(H-L photo/Amy Wallot)
A look at how Kentucky’s skill players are doing through three games:
Brian Adams – He was injured when he came down badly on an ankle after catching a four-yard pass in opener against Western Kentucky. He did return to catch a 12-yard pass against Louisville. Has potential. Production needs to increase.
Aaron Boyd – Caught a five-yard pass against Central Michigan when Joker Phillips, frustrated by his first-teamers dropping pass after pass, said he was going to give chances to other receivers. Appears to have been supplanted by E.J. Fields, however.
Josh Clemons – Take out his 87-yard run against Central Michigan and the freshman has 106 yards on 36 carries, an average of just 2.94 yards per carry. He carried just twice for six yards n the second half against Louisville. He is just a freshman, however. And Clemons did use the U of L game to catch his first two passes of the season, gaining 40 yards.
E. J. Fields – Was targeted 11 times and made seven catches in the Louisville game. Those were the first seven receptions of his career. Fields also picked up first downs on all seven of his catches, including the two-yard touchdown with 4:56 remaining.
LaRod King – Off to a productive start with 14 catches for 226 yards. Compare that to Chris Matthews, who caught just seven passes for 114 yards in his first three games last year. King had nine catches for 108 yards and a touchdown at this point last year.
Gene McCaskill – Has three catches for 43 yards in first three games, but has some drops. Coaches have been careful with McCaskill in practice, giving him more off days to help with recovery from last year’s knee surgery.
Nick Melillo – Offense finally got the tight end involved last week, and Melillo led way with a career-high three catches for 40 yards. He has never caught passes in back-to-back games, however.
Morgan Newton – His passer rating of 134.2 against Louisville was his best since he completed nine of 17 passes for 137 yards and three touchdowns, earning a 178.9 passing rating, in UK’s win at Georgia in 2009, Newton’s true freshman season. His yards-per-attempt average of 6.22 against Louisville was actually less than his 6.33 against Central Michigan.
Matt Roark – Has not caught a pass since his two catches in opener against Western Kentucky. Did not have a pass thrown his way against Louisville.
DeMarco Robinson – After running the ball on end-arounds and reverses, Robinson caught three passes against Louisville. His third catch would have earned a key fourth-down late against the Cards had not Robinson fumbled the ball backwards. UK recovered, but it set up a fourth-and-six from the U of L 18 with 51 seconds left. Newton threw incomplete and the game was essentially over.
Tyler Robinson – The sophomore made his first catch of the year last week, a 6-yard grab. For his career, Robinson has eight catches for 61 yards, an average of less than eight yards per catch.
D.J. Warren – The freshman fullback has carried just once, losing a yard against Central Michigan. He was targeted on a pass against WKU, but the throw was off the mark.
CoShik Williams – Carried six times for 29 yards against Louisville and also caught three passes for 15 yards. Two of his six carries came on third-and-long – a third-and-11 from the UK 29 (3-yard gain) and a 3rd-and-15 form the UK 5 (3-yard gain.) He also carried on a second-and-15 from the UK 27 (6-yard gain). His receiving yardage would have been better if not for a 4-yard loss on a screen pass in the first quarter.
Click here to download an Excel file with this year’s game-by-game skill stats.
