less beat LSU one week and then come back a week later to play and beat Florida... Factor in Florida's spread offense, UK defense struggles against this type of offense historically, and Florida's team speed then I knew UK was in for almost impossible battle...
Kentucky struck first with a nice toss from Andre Woodson to Dicky Lyons and the stadium went absolutely crazy which I am guess were shades of what it sounded like for the LSU game... Florida then marched right down the field and scored and before you knew it we were in the third quarter and Florida was up 24 to 10
At this point I told my buddies Wayne and Brad that we would see now what the Kentucky team had in their guts as they looked like they were out of gas... The Cats did make a nice come back to outscore Florida 20 to 18 (the last touchdown does not count in my book as it was meaningless) but in the end was just out of gas which brings me to my next point... How could the SEC schedule Kentucky to play LSU and Florida back to back???
As for the rest of the game I personally did not like the on side kick call in the 3rd quarter or the last kick off when Kentucky should have kicked it deep vs. giving Florida the ball on their own 40 on a squib kick (if you were going to on side kick do it there)... Woodson missed some open receivers but overall had a good day... The Cats no doubt missed Little in this game...
I have said all along that I think reality is that Kentucky can be an extremly competitive football team in the SEC year in and year out... I think that Kentucky can every three or four years have a chance to compete for an SEC East Title but when you look at their year in and year out schedule and the ever present talent gap due to recruiting between Kentucky and the Florida's, LSU's, Alabama's, Auburns, Georgia's and Tennessee's will make it even tough in a year when all the pieces are in place as they are this year...
By the way Florida upset UK according to ESPN...
UK vs Mississippi State
This was a game that I was concerned about since UK had so many injuries and was coming off of three very emotional games... Win this game, get a week off win two of the last three and this team is in a New Years Day bowl game for sure and quite possibly in the SEC Championship Game... Lay an egg and the team is in a fight for it's post season life... Egg layed and LSU win now means nothing!!!
I did not like the play calling in this game on offense... With the injuries I thought UK would run, run, run with the fullbacks leading the charge (Hey Joker do you remember the fullbacks that played so well through the first of the season???) and with Locke, Smith and Ginter all three getting carries throughout the game... Great teams overcome injuries and great coaching staffs devise game plans around the talent they have at that moment to win these types of games... Injuries, turnovers and not being ready to play killed this teams momentum...
They say that their are five plays during a game that will decide a game and Kentucky was one of five on these plays that I identified... The one was on a fourth and eight when Woodson through a strike to Stevie in the corner on a great throw and great catch...
I thought the Mississippi State coaching staff had a great game plan that was executed very well... Their opening drive was a thing of beauty and pretty much set the tone for the rest of the game and left the UK defense on their heels the rest of the way... Mississippi State is the last rated passing team in the SEC and we made there quarterback look like he was All Conference...
After the game I was happy to hear Papaw step up and take the blame for this loss as I think he is correct on pinning this one on himself and his staff... Injuries, sminjuries, You have to overcome them if you want to be successful in this league...
Can this team win the last three or two of three??? If they win only one and finish 7 and 5 would that make the season a disappointment??? Would you say the team under achieved if it goes 7 and 5??? Stay tuned... I will be in Nashville Saturday to root them on!!!
Shag's Top Five
1. Ohio State
2. Kansas (they have not lost a game and until they do they are here)
3. LSU
4. Oregon
5. Oklahoma
Fantasy Sports Update
This is my first year playing fantasy pro football... I thought this would force me to be more interested in the games... No luck... I still cannot follow it... My team is 2 and 7 but I will keep fighting...
In College Football Pick'em (against the spread) I started out on top... After four weeks I was First in Fans of Kentucky, First in Fans from Kentucky, tenth overall on Yahoo and first in my ShagOnFootball Pick Group...
The next five weeks were tough... I dropped out of the top 100 on both of my Fans Group, third place in ShagOnFootball and to about 5000 place overall on Yahoo... This week I went 13 and 4 which moves me back in the top 50 in both of my fan groups and to 2500 place overall on Yahoo and second in ShagOnFootball... If I were betting $10 a game then I would be up $260 as I am 106 and 80 for the year or 57% which is what I finished at last year... Four weeks to go...
UK Basketball
I am not putting allot of stock in the loss to Garnder-Webb... I think Billy G threw the game in the tank... During the second half I could see directly into the huddle during timeouts and Billy G was laughing at his players and during one timeout even tried to hand the players his clipboard as if to say, "You guys coach"...
I think he sent a message to this team that I let you do it your way and you got hammered and now we are going to do it my way...
UK's issue is they have no point guard and no help for Patrick Patterson who is not only a good offensive player but a great interior passer and pretty good defender... He just does not have anyone to throw the ball too...
This teams needs to shed Joe Crawford and Smooth Bradley (these guys are scarred) and let the young guys play but without Bradley no one can play the point (Jasper is done for the year)...
Biggest problem I have is that it is now confirmed that Billy G is partying like a rock star... I don't know about you but this is not what I want my coaches doing during their off time... Everyone should have a good time but let's do it with charecter and integrity...
Bottom line for me is I am a huge Arkansas fan for the moment except for when they play UK... If John Pelphrey can be successful there then he will be the next UK coach... Let's hope that is not in the next few years but with many more losses to teams like Gardner-Webb it may be sooner then we think...
Random Thoughts
- UK's defense ranks last in the SEC even though they are much improved... Defense, not offense wins championships... I am not sure UK can ever have a top rated defense and I would much rather have an entertaining point scoring machine as I think that is how you win football games consistently at UK...
- Florida had beaten Georgia several years in a row after coming off a bye week... This year Georgia was coming off a bye week and beat Florida... Hmmmmmmm!!!
- Did they play the World Series??? I guess my two weeks in Europe took me right out of the picture... I did not watch one inning of any of the playoff games and only watched two innings of the World Series... If the Games were on at a decent time during the week and if they played day games on the weekends like they should then I would probably watch more when my team is not playing... Congrats to the Red Sox, as they were the best team most all year (second only to Yankees in payroll)!!!
- Brooks meter stays at +6 after going 1 and 3 over the last four games... I thought this team could be 6 and 3 at this point and with some luck 7 and 2... After they beat both Louisville and Arkansas I expected this team to be 7 and 2... I still am not drinking the kool-aid until I see the body of work the rest of this year and next...
- When I look at Tony Larussa's record in St Louis it makes me feel like signing him for two more years is a good idea... Much better then the Reds hiring Dusty Baker... That was a bad hire for the Reds... Nice hire by the Yankees to get Girardi and time will tell if the Dodgers made a good hire with Torre...