John Clay's Sidelines

Mark Schlereth

I actually like Mark Schlereth. On the radio.

Seems like a nice guy on “Mike and Mike,” and on the various NFL shows he does for ESPN.

But boy, on the liveblog on Saturday, the complaints about Schlereth’s TV turn doin the UK-Florida game were frequent and feisty.

So how bad was Schlereth on the tube?

Don’t just vote in the poll, be sure and leave comments.

I’ll be liveblogging, old-school style, from the Kentucky football press luncheon today at Commonwealth Stadium.

• On Matthews and the NFL, “At 6-4 he’s definitely a free agent. I think he’s played his way into being a draft pick.”
• Says he is not surprised by Chris Matthews’ improvement. Matthews had a 100-yard receiving game.
• Says Masoli is obviously becoming more comfortable in the Ole Miss offense.
• On Ole Miss, “They’re playing faster. They’re playing a lot of faster. Their offense changed a little bit from the third game to this last game. They ran some zone reads, a lot more nakeds. Defensively, they are all over the place.”
• Said defense was chasing routes in zone coverage, which led to Florida getting receivers open over the middle.
• “We’re not going to make any personnel changes. We’ve got good personnel.”
• Says Mark Crawford, backup defensive tackle, played well on Saturday.
• Said Billy Joe Murphy “held up fine” in his start at guard. “You would have never known he had never played guard before.”
• Said one positive was that team had one false start penalty in a hostile environment.
• Phillips says that the defense is playing “in spurts really, really good.” But said that the defense has been down, and “we’ve had to reel those guys back in.”

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Joker Phillips weekly press conference’

For the football junkies, or sadists, you can take a look here at the official book (stats, play-by-play) from Saturday’s Florida-Kentucky game.

One thing that’s interesting: After the first quarter, Florida only outgained Kentucky 311-306.

• Click here for the UK-Florida book.

Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports tweeted:

” I’d give Eric Bledsoe a “C” for his work in this video – and no extra credit would change my mind”

Meanwhile, The Big Lead deemed Bledsoe’s dance moves “mediocre.”

UK defensive coordinator Steve Brown after the Florida game.

Click here to see this video on YouTube.

After UK’s 48-14 loss at Florida, UK linebacker and leading tackler Danny Trevathan talks about his rules violation that caused him to be suspended for the game’s first quarter.

Craig Witherspoon, superintendent of Birmingham City Schools.

Tom Arenberg, sports editor for the Birmingham News, is critical of the Birmingham School System report on Eric Bledsoe,  writing Sunday that the system did whatever it could not to change Bledsoe’s transcript.

An excerpt:

But the biggest head-scratcher is this: It is understandable that the Algebra 3 teacher wouldn’t have documentation of the makeup work two years later when he unexpectedly has to talk to an investigator, but I surmise that if the teacher had offered any specific, convincing verbal recollections to the investigators, they would have included that in their report. There are none of those.

And:

It does not matter whether the school board changes Bledsoe’s transcript. As I said, this isn’t about Eric Bledsoe. But it would behoove the system and benefit its students in the long run to figure out if any employees indeed engaged in academic fraud and if so take action that would send out the right, intended message.

My take is that Arenberg is probably on the mark. The last thing a school system wants is a lawsuit, which would have no doubt happened had the system ruled that Bledsoe’s grade was fabricated. Any objective reader of the report would have to admit there are numerous holes and gaps in Bledsoe’s academic record. Thus, the investigation played it both ways saying that the grade change was “not credible” but choosing not to take action to reverse the transcript.

All along, there was never any inkling that UK had anything to do with any possible shenanigans in Birmingham. If Bledsoe had been deemed ineligible by the Birmingham schools, the ball would have been in the NCAA’s court, and today we would be hotly debating strict liability and the hypocrisy of the NCAA Eligbility Center. At least Friday’s Birmingham Schools ruling saved us from that.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• My column saying that Joker Phillips is firmly holding onto belief he has a good team.
• Kentucky got a reality check, as defense could not stop Gators, writes Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader.
• Ole Miss gets a well-done from Houston Nutt after Fresno win, reports Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Rebels lose defensive star Kentrell Lockett for the season, reports the Associated Press.
• Tom Arenberg of the Birmingham News thinks school system did not want to change Eric Bledsoe’s transcript. (Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog.)
• DeMarcus Cousins visits his old neighborhood, with Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.
• Florida game answered plenty of questions about the Cats, writes Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal.
• It’ll be Tackling 101 this week for the Cats, writes Brett Dawson of the C-J.
• Matt May of the Cats Pause pushes the rewind button Cats-Gators.
• Tom Leach says it’s time to move on to Oxford.

Continue reading ‘BBL: After reality check, Cats must move on’

(AP photo/David Quinn)

SEC links for Monday:

• It was quite a September for Alabama, writes Joe Medley of the Anniston Star.
• Gators get ready for top-ranked Tide, writes Edward Aschoff of the Gainesville Sun.
• Florida-Alabama is the only SEC game that matters all year, writes Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel.
• Just wait until Mark Ingram’s knee is completely healed, writes Don Kausler, Jr. of the Birmingham News.
• There is plenty of motivation for the Florida defense, writes Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald.
• Burton’s showing against Kentucky gives Bama something to worry about, writes David Jones of Florida Today.
• Somehow, Alabama found a way to win over Arkansas, writes Harry King of the Arkansas News.
• Cameron Newton’s numbers should be grabbing attention, writes Charles Goldberg of the Birmingham News.
• Newton’s balancing act getting national attention, reports Jay G. Tate of the Montgomery Advertiser.
• Newton earns his superlatives, writes Matt Hinton of Dr. Saturday.

Continue reading ‘SEC: Bama-Florida a game that truly matters’