Towles says there was dissension in locker room

[wildcatman26]

http://kentucky.247sports.com/Bolt/Listen-Towles-says-there-was-dissension-in-locker-room-42221799

Former Kentucky quarterback Patrick Towles left the Wildcats football program after the season and has announced he is transferring to Boston College to play his senior season.

Towles spoke to former Wildcats basketball player Mark Krebs on Kentucky Sports TV and went into detail about his time in Lexington playing for UK. You can listen to the complete interview yourself above, but here are some excerpts:

On the reality of a split locker room between quarterbacks and/or coaches:

"I don't want to say it was necessarily split, but I think there was definitely some dissension - but that's the way it is with a lot of football teams. Only the super super elite programs are going to be on the same page all the time. We definitely had some dissension and I think it led to some guys not necessarily making a bunch of plays. People can read into that all they want. ... This situation for me here is not where it needs to be to be super successful. ... At the end of the day you have to wipe away the facade and the window dressing and look and say, 'Is this really the place for me anymore?' And it wasn't. I'm saddened by it, for sure."


On Mark Stoops reaction when he told the coach he was leaving:

"He said he kind of expected it a little bit. He said that he would do whatever he can to help me go - which I was extremely appreciative of. He's been wonderful in the process of talking to coaches on my behalf and all the coaches have said what wonderful things Coach Stoops has said about me."

On former UK offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson:

"I'm a huge fan of Coach Dawson's. I really enjoyed my time that I spent with him. I think he's going to be really successful as an offensive coordinator. ... I'm hard-pressed to find a better guy on that coaching staff than Coach Dawson. I wish him nothing but luck on moving forward. I was kind of bummed to see him go."

On the coaching staff as a whole:

"It's all about the players making plays. There were a lot of times when Coach Dawson put us in really good positions to succeed and somebody didn't execute. It's all about execution. I think the coaches did a really good job this year. People can disagree with me all they want. I think Coach Stoops, Coach Elliot and those people did a really, really good job at putting us in position to succeed.

On winning - or lack thereof:

"I felt like here (at Kentucky) we didn't win as many games as we should have with our talent. That's on us, the players, for just not executing the stuff. But I'm excited to go up there and sling the ball around."

Why Boston College:

"It's great because it's a pro-style system - which is what I was orginally recruited to Kentucky to play in. It translates well to the NFL. ... I want to go to a place where I'm valued, where people really care about me."

 

[Coach_Mark_Oops]

Doesn't surprise me. That's what happens when you add a new OC

 

[akaukswoosh]

Buh-bye.

 

[pickled cat]

Buh-bye.

family

 

[Levibooty]

Everybody knew about this after the Boom drama show in the middle of the schedule. I think there must have been something specific to Towles that caused a rift though.

 

[billoliver40]

Patrick is just verifying what a lot of folks have speculated about.

Some kids coming out of HS were THE man. All the hype, all the stats, all the pub.

Some of those same kids have problems when they aren't in the package or their name doesn't get called every play.
I agree with Patrick every team likely has those problems. Some staffs handle them in ways to make them go away...either the problems or the players.

 

[BlueRaider22]

I've never seen a losing team that didn't have differing opinions about things. It's not that big of deal. As long as the players don't go Varsity Blues on Stoops (Killmer) then winning will be able to cure all.

Towles exuded class in this interview though. He was very complimentary without being accusatory. Wish him the best at BC.

 

[Levibooty]

What triggered my thinking about something specific to Towles is this remark:
"This situation for me here is not where it needs to be to be super successful. ... At the end of the day you have to wipe away the facade and the window dressing and look and say, 'Is this really the place for me anymore?' And it wasn't."

Obviously there was something about the team that prevented Towles from meshing well. Recalling what Lorenzen had to say about the WR's something was not working out well. I'm not saying it was something of Towles doing but there was a definite clash of some sort that was happening.

 

[catsfanbgky]

Everybody knew about this after the Boom drama show in the middle of the schedule. I think there must have been something specific to Towles that caused a rift though.

Are you saying between Boom and Towles ? Boom's situation was he got pissy because he did not think he had to do the dirty work and was here just for the glory and running for td's and not blocking / selling routes when he was not the designed target. Stoops benched him in favor of Jo Jo and Boom acted like a baby and wanted to take his ball and go home, had nothing to do with Towles. I may have read your post wrong, and you where saying that there was a problem directly between Towles and Boom. If I did, sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[JasonRDunn]

Patrick is just verifying what a lot of folks have speculated about.

