John Clay's Sidelines

Comings and goings in UK basketball? After reports and rumors that Stacey Poole, Jr. had moved out of his UK dorm, his father says this morning that is inaccurate. Meanwhile, Jarnell Stokes not only has Kentucky back on his list, the Memphis forward is visiting the Lexington campus this week. Not sure what this says about Alex Poythress, another Tennessee product of the same size who is also considering Kentucky.

• Jarnell Stokes will be in Lexington this weekend, reports Nation of Blue.
• Stokes is on his way to UK today, tweets Dave Telep of ESPNU.
• Not so fast on Poole leaving UK, reports Kyle Tucker of C-J.
• Poole has moved out, tweets Adam Zagoria.
• Zagoria tweets a Poole correction.

After being unable to participate in practice today, the odds are long that Morgan Newton will increase his consecutive streak of nine straight starts. And that appears to be just fine with Kentucky football fans, who watched true freshman Maxwell Smith jump start the Kentucky offense in the second half of last Saturday’s loss to Mississippi State. That is if our poll question is any judge.

As of today, 95 percent say that Smith should be given the start over Newton when the Cats play Ole Miss on Saturday. I would venture to guess that most of those votes were cast before we knew Newton was still being bothered by that bad ankle.

Continue reading ‘Poll: Maxwell Smith easily the voters’ choice to be starter’

Maxwell Smith

On Manic Tuesday, did not get a chance to post UK offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Randy Sanders talking about his offense and more specifically his quarterbacks. It’s obvious that Sanders believes true freshman Maxwell Smith has talent. The job is coaching Smith to the point where he can recognize defenses and do a better job of getting the offense into better pass protection schemes. In other words, Sanders wants to keep the freshman from getting the freshman killed.

Here’s a transcript of Sanders’ talk with media after Tuesday’s practice and a video of the offensive boss:

Continue reading ‘Video: Randy Sanders talks about his quarterbacks’

Kentucky quarterback Morgan Newton conversed with the media after Tuesday’s practice. He loves the new black uniforms. He loves them so much, in fact, that he is giving Randall Cobb a hard time about not getting to wear them.

UK quarterback Morgan Newton talks to the media after completing 10 of 16 passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns against Jax State.

Kentucky quarterback Morgan Newton after Tuesday’s practice.

Quarterback Morgan Newton speaks with media after completing just four of 21 passes for 17 yards in loss to South Carolina.

Morgan Newton talked to media today after practice.