Audible

Today I stood in the shotgun, looked over at Joker, and changed my play.

By chance, I ran across some abhorrent reviews of the hotel we were set to stay at.  Oddly enough, the hotel we'd booked originally, the downtown Crowne Plaza, still had rooms.  I was able to book them for $153 a night, or $56 a night less than we once had them booked for.

You think people are staying away from this game in droves?

SEC SEC SEC SEC

I looked at my buddy Ashley Ward this afternoon and said, "The SEC is going to take a beating today."  I couldn't have been more wrong.  

Sorry to say, I missed the Vandy game, but I'm real happy for them.  As I type, LSU is up 35-3.   It is hard to believe Georgia Tech beat Georgia a scant four weeks ago.  They are being dominated. Interesting that LSU was the victim of 2 of ESPN's 4 plays of the year.  They easily could have beaten Alabama and the Arkansas loss was a pure fluke.  I am glad they aren't on the schedule next year.

As much as I'd love an SEC sweep, I ain't rooting for South Carolina tomorrow.

Bowl Preview

What follows is my preview of the 2009 Liberty Bowl. It will be chalk full of in-depth analysis about the opposing team strengths and weaknesses and a will contain a thoughtful dissertation on each team's relative merits and chances to win. Only the exact opposite.

Look. The game comes down to something pretty simple. The UK defense is going to have to show up like it did early in the season and completely shut the Pirates down. Hartline and Co. might be able to scrape together 12 or 14 points, but that is going to be it. Even with a dominant defensive performance we could still lose the game. A stupid special teams play or offensive blunder could sink the boat all by itself. That is how little confidence I have in our ability to generate offense.

Obviously, the news was bad enough earlier in the week with the announcement that Randall Cobb would not play. Today word comes that Moncell Allen is academically ineligible, leaving us with only two healthy tailbacks. If one gets hurt, the other will have to do something no UK back has done all year, carry the ball more than 10 times in a half.

I've gone over several reasons why this game is important. Mike Hartline and the receivers could use some confidence going into the off season. A winning record would help recruiting and a losing record with a loss for a C-USA team would not. Perception is everything. Going from back to back 8-5 seasons to a 6-7 one, even with all the offensive firepower graduated and all the injuries is going to look like a big step back. Finally, I am going to be there, so a win is crucial. There is nothing more deflating than driving a certain distance only to watch your team lose.

On that note, lets leave talk of the actual game and move to the Memphis bowl experience. To know me is to know that I leave little to chance when planning my fun. If I could bottle the time I've spent on Tripadvisor, Expedia, hotels.com, Google maps, VRBO.com, ebay (for tickets) and Googling things like "Nashville upscale restaurants" over the last 3 years, I would probably find that I had time for a second job. It is an obsession with me. I want to know the shortest route, the best place, the best deal and so on. So you might be surprised to learn my Memphis plans are still somewhat up in the air.

On Thursday the Scutches and Big and Little Z will meet somewhere in Nashville, leave a car, and head to The Memph. In a move I might live to regret, I talked everyone else into cancelling our $210 a night rooms at the Downtown Crowne Plaza in favor of a Holiday Inn Select (80) near the airport and, consequently, the stadium. I figured a $250 savings per couple could hail a lot of cabs. Anyways, we plan to head to The Peabody to see the ducks walk at 5 that day, followed by a one block trip to Jillians to catch the second half of the Rose Bowl, then dinner next door at Texas de Brazil, at 7. It will be my first experience at a Brazilian steakhouse themed place. Reviews, including a shout out from Memphis native Jeremy Jarmon in Sunday's Herald-Leader, are good. From there, we are looking at a short cab ride to Beale or maybe more revelry in Peabody Place. (Other than Jillian's and T d B, I have no idea what else is there)

Here is what I have planned for Friday other than actually attending the football game:



That's right, jack. Tailgating? Not sure how it will play out. Dinner? Not a clue. A trip to Beale? Not sure if I'll make it there or not. I am about half pumped about this. I'll be kind of like this year's version of the Cats only hopefully more successful. See, I'll spend the first half of the trip as a careful, dropback passer. My meticulous planning has yielded the results it was expected to yield. Will we have a great night? Maybe maybe not, but the chances of us having a shitty night are pretty small.

On Friday, like the second half of the season, I am going to run some hurry-up, option, run and shoot and spread. I'm just going to take the snap and see what transpires. I could end up drinking beer in my hotel room until its time to drive to the stadium, pay some sketchy woman $20 to park in a yard I'm not sure belongs to her, pick up McDonalds on the way back to the hotel, and be in my PJs drinking Bud Light out of a can at 9:30. It could be the Tennessee debacle all over again.

