John Clay's Sidelines

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Raymond Sanders (H-L photo)

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• Randall Cobb is tried of opponent’s cheap shots, reports Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger.
• Again, the Cats turn out to be good, but not great, says my Monday column.
• Kentucky is better than it showed against Georgia, writes Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal.
• Cats switch focus from East title to bowl bid, reports Brett Dawson of the C-J.
• The NCAA Clearing House is irrelevant, says a Kentucky Kernel editorial.
• Mississippi State wants a cleaner effort against UK, writes David Brandt of the AP.
• Sluggish win over UAB irks MSU coach Dan Mullen, writes Brandon Marcello of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Tom Leach says Kentucky got killed by the run Saturday night.
• Kentucky searching for answers, writes Brett Carney of WLEX-TV.
• Patience is the key for Daniel Orton, writes Sam Gardner of Fox Sports Florida. (Hat tip to allkyhoops.com)

Florida's Urban Meyer. (AP photo/Phil Sandlin)

SEC links for Monday:

• Ralph Russo of the AP reports that Auburn is now No. 1 in the BCS standings.
• Cameron Newton has forced the game to evolve, writes Randy Kennedy of the Mobile Press-Register.
• Tigers tighten up on defense, writes Jay G. Tate of the Montgomery Advertiser.
• Ole Miss knows it will need total game to beat Auburn, writes Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Mark Bradley of the AJC likes Georgia over Florida this Saturday in Jacksonville.
• Georgia awaits Florida’s surprises, writes David Jones of Florida Today.
• Florida seeking a turnaround of its own, writes Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.
• South Carolina wants to build on stout second-half finish at Vanderbilt, writes Travis Haney of the Charleston Post and Courier.
• The Auburn loss will gnaw at LSU, writes Randy Rosetta of The Advocate.
• Chance to play early could help Tennessee recruiting, writes John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Click on the chart to see it full-size.

Click here for the Herald-Leader photo gallery from last night’s game.

(H-L photo/Jonathan Palmer)

(H-L photo/Jonathan Palmer)

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Kentucky digs itself another hole, and can’t rally, reports Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader.
• Georgia’s Ealey makes it look easy, writes Mark Story of the Herald-Leader.
• Kentucky let go of the ball, and its title dreams, says my column.
• Ex-UK basketball player Anthony Epps is charged with DUI, says Herald-Leader staff report.
• Kentucky can’t finish its rally this time, writes Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal.
• Georgia heads to Jacksonville having left Kentucky in the dust, writes Mark Bradley of the AJC.
• It was a record night for Georgia in win over Cats, reports Tim Tucker of the AJC.
• Kentucky runs out of “Rock Juice,” writes Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger.
• Turnovers are the reason for the turnaround, writes David Ching of the Athens Banner-Herald.
• Georgia gets back to .500, as Kentucky falls to .500, writes Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Cats can’t keep digging those holes’

SEC links for Sunday:

• Auburn answers plenty of questions in 24-17 win over LSU, writes Joe Medley of the Anniston Star.
• No defense too strong for Auburn’s Cameron Newton, writes Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News.
• Newton’s law was too much for LSU to handle, writes Randy Rosetta of The Advocate.
• LSU lets Newton, and the game, slip through its fingers, writes Glenn Guilbeau of the Shreveport Times.
• Auburn’s party is just getting started, writes Rob Zimanek of the Montgomery Advertiser.
• Auburn’s defense does the job against LSU, writes David Paschall of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
• Auburn defense trying to leave its mark, writes Chris Low of espn.com.
• Quarterback just unstoppable in Auburn win over LSU, writes Jim Kleinpeter of the Times-Picayune.
• Alabama’s second-half explosion thumps Tennessee 41-10, reports Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News.
• Alabama offense snaps out of its funk, reports Michael Casagrande of the Anniston Star.

Continue reading ‘SEC: Newton rolls, Bama explodes, Carolina survives’

From UK athletics:

An interview with:

COACH PHILLIPS

COACH PHILLIPS: Injury report, Cobb had a hip pointer. We took him inside to take a closer look at it, massaged it, got some ice on it and he came back. Tyler Robertson had an A.C. sprain in his right shoulder, and La’Rod King has a knee sprain, and we’ll take a look at it tomorrow.

One of the things we talked about is starting fast and playing the first half. You come in at halftime and it’s like we’ve been here before. Down 18, I think it was the same score as last week, and we made a play right before the half to get the momentum similar to what we did last week.

We made the play on defense to turn the ball over to keep it from going up 25. But in the first half this week, you turn the ball over three times. We turned the ball over on downs and they score 21 of their 28 points on 67 yards. Then they have a kickoff return and at half our defense has only given up 96 yards total and 28 points.

I mean, you show me a team that’s only given up 96 yards and 28 points, and I could tell you before even looking at the game, looking at the stats, that you probably would have turned it over or given up a big play on the special teams, and that’s what we did.

I’d like to see what type of team ‑‑ I think we know what type of team we have. We’ve got a team of fighters. There’s no question about that. That’s not hard to determine. I’d like to see what type of football team we truly have. We’ll only see that when we see this team play for four quarters and we have not done that yet. Any questions?

Q. You haven’t had a game where all three phases played well on a given night. Can you put your finger on anything at this point?

COACH PHILLIPS: No, we can’t. I wish we could. All three phases played in the half together at the same time, but we haven’t played four quarters. Today I thought our defense was battling their tails off.

I thought our special teams gave up the big return. We had guys hit (Brandon Boykin) on the 25‑yard line, we’ve just got to get him down. Our offense turned the ball over three times in the first half, and gave it up on downs, which is like a turnover especially when you’re on the short field.

I’d like to see us play, all three phases, for four quarters. We know what type of football team we have ‑‑ so you guys will see. Because we think we have a pretty good football team, we do. We think we have a good football team. We’ve just got to put four quarters together in all three phases.

Continue reading ‘Full transcript of Joker Phillips’ press conference’