Saturday Evening News and Views

You weren't expecting this picture when you clicked on KSR were you? Happy Birthday to Queen Elizabeth I. Today would have marked her 480th birthday, but sadly cryogenics technology had yet to be perfected so she passed away in 1603 from blood poisoning. Or what those modern witch doctors know as "sepsis." The first cousin (14 times removed) of the modern day Queen Elizabeth II, she reigned from 1558 until her death. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second of six wives, Anne Boleyn. Little Elizabeth grew up without her mother as Henry had her beheaded, claiming incest, adultery, and treason, and hogging the covers. She had to go. Elizabeth rose to be Queen after being imprisoned for nearly a year by her Roman Catholic half sister Mary. Family drama--we all have it. Queen Elizabeth founded the English Protestant Church, what evolved into the Church of England or Anglican Church. The Elizabethan Age is considered the Golden Age of English history in which the British navy dominated the hated Spanish (defeating the failed Spanish Armada), the economy flourished, and William Shakespeare wrote all of those plays in which the protagonist committed suicide, or sometimes murdered. The high school students of the world are particularly ungrateful for the literary contributions of the Elizabethan Age. Sparknotes, thou art my savior. It wasn't all colonization/oppressing native populations or going to the theatre for the Queen; there were many assassination attempts upon her life, often by Catholic rivals. With the heaviest of hearts, Elizabeth beheaded her Catholic rival and cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth passed away, childless, thus ending the Tudor dynasty. No matter how one interprets her reign, she is one of the most well-known and influential of any monarch in history. So Happy Birthday Elizabeth. Hope you're still executing foes up in heaven.   On to a big day of news: To start off, some UK records were affected by today's game: - The offense put up 675 yards, third-most for the Cats all time. The most yards in one game for a Kentucky offense was 801 back in 1998 in Neil Brown's first game as a UK player. - Today's game marked the first time Kentucky has had two quarterbacks throw for at least 100 yards since Jared Lorenzen and Shane Boyd back on October 13, 2001 in a 25-29 home loss to LSU. - Javess Blue's 88-yard TD catch was the fourth-longest passing play in UK football history. https://twitter.com/UKcoachbrooks/status/376426746590920704 You remember this guy. - Is the Air Raid back? There were more big plays in today's game than I can remember from the entire 2012 season. In fact, at halftime today Kentucky had more yards (410) and points (31) than it did in nine of its games in 2012. Max Smith looked efficient, confident, and well-protected for most of the day. While there was an offensive lull in the third quarter, when the offense was clicking it was really clicking, with the most noteworthy drive for me being the latest scoring drive, ending with a Jeff Badet TD to go up 41-7. 3 plays, 98 yards. That's impressive. - Rotating QBs seems to work for this team, at least based on today. Max Smith finished with 310 yards and 3 TDs on 15-23 passing; Jalen was strong with 48 yards rushing, and a TD, completing 10-12 passes for 103 yards. - The newcomers were dominant. Counting punt and kickoff (1) returns, players recruited by Mark Stoops and his staff (since December) contributed 473 all-purpose yards today. JoJo Kemp led the team in rush yards with 78 yards on 12 carries. Javess Blue seemed like he was always open, leading the team with 6 receptions for 114 yards and that 88-yard touchdown that we mentioned as a UK record. Fans in Commonwealth were beginning to get restless after severallll foolish penalties pinned the offense deep in our own territory, but the long bomb to Blue quickly changed the atmosphere. As Roush said, Timmons, Blue, Badet, and Montgomery were the top 4 receivers with 72% of Kentucky's catches, 286 yards, and 2 TDs. - Ryan Timmons is so much fun to watch. He defines the position "athlete" for this team. - Although I've been pronouncing Javess wrong until today, Carl Nathe kindly corrected me. It won't happen again. - The offense started the game with five consecutive scoring drives, but as we saw, it stagnated. It's difficult to maintain a high level of energy and efficiency for four quarters against an over-matched opponent--don't lose sleep over it. - The defense allowed zero offensive touchdowns and only 122 yards of total offense. Za'Darius had six tackles, three sacks, and a QB hurry and Bud Dupree forced a fumble, had a sack, and 7 tackles. The squad that couldn't stop the run in Nashville appears to have done some sort of body swap, or at least that's what some guy in front of me at Commonwealth said. KSR will investigate the validity of this claim. - Kentucky won its first home game of the Stoops era, and you had to love hearing those Air Raid sirens and and the success out of the hurry up when it was utilized. Some Chevy Chasers may not have been quite so pleased with the sirens..  There were definite snafus on punt returns, with mental lapses from Daryl Collins and Javess Blue--one resulting in Miami's only points of the day; there were also too many penalties, but there are far more positives than negatives to take from this hot day in Lexington. Game experience and coaching adjustments can straighten out this team's mental mistakes in those areas. On to the rest of the news: https://twitter.com/JayBilas/status/376434059582246913 - I'm not at Calipari Fantasy Camp and you probably aren't either, so check out everything KSR has to offer this weekend. You can fantasize about a fantasy camp, it's ok. Most notably in my opinion, is the presence of Jay Bilas and the six-time Pro Bowler Jason Taylor at Fantasy Camp. He and Matt Jones were teammates on "Team Texas."  That's something no one ever imagined they'd be reading (#KentuckyEffect.) Taylor is said to have been pretty decent from what I'm hearing.. - Tyler Ulis, Jahlil Okafor, and Devin Booker are in town this weekend for official visits. This is good news, and the rumors of UK being in the driver's seat for Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker seem valid. Case in point, this quote: “Me and Devin have talked a lot about playing with each other, but still we both know that we have to decide what’s best for us,” Ulis said. “We’d love to play with each other.” - It was a big day in the SEC, as No. 12 Florida went down to Miami on the road. Every time an ACC team beats an SEC team, I get a little queasy, even in the case of the Gators. Florida turned the ball over on 4 trips to the endzone; quarterback Jeff Driskel had two interceptions, a fumble, and was stopped on fourth down once. Outgaining Miami 413-212 and achieving 22 first downs to Miami's 10, it's a painful loss for Muschamp's squad, but the biggest for Miami in years. Let 'em celebrate. - After a College Gameday loss last week at Clemson, No. 11 Georgia recovered to beat Spurrier's No. 6 Gamecocks for the first time in three years, 41-30. Aaron Murray came up big on a national stage this time, with four touchdowns on 17 of 23 passes and leading a deliberate, clock-eating fourth quarter drive to put it away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAzCKhYooLE  - Tennessee beat Western Kentucky 52-20 at Neyland Stadium. That doesn't matter, what does is that Western Kentucky committed 5 turnovers on 6 plays. It's baffling to watch and frustrating for me to think about what could have been against Petrino's team last week, but this was week two. The Hilltoppers were a different team in Nashville. The first step to recovery is acceptance. - We got the U.S. Open Final that everyone expected, with No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Rafael Nadal being the finalists in America's tennis major. The 9-seed Stanislas Wawrinka gave Djokovic a five-set battle, but the favorite came out on top on his favorite surface. They will face off for the sixth time in a major this Monday. - The 2020 Summer Olympics will be hosted by Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo beat out Madrid and Istanbul for the Summer Games, their first since 1964. Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musburger in the studio with Eminem aka Marshall Mathers at the Michigan-Notre Dame game was the most epic four minutes of live television EVER. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dlociV_c6LI Have a great rest of your Saturday, and try to avoid imitating Slim Shady. @BrennanKSR