On the other hand, I might find a decent place to tailgate, see a big win, find the right place to eat Bar-B-Q on Beale about 9, and look up at 2 am to see Big Z singing karaoke with Dickie Lyons and Ashley Judd while I'm holding a dirty gin martini someone I don't know bought for me. I could be a Georgia game Randall Cobb, right up to throwing a regrettable pick at the bitter end of the contest. A good unplanned night can be lot of fun, but even the best have a tendency to end poorly.

There are two central reasons for the lack of a plan. First, advanced parking was harder to come by than a bathroom vending machine condom at a Scissor Sister's concert. I followed several auctions on Ebay and never did a pass go for less than a ridiculous $65 bucks. To put this in perspective, I am paying $80 for a roof over my head for a day, with a shower, maid service, hairdryer and television and people will pay over 81% of that for a 5' by 9' piece of grass that they will leave their car on for five hours. Of course, you know what they call these people: people who will definitely not be drinking in their hotel room two hours before the game. So there is that.

After consulting a number of sources for game day options, I don't know what to expect in terms of grassy spot, beer in plastic cup friendly, port-a-potty available parking. Given that there appears to be little in the way of advanced parking, and the stadium holds 62,000, I'll probably be optimistic, pack the beer pong table and cooler and look for a spot. Surely there will be other stadium lots that are grassy and have johns. If you know of anything solid out there, now is the time to send me a comment.

Speaking of ebay, it bears mention that while passes were going for a premium, any random Joe could have bought 40 yardline seats for under face. Yesterday.

The second reason Friday lacks structure is, simply, that Bar-B-Q places on Beale generally don't take reservations.

So there you go. If you are down there and want to hook up with us, shoot me an e-mail or text.

Suggested BCS "fix"

Watching the TCU v. Boise St. San Diego Credit Union Bowl today reminded me of how much I love Bowl games and college football in general. This was a killer matchup between two non-major conference teams that could have been in a sixteen team playoff for D1A. If such a thing existed. As much as I admire both teams, and as compelling as Boise's 12-0 regular season record is, watching this game did nothing to make me yearn for a college football playoff. If they played twenty times, Florida and Oklahoma would have torn either of these teams apart all twenty.

Knowing this didn't make me enjoy the game any less. There is just something about football. Watching two teams of college kids, coming from different systems and different backgrounds, playing their asses off to win a game is always compelling. The fact that two other teams somewhere else on the planet could play the game better is almost irrelevant.

This is the number one reason why college football is the best sport on earth. The number two reason is something many fans forget this time of year. College football has, far and away, the most meaningful regular season of any sport that purports to crown a champion. Proponents of a lengthy playoff wax on about how compelling that matchups would be, and the interest they would generate. These people fail to realize that a three or four week playoff would destroy the very thing that makes college football unique, and generates most of the interest in the sport to start with.

Every Saturday for two months, I can tune in the television and see multiple, meaningful games that impact who will play in the big bowls and who will play for the national championship. Any one loss can doom a team's season, depending on that team's ultimate goal. Every game matters. Compare this to the NFL. As much as I like the San Diego Chargers, they started the season 4-8 and still have the chance to make the playoffs.

How excited am I supposed to get for each regular season game knowing that? I can't. The NFL is bullshit compared to college football. Admit it, outside of your "team", your fantasy team, and whatever bets you lay each week, you wouldn't give a crap about the NFL either.

Against that backdrop, we have the cartel that gets to decide who plays for the national championship every year. It is a crappy system, though I would submit it is better than the old system of crowning a mythical national champion after a series of totally unregulated bowl games. That Texas beat Oklahoma on a neutral field this year and was left out of the national championship is silly. Some years there are three or perhaps four teams that can argue that they had the best regular season. But the number is never more than four. With that in mind, here is my solution to the BCS "mess" if you want to call it that.

Let's start by acknowledging that the BCS, its television contracts and the resulting system are really about money and territory. Only so much change can be tolerated. Here is a basic but unassailable plan to wet the beaks of the people in power while pacifying the restless natives by creating a playoff of sorts:

The BCS keeps the Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar and adds the Gator as a fifth bowl. These bowls are to be played on January 1 or 2. At the end of the regular season, the BCS rankings will spit out the four best teams. From there, the teams will be placed as follows:

1.The No. 1 team, assuming it is a conference champion, shall play in the bowl designated by its championship. Fiesta= Big 12, Sugar=SEC, Orange=ACC, Rose=Pac-10 and/or Big 10. The Gator was added for this situation. This will become the Big East's champion's designated bowl. If the #1 team is not a conference champion, it is placed as set forth below.

2. The No. 2 team, assuming that it is a conference champion, shall play in the bowl designated by its championship. If not, it is placed as set forth below.

3. The No. 3 team, assuming it is a conference champion, will be placed in the bowl designated by its championship unless both #1 and #2 are conference champions. Assuming both #1 and 2 are conference champions, the No. 3 team will play against the #2 team at the bowl that team is slotted for. If either #1 or 2 is not a conference champion, it will play at #3's conference designated spot. If neither #1 or #2 is a conference champion the Number #3 team shall play the #4. In the unlikely event none of the top 3 teams are conference champions, the top 2 teams will select, in order, which bowl they wish to attend. The #3 team will then be matched against the #2 team.