Some kids coming out of HS were THE man. All the hype, all the stats, all the pub.

Some of those same kids have problems when they aren't in the package or their name doesn't get called every play.
I agree with Patrick every team likely has those problems. Some staffs handle them in ways to make them go away...either the problems or the players.

I think, as we get better and better players (i.e., more highly ranked), we are going to see more of this, unless there is strong player-based leadership on the team. We are selling playing time to the best players that a UK-type situation can get (IOW, we are not Alabama). In that situation, players are going to come in and feel that they are better than the people in front of them. That is going to create some drama.

As you said, many of these players are not used to being the "second" guy. We need to have players with experience exerting some leadership and coaches supporting the same.

 

[Beatle Bum]

Good kid. Wish him the best at BC. That will not be an easy place for him to succeed, but the competition at QB has not been good. They have had good running attacks. Maybe he can be the missing link in that offense.

 

[Chuckinden]

I've never seen a losing team that didn't have differing opinions about things. It's not that big of deal. As long as the players don't go Varsity Blues on Stoops (Killmer) then winning will be able to cure all.

Towles exuded class in this interview though. He was very complimentary without being accusatory. Wish him the best at BC.

Agree. Frustration brings out a lot of dissention and finger pointing.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

I bet players didn't like the bromance between the underperforming Towles and the underperforming Dawson.

That'd cause problems.

 

[Rockford]

Maybe it is just me, but I think once you've cut ties with a program and transfer, it's best to say something nice, thank everybody and then zip it and move on.

I can't recall other transfers talking as much as PT is doing. I think it is poor form.

 

[gobigblue812_rivals29381]

Was he including himself when he said guys didn't execute or make plays?

 

[gobigblue812_rivals29381]

Maybe it is just me, but I think once you've cut ties with a program and transfer, it's best to say something nice, thank everybody and then zip it and move on.

I can't recall other transfers talking as much as PT is doing. I think it is poor form.[/QUOT]


He just needs to stop talking UK and start talking BC.

 

[Real Deal 2]

What triggered my thinking about something specific to Towles is this remark:
"This situation for me here is not where it needs to be to be super successful. ... At the end of the day you have to wipe away the facade and the window dressing and look and say, 'Is this really the place for me anymore?' And it wasn't."

Obviously there was something about the team that prevented Towles from meshing well. Recalling what Lorenzen had to say about the WR's something was not working out well. I'm not saying it was something of Towles doing but there was a definite clash of some sort that was happening.

ME ME Me. Is this place really for me.
I love what Danny Kanell said about these 5th year guys transferring out, taking ball and running somewhere when they either get beat out or don't compete. Too much Me instead of We.
Not place for me even though we pretty much gave him chance for 3 years but 2 straight.

We need some guys who are leaders, guys who don't accept losing, don't accept nonsense. This needs to come from staff and fellow players. We are the softest crew in a long time.
We need toughness and no excuses, we need we guys instead of me guys.
He needs to go to Boston and quit talking about team and program he quit on after being benched.
IMO

 

[BARBQGRILLER]

Not surprising ,Going into year 4 with Stoops and it's a complete mess . Another New O.C. , QB situation shakey, and No real backup . And the schedule will be much, much harder .

 

[ageit]

Real Deal 2 nailed it. Teams cannot function well with "me" first thinking

 

[DACats86]

Maybe it is just me, but I think once you've cut ties with a program and transfer, it's best to say something nice, thank everybody and then zip it and move on.

I can't recall other transfers talking as much as PT is doing. I think it is poor form.

^ This. Perfectly said.

In the same vein, anyone see Matt Elam's tweet in response to Kash Daniel saying he was looking forward to 6:00 a.m. workouts with Coach Edmonds? Didn't set well with me.

 

[gobigblue812_rivals29381]

All we hear is what Towles says. It's his opinion and he's no longer on the team. How many BC interviews has he done since he announced?

We get it. He didn't play very well but it's not really his fault. "We definitely had some dissension and I think it led to some guys not necessarily making a bunch of plays. People can read into that all they want. ..."

I hope his new teammates don't make him look bad. I guess we'll know what he'll say if next season doesn't go well...

