The QB Johnson should help our defense in covering the read option. If he is not the starter, He should help us in preparing for the read option QB'S we face. hope he can play some. Barker was good but not great. Lots of time for improvement before fall. I see 6 wins at least for the season. I still have my doubts Barker can get it done.
what the scrimmage tells me
- Thread starter frost1
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Until proven otherwise Kentucky will have trouble with running QBs. Whitlow, Newton, Pulley, even Towles in his first years ran the ball and yet our D couldn't prepare for one. This isn't a knock on Johnson's running ability; I like what I saw from him today. The doubts lie squarely on the defense.
I think the doubts lie squarely on the coaching staff.
The issue with this is that the QB's you mentioned were slated to start. Every single one of them. I doubt any sane coach would put a starting scrambler in a live game scenario all too often given the pounding he receives on Saturdays and importance he has to overall record. I don't know this for a fact, by the way. I'm just throwing out ideas. Anyway, Johnson gives us an interesting opportunity to let loose a running QB on our defense without worrying too much about repercussions. Worst case scenario, we go with Hoak if both of the others are dinged up.
Our defense needs experience and skills stopping the read option in the worst of ways.
Oh you better worry about repercussions. Johnson was brought in to add depth and you say it doesn't matter if he gets hurt? Matters a lot. If we find ourselves starting true frosh Hoak we are in a world of trouble.
Every team has problems with running QB's. It is just the numbers of the game. A good athlete at QB is going to stress any defense.
From the fact that today's scrimmage was so vanilla I really wouldn't take a lot from today's scrimmage...now the guys need to get into the weight room and get ready for the fall and now that DB has won the QB job he needs to the up the mantle of being the team leader and lead the summer workouts
Lber corp looked way deeper and more natural than the last several years. Still young and we'll see plenty of bone head plays but they come up and hit and we have depth. Firios and Kash get back we'll be solid there. Jordan Jones is gonna be real good. Looks wayyyy better and more physical than last year.
Needs to be said that hoak looked very natural back there. I don't expect him to play for 2 years but we got a steal on that kid. Barker looked better and more fluid this spring. He looked very stiff in his delivery last year and that has improved. Johnson will be a good change of pace guy and has some wheels.
DL and ol, idk. Didn't see a lot of explosive plays by the dline and that surprised me. May have been the vanilla nature of the scrimmage but didn't see meant or miggins blow by guys like I thought they would at times. Ol could just be that solid up the gut but Ware was wearing them out on the outside.
Wrs had drops but a whole lot of bad thumbs and wrist make it hard to tell. 42, the rs freshman walkon is gonna play a lot the next few years. That kid has it. Not sure about his speed but he catches the ball and gets yards. Timmons looked like what I thought he'd look like when he got here. Wonder if he's just healthier than he's been in a while? Badet too, he looks 100%.
Needs to be said that hoak looked very natural back there. I don't expect him to play for 2 years but we got a steal on that kid. Barker looked better and more fluid this spring. He looked very stiff in his delivery last year and that has improved. Johnson will be a good change of pace guy and has some wheels.
DL and ol, idk. Didn't see a lot of explosive plays by the dline and that surprised me. May have been the vanilla nature of the scrimmage but didn't see meant or miggins blow by guys like I thought they would at times. Ol could just be that solid up the gut but Ware was wearing them out on the outside.
Wrs had drops but a whole lot of bad thumbs and wrist make it hard to tell. 42, the rs freshman walkon is gonna play a lot the next few years. That kid has it. Not sure about his speed but he catches the ball and gets yards. Timmons looked like what I thought he'd look like when he got here. Wonder if he's just healthier than he's been in a while? Badet too, he looks 100%.
Barker won't be a superstar this year but if he gets hurt you can stick a fork in us. Johnson will get broken in half if he doesn't gain at least 20lbs and Mattingly showed me why he's a walkon. But Hoak did look good in limited time. The RB's look great. WR's look improved. OT's will still get us manhandled again this year.
Really enjoying the scrimmage, even though plays are vanilla it doesn't excuse the lack of effort of some of our guys. I HATED seeing Elam knocked on his ***.
