John Clay's Sidelines

Here are the final 12 or so minutes of the Joker Phillips press conference today. Among the topics of discussion is where certain coaches will be located on Thursday night in LP Field. Joker says offensive coordinator Randy Sanders and special teams coordinator Greg Nord will be in the press box. Nord was on field last year, but will be up top to help offensive line coach Mike Summers. Wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator Tee Martin will be on the field talking to quarterbacks. Defensive co-coordinator Rick Minter will be on field and co-coordinator Steve Brown will be upstairs.

(Newest version has correct height for Alvin Dupree. Thanks to @crecord.)

I have updated this year’s Kentucky football roster in a sortable format using an Excel spreadsheet.

It’s now a 14-column spreadsheet with number, player’s name, unit, position, class, letters earned, whether the player has redshirted, height, weight, hometown, home state, high school (prep school or college from which he transferred) and career starts.

The added column is first- and second-teamers on the depth chart.

Some interesting notes about this year’s roster:

• There are 41 players on the roster from Kentucky and 22 from Georgia. That’s 63 of the 108 players on this year’s roster.
• There are just five players from Ohio on the roster, three from Indiana.
• There are a combined 48 true freshmen and redshirt freshmen on the roster. That’s nearly half the roster.
• There are 53 players on defense and 48 on offense.

Click here to download the sortable Kentucky football roster for 2011.

Here is part one of Joker Phillips’ press conference today at Wildcat Den in Commonwealth Stadium.

Offensive coordinator Randy Sanders talked to media after today’s practice about quarterback Morgan Newton, the running back position — look for Josh Clemons to get the ball — and going against a Western Kentucky defense with a new coordinator.

As we’ve been talking about since UK football’s press luncheon, the two-deep depth chart was released today.

No big surprises, but seven true freshmen are listed among the two-deep.

Click on the thumbnail at right for a full-size jpg file of the depth chart.

Or click here to download a pdf of this week’s depth chart.

The first press luncheon of the new Kentucky football season is today. Joker Phillips will be taking the podium at noon. I’ll be providing updates here, and on twitter at @johnclayiv.

• That’s it. Thanks for tuning in.
• On how vital this game might be: “It’s good to go out and play first of all to have video to teach off of. And it’ll be good to see some different schemes that we’re facing. . . . But it will be very, very helpful that on Friday when we start teaching that we teach off a video that we won off of. And play well.”
• Coach Randy Sanders and Greg Nord will be in the box upstairs on Thursday. Nord was on field last year, but will be up top to help offensive line coach Mike Summers. Tee Martin will be down on field talking to quarterbacks. Defensively, Rick Minter will be on field and Steve Brown will be up in the box.
• Joker says he has known WKU coach Willie Taggart since Taggart was a player. “Good guy doing a great job with his program.”
• Talks again about playing “dominant defense” and it’s a huge challenge facing Bobby Rainey.
• Says the thing that Randall Cobb gave team “was his leadership.”
• Says he likes the return schemes this year.
• Said Newton is “night-and-day” with his passing accuracy over last year.

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Joker Phillips press luncheon’

We begin our third week of spotlighting UK fans on twitter with Carly Messmer.

Her twitter handle is @carly_jane.

Carly has a healthy 1,429 followers, and has over 6,130 tweets to her credit.

Her tagline: “charleston transplant. kentucky native. seo manager @visiture. co-owner @GreenDogLove. kentucky wildcats enthusiast. coffee lover. food aficionado.”

Her requested bio:

I’m a Kentucky native, but I currently call Charleston, SC home. I grew up in Northern Kentucky and attended the University of Kentucky. I like to say I was at UK during the ‘dark years’. I graduated in 2008 and would have given anything to witness the resurrection the basketball program has seen over the last two years. However, I was able to see some incredible football wins (and College Gameday!). After college I made the move to the Lowcountry and have been lucky to find a great group of diehard Kentucky fans to watch games with.

Continue reading ‘Spotlighting UK fans on twitter: @carly_jane’

Collin Cowgill gets pie in face after Arizona win on Sunday. (AP photo)

From Brent Ingram of UK sports:

Former Kentucky All-America outfielder Collin Cowgill launched his first career MLB home run as part of a career-best 4-for-4 game, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 6-1 win over the San Diego Padres, in front of 27,564 fans on Sunday afternoon at Chase Field.

A Lexington, Ky., native, and the 2004 Kentucky High School Mr. Baseball out of Henry Clay, Cowgill came into the game riding a 1-for-25 stretch in the big leagues, before busting out in a key win for the Diamondbacks, who are currently leading San Francisco in the National League West.

Continue reading ‘Collin Cowgill’s career MLB day for Diamondbacks’

Kentucky athletics over the weekend:

UK SOCCER BEATS NO. 9 MICHIGAN – From UK sports info: The No. 29 Kentucky men’s soccer team completed a stellar opening weekend with two wins at the UK Soccer Complex, besting Dayton 2-0 in the season lidlifter and posting a dramatic 2-1 comeback win over No. 9 Michigan on Sunday night. UK will return to action on Friday with the University of Kentucky Invitational, hosting Wright State at 7:30 p.m. ET and IUPUI on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET at the UK Soccer Complex.

Kentucky (2-0-0) rode breakout offensive performances from Tyler Riggs, C.J. Tappel, Dylan Asher and Charles Pettys during the weekend. Riggs provided the heroics, netting game-winning goals in both games, including his first career two-goal game in the comeback win over UM. Riggs, a native of Louisville, Ky., came off the bench on Friday night to give UK a 1-0 lead with his sixth career goal, leading UK to the win.

Continue reading ‘UK soccer upsets No. 9 Michigan; Volleyball beats No. 23′

Former UK recevier Chris Matthews catches a TD pass on former UK defensive back Trevard Lindley. (AP photo)

Hat tip to Bleed Blue Kentucky for this Canton Rep story on former UK wide receiver Chris Matthews, who caught a TD pass while going against former UK defensive back Trevard Lindley in a Browns-Eagles exhibition game last week.

Excerpt:

Matthews isn’t strutting around like a diva, the way a fellow who used to wear his Browns jersey number, 17, did. You see his eyes burning, but he carries himself quietly. You see him winning jump balls at times, separating himself to get open other times. His moves tricked the long-shot cornerbacks he practices against, until they saw him for a few weeks.

Continue reading ‘Chris Matthews trying to make it as longshot with Browns’