 

[Levibooty]

Are you saying between Boom and Towles ? Boom's situation was he got pissy because he did not think he had to do the dirty work and was here just for the glory and running for td's and not blocking / selling routes when he was not the designed target. Stoops benched him in favor of Jo Jo and Boom acted like a baby and wanted to take his ball and go home, had nothing to do with Towles. I may have read your post wrong, and you where saying that there was a problem directly between Towles and Boom. If I did, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Thank you for at least saying you weren't sure what I was saying. I was just saying that there were problems between players on this team and Boom/Kemp was just one incidence we know of.

 

[OFortuna]

Listening to this interview I am left with the same feeling I had at the end of the season: This year's group ended up being less a team and more a collection of individuals who happened to wear the same uniforms. While Towles attempted to be measured in his comments, his "inside the locker room" view of things is: (1) We didn't win as many games as we should have with our talent; (2) Our coaches put us in position to win; (3) Ours was not primarily a failure of talent or coaching but of execution; (4) There was definitely internal dissention and that lead to some guys not executing well; (5) When you can't rely on each other to make plays you have to look elsewhere, which he has done.

We might quibble with him about the coaches being blameless; however, his comments confirm what we felt watching this season unravel: Something was terribly wrong with this bunch internally. Towles also leaves us with this sobering reminder about the coaching change: "A lot of people want to think that just because he's [Dawson] no longer there that Kentucky will just immediately get better. That's not the way it is.... A lot goes into that [execution, making plays], and somebody on twitter might know, or somebody, a UK fan in the stands might know, I don't care if they've had season tickets for 45 years, you know, being a fly on that wall in the locker room every day as a player, um, you learn a lot more stuff, and, um, at the end of the day it's all about executing and we just didn't do that. People can make changes and stuff like that. that's all great, and you can have Bear Bryant in there...." In other words, we better address what allowed the situation to deteriorate or the rest is just window dressing. I have to agree.

 

[Levibooty]

ME ME Me. Is this place really for me.
I love what Danny Kanell said about these 5th year guys transferring out, taking ball and running somewhere when they either get beat out or don't compete. Too much Me instead of We.
Not place for me even though we pretty much gave him chance for 3 years but 2 straight.

We need some guys who are leaders, guys who don't accept losing, don't accept nonsense. This needs to come from staff and fellow players. We are the softest crew in a long time.
We need toughness and no excuses, we need we guys instead of me guys.
He needs to go to Boston and quit talking about team and program he quit on after being benched.
IMO

Wow that's strong and maybe not a bad take but to be fair I do think Towles is trying to put himself in a situation that will improve his draft stock. I also think he made another bad decision choosing BC when looking at his options. Then again his decision making has never been the highlight of his career.

One thing I do wholeheartedly agree with---he should stop talking. Talking will not improve his performance at Kentucky.

 

[Deeeefense]

"I don't want to say it was necessarily split, but I think there was definitely some dissension - but that's the way it is with a lot of football teams. Only the super super elite programs are going to be on the same page all the time.

I think he has it backwards. Teams that are succeeding on the field are in harmony. Players believe and have faith in each other and the coaches, but when things go sour the finger pointing and dissension starts.
Makes me wonder what those "players only meetings" were all about.

Anyway his comments underline the fact that we definitely needed a fresh face at the OC position and a new start for the players.

 

[HedleyLamarr]

Winning teams almost always have team leaders, usually upperclassmen, who drive everybody to work harder, get better, and make plays. Kentucky, in year three of CMS, had talent but not those great team leaders. That could be why there was dissension, and the cure can happen pretty quickly.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

^ This. Perfectly said.

In the same vein, anyone see Matt Elam's tweet in response to Kash Daniel saying he was looking forward to 6:00 a.m. workouts with Coach Edmonds? Didn't set well with me.

Ehh...don't know if you can know what Elam was thinking by just tweeting a set of eyeballs...:eyes:

 

[wildcatdon]

I bet players didn't like the bromance between the underperforming Towles and the underperforming Dawson.

That'd cause problems.

Good point here and probably one of the main issues.

 

[Beatle Bum]

Maybe it is just me, but I think once you've cut ties with a program and transfer, it's best to say something nice, thank everybody and then zip it and move on.

I can't recall other transfers talking as much as PT is doing. I think it is poor form.

Not sure he has crossed any line, but I agree with the premise.

 

[merrimanm]

^ This. Perfectly said.

In the same vein, anyone see Matt Elam's tweet in response to Kash Daniel saying he was looking forward to 6:00 a.m. workouts with Coach Edmonds? Didn't set well with me.