"Without worrying too much about repercussions." I never said there wouldn't be any. Simply that we wouldn't be risking a starter. Thanks.
You still don't understand you can' only improve speed, strength and agility so far. There's a genetic ceiling. You have heard about genetics haven't you? If our guys' genetic ceilings were higher they'd be playing for Alabama.
Our recruiting is better but still the guys that the big boys missed or didn't make an all out attempt to get.
My doubts about posts like yours is that you have never made an all out attempt to think for yourself.
It was a beautiful day for football. The school said 28,000 fans were there. Looking around the stadium, there were maybe about half that many. Some players who stood out in a positive way were Shihiem King, Jo Jo Kemp, Cole Mosier, Mason Wolfe, Jon Toth, CJ Conrad, Greg Hart, Jeff Badet, Ryan Timmons, Charles Walker, Kengera Daniel, Denzil Ware, Kobie Walker, Jordan Jones, Derrick Baity, Blake McClain, Jared Tucker, Chris Westry, JD Harmon, Marcus Walker. I was very disappointed in Elam, Pringle, Meant, Miggins. I want to talk more about quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, defensive line. It is obvious now that our coaches have been committed to Barker all along. After the game, Stoops awarded the starting job to Barker. But Barker was not very sharp yesterday. Drew had a couple of series in the 2nd half where he made some throws and impressed me. But his consistency was not good. He had some bad reads and some really bad misses in the 1st half. He still locks onto receivers and overstrides. The TD pass to Timmons in the 2nd quarter in the middle of the field was thrown right on the money. But looking at the replay, a fast SEC safety might have picked that ball before it got to Timmons. Barker has made progress this spring, but I am still concerned whether he can actually be consistent and win games. Johnson and Hoak looked pretty good. The walk on transfer, Luke Wright, is a real player. Wright impressed me a lot. Boom didn't play, but our running backs will be pretty good once he returns. King and Jo Jo are solid. Horton doesn't seem to stay on his feet through any contact. When Snell gets here, Horton may have trouble getting on the field. We have a ton of interesting receivers. Baker and Montgomery didn't play yesterday, but the freshman Greenwood is a good looking player. Juice dropped a couple of catchable balls, and he better clean that up. Conrad and Hart are a pair of big time tight ends who can really block, which will help our running game. We still have big problems on our defensive line. I don't know what Brumbaugh has been doing this spring, but Stoops and Eliot have to find some answers there fast.
I'm not going to get to high or to low from a scrimmage game. I am very cautious about drawing any solid conclusions.
Nice to see some football.
Nice to see some football.
Still runs too high. Also a big cause of his ball security problems. I agree he'll be the one left out. After all the costly fumbles last season, he'll have only himself to blame.
Ill be surprised if he ever plays another meaningful snap at UK. Way too many big time talents on the roster with more on the way.
Have to agree. Will not be surprised if he gives up football before he graduates. Real shame because he had the best hands on the team but never really got a shot to show it. Keep in mind Ross shows up this summer and it appears he has been training very hard and as a lot of athleticism. Hopefully he has the hands as well.
The throw yesterday was made against a backup safety with minimal playing experience. In a real SEC game, the window for that throw would have been narrower, and there might not have been a window at all. The throw was right on Timmons' hands, so it was a great throw. But the backup safety almost picked it. A longer, more experienced safety would have picked it IMO. Maybe Drew wouldn't have tried that throw in an SEC game, I don't know. He took what was available yesterday and threw a TD pass. That's progress. I don't think anyone should be fooled into thinking Barker can play like he played yesterday and win SEC games. He isn't there yet. But I can see real improvement since last November. So that's the good news.
As for the running q-backs, we better get that figured out this year or we never will, I know running q-backs stress any defense, but our defense has been GASHED by them. I hope that has been the focal point for our defense this spring and will be for the summer. We have good enough athletes to somewhat contain the q-back running, the Louisville game last year was sickening to watch after leading 24 to 3 at half. Then after the game someone on the staff said we didn't prepare for that, I would have never said that, I would have said we just couldn't stop it. What was said made the staff look bad.