Monday Reset

I haven't written on the blog in several days as I was on vacation and did not bring my laptop. There is a lot to catch up on.

First off, if you are ever in the French Quarter when a UK game comes on, you can probably do better than the Checkered Parrot. A lot of TVs, but poor service and a lot of channel surfing while you are trying to watch the games.

As for the game itself, the most positive sign was that we showed a toughness that no one was sure was there before. We took some hard hits, we hit hard. Hartline made some mistakes, he came back and played hard. Tony Dixon was replaced, he stayed on the sideline and cheered his teammates. The Cats don't just have a good defense, they have a defense that can keep them in almost every game this year.

That said, there were some negatives. The Cats didn't get better this week. They had a lot of predictable mistakes. The receivers outside of Lyons still cannot catch the football, Hartline is an otherwise solid QB who has a tendancy to let the ball slip out of his hands, Tony Dixon did not perform like a first-string running back and Lonas Sieber remains whatever the opposite of clutch is. Finally, lets not kid ourselves too much about this being a three point game. Alabama is a much better team that could have very easily won this game by 17.

Moving forward, I talked in the beginning of the season about the importance of the next two games. As things have shook out, the games are, in fact, real important. South Carolina's win against Ole Miss gives them a quality win and no bad losses. They are a pretty good team. This game lets UK know where it really is. Are we a good team with a tough schedule who could finish 7-5 or 8-4, or are we a below average SEC team who, by virtue of an easy non-conference schedule could get to 6-6? The next game against Arkansas is looking more like a must win. The Razorbacks are a mess. If they come in here and lay one on us at homecoming, particularly if we've already lost to USC, the season is on ice.

I am anxiously waiting to hear from Raycom whether this game is going to be moved up to 12:30. Like a lot of people, I have Keeneland plans that day. It will be a wild atmosphere in the stadium if the game can remain at 7.

There is so much more to write about this week, including and injury update and (of course) bowl projections. So I'll make that the last word for today and have more posts upcoming.