We Were All Thinking It

by:Evan Hilbert01/13/11
(Clay Jackson photo) So now it's final -- one of the best players to ever wear a Kentucky uniform will forgo his senior season to become a third round (at best!) pick in the NFL Draft. Initially, I thought this a selfish move on Cobb's part, one that doesn't reflect how he carries himself (Twitter outbursts notwithstanding).  And you know, it's pretty obvious: There's nothing here for him. I don't want to bog this post down with stats and actual analysis -- that seems like a lot of work for both of us -- but I will say this: When your offense contains a package where the ball is directly snapped to your best player, it's inexcusable that he ever get fewer than, say, ten offensive touches. In eight games this year Cobb had less than 10 touches -- in the Georgia game, he had zero carries. And, while I don't really know much about football, I understand that teams will scheme against you to stop your best player. That makes sense. But so often would we run the Wildcat, watch it get stuffed, then never go back to it again. Fine. Realize, though, that this theory of out-scheming appears disingenuous -- and stupid -- when the exact same Tyler Robinson out pattern is called 12 times a game. (This really is more indicative of our self-scouting offense -- where we run plays that the defense isn't expecting (i.e. Morgan Newton draws) -- but that's a different whiny ramble for a different day. And don't get me started on how many times a game we should have thrown the ball up to Chris Matthews.) But it's not like Cobb is going to announce his decision with a "the play-calling sucked. I'm outta here"-type statement. Instead, he'll say all the right things -- thanks to his family, coaches, teammates, and fans for all your support -- and Joker will say, "hey, it's OK. We'll be fine." Just as he did the other night at the basketball game, and he'll talk about the guys we have coming in, and he'll talk about who were returning, and he'll talk about how far Newton has come, and he'll talk about how "things are changing around here," and he'll talk about how we aren't scared of Florida, and how we're gonna take it to UT, and it will end up being just what it always is: Talk. Then, when faced with a chance to finally shove it up Tennessee's ass, we'll kick from their 37 and net 17 yards. And it will all start over again, as we rugby punt ourselves back into obscurity. I guess that maybe this is just a long way of saying: Randall, I don't blame you.

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