Care to share the tweets?

 

[Woodrow24]

Not sure what those guys tweeted as a reply but I love the attitude kash has. I hope Matt Elam has that same attitude himself. The whole team needs to get in the weight room and work hard this off season.

 

[screwduke]

Patrick stated the obvious. Don't have to be in the locker room to see it.

 

[tntuk]

What triggered my thinking about something specific to Towles is this remark:
"This situation for me here is not where it needs to be to be super successful. ... At the end of the day you have to wipe away the facade and the window dressing and look and say, 'Is this really the place for me anymore?' And it wasn't."

Obviously there was something about the team that prevented Towles from meshing well. Recalling what Lorenzen had to say about the WR's something was not working out well. I'm not saying it was something of Towles doing but there was a definite clash of some sort that was happening.

I'm pretty sure the negative fans played a big role as well. He took a lot of crap all year long on the radio, these boards, and his own social media.

 

[tntuk]

ME ME Me. Is this place really for me.
I love what Danny Kanell said about these 5th year guys transferring out, taking ball and running somewhere when they either get beat out or don't compete. Too much Me instead of We.
Not place for me even though we pretty much gave him chance for 3 years but 2 straight.

We need some guys who are leaders, guys who don't accept losing, don't accept nonsense. This needs to come from staff and fellow players. We are the softest crew in a long time.
We need toughness and no excuses, we need we guys instead of me guys.
He needs to go to Boston and quit talking about team and program he quit on after being benched.
IMO

Me me me like Boom and Dorian? C'mon man - Towles was always about the program for 4 years. To insinuate otherwise is a joke.

And I don't understand this criticism of 5th year transfers.

They are all moving on to play 1 more year of college football to a school where they will play. Towles wasn't going to play at UK next year....if he came back and did play, think about the **** storm our fans would cause!! It would be an absolute disaster.

His transfer is good for him, and good for the program as a whole.

And let me also say - I find it funny that the majority of those who criticized Towles all year are also the same ones who are criticizing his transfer to BC. It's laughable.

 

[tntuk]

Patrick stated the obvious. Don't have to be in the locker room to see it.

No, but he confirmed it.

 

[Levibooty]

I'm pretty sure the negative fans played a big role as well. He took a lot of crap all year long on the radio, these boards, and his own social media.

He didn't take near the crap Jordan Swindle took and he seemed to be quite fine going on Finebaum and boasting he was going to lead us to the SEC championship game.

 

[Levibooty]

No, but he confirmed it.

He confirmed his take on the story. But that's not the question. The question is, 'To what end'? He is no longer on the team, why is he talking so much? Nobody forced him to leave and if he had not thrown as many interception as TD's he probably would have kept his job also. I'm a big believer in a player and teammate starts their criticism in front of a mirror.

I also do not think Dawson served Patrick well. I think Patrick needed to see some consequences of his poor play along the way instead of unaccountable job security.

 

[chuckster.sixpack]

Maybe it is just me, but I think once you've cut ties with a program and transfer, it's best to say something nice, thank everybody and then zip it and move on.

I can't recall other transfers talking as much as PT is doing. I think it is poor form.

In the old days a UK football player would leave and nobody would bother to ask any questions. Now days with so much time to fill on the radio and other media outlets coupled with a player being only a text away from an invite to share his thoughts, you're only going to see more of it. In other words, it takes two to tango.

 

[chuckster.sixpack]

ME ME Me. Is this place really for me.
I love what Danny Kanell said about these 5th year guys transferring out, taking ball and running somewhere when they either get beat out or don't compete. Too much Me instead of We.
Not place for me even though we pretty much gave him chance for 3 years but 2 straight.

We need some guys who are leaders, guys who don't accept losing, don't accept nonsense. This needs to come from staff and fellow players. We are the softest crew in a long time.
We need toughness and no excuses, we need we guys instead of me guys.
He needs to go to Boston and quit talking about team and program he quit on after being benched.
IMO

I wonder what Danny Kanell would have done if he had been afforded the opportunity in a similar situation. He played for 4 teams in 8 years after college -5 if you count a short stint in baseball. But I'm sure if you asked Danny, he made all of those moves for the team.

 

[KentuckyWildcat4Life]

Thank you towels for what you did here at Kentucky. However the bbn needs one more thing from you. Can you take Stoops with you? If so I'd have a merry Christmas.