4. The #4 team will play highest ranked conference champion at that team's designated bowl unless none are conference champions, in which case it will play the #1 team.

5. Notwithstanding 1-4 above, in the event that both the PAC-10 and Big-10 champions are ranked in the top 4, the teams will play in the Rose Bowl unless the National Championship game will be played in Los Angeles. Assuming the National Championship game is slated for Los Angeles, the lower ranked team will be treated as a not having been a conference champion and will be slated accordingly. If these two teams play in the Rose Bowl, the higher ranked of the two remaining teams shall play in the bowl designated by its conference championship against the final remaining team. If the higher ranked team is not a conference champion, but the lower ranked team is, the teams shall play in the bowl designated by the lower ranked team's championship. In the event neither team is a conference champion, the bowl of the team with the higher ranking will host the game.

6. The other BCS games will be populated by champions from the other BCS conferences and wildcard teams in accordance with the current BCS system.

7. With the exception of the Gator Bowl, all other bowls remained unchanged.

8. The winners of the two games between the nation's top four teams play in a National Championship game approximately one week after the Jan 1 & 2 games. The game will rotate between BCS venues, as it does now. One thorny issue. Does the Gator get added to the rotation?

This plan is the best anyone is going to come up with. It leaves the current situation virtually untouched while getting us a lot closer to a true national champion. The value of being a conference champion, which seems so important to the BCS, is left intact. The Rose Bowl gets thrown a bone. It doesn't cheapen the other BCS bowls any worse than they've been cheapened. Most of all, it puts some pressure on the various BCS conferences to put a good product on the field. As long as this ACC proves incapable of producing a championship contender, the Orange is not going to host a national semifinal. This is the way it should be. I cannot imagine a coherent argument against this system from either a realist's (which is to say fiscal), academic (no change other than for the two teams that would play twice) or competitive standpoint.

Of course, if I am missing something, let me know. But, if you are a hawk preparing to tell me it doesn't go far enough, you will get a debate about practical reality of doing any more.

For what it is worth, this year's national semis would be Florida v. Texas in the Sugar and Oklahoma v. Alabama in the Fiesta. Yeah, it is a little incestuous, and USC is left out in the cold, but it would be sweet. By the way, the other games would be Rose: USC v. Penn St., Gator: Cinci v. Utah and Orange: Virginia Tech v. Ohio State. That would be five great games, better than what we are looking at now.

Memphis Tailgating

Occasional poster Big Spence turned me on to this website, which offers some great insight into tailgating in Memphis. If you are going to use it to pick a place to park on game day, be mindful to compare the parking lot map to the map provided by the Liberty Bowl's site. It looks like the Liberty Bowl is utilizing some of the space ordinarily open on game day.

I am still trying to secure parking ahead of time. Some spots have been available on ebay but have been going high. Calls to the number provided by the Liberty Bowl regarding parking either go unanswered or kick over to a full voicemail box.

Finally, I tried to secure parking by requesting a press credential. I felt the request was legitimate, since I will be reporting on the game in a forum that could be described as presslike. My request was denied, perhaps by a Liberty Bowl official delusional enough to think someone from the legit media outside of Kentucky or Greenville, South Carolina gives a shit about this game. But at least he'll still have my parking spot and my spot on press row in case Sports Illustrated shows up to report on this pivotal January 2nd game between two of college football's top 60. Bastards.

You have to admit, its pretty money that I even tried this.

Preview Part 2

Five days later, I'll get back to the 2009 season preview. Since I wrote on Tuesday, The Herald Leader and other outlets have confirmed that JC transfer Chris Matthews is on board for next year. That is good news. Of course, this news begs the #1 questions of the off season. Who is going to be throwing Matthews the ball?

The 2009 QB Derby may be a very crowded field. Depending on how the Liberty Bowl plays out, I think Mike Hartline is your morning line favorite. That's right. If you think Cobb blew him out of the water as a starter, you are mistaken. Because Hartline started all the non conference games, the comparison isn't entirely fair, but the team was 5-3 under him, with the losses coming to Alabama, USC and Florida. That left Cobb 1-3, with losses to Georgia, Vandy and UT. Both won one conference game. Hartline's was the miracle against Arkansas, Cobb's a war of attrition against Mississippi State. I will concede that the offense rarely looked good under Hartline, with the exceptions being last four minutes against Arkansas, and a good run against an overmatched WKU team. In contrast, Cobb got us going against Norfolk State, all game long against Georgia, and in the second half of the Vandy game. Both made some costly mistakes. Cobb has a wow factor that got a lot of people excited. But in the end, he just wasn't able to deliver in two winnable games at the end of the season.

Most importantly, it appears that the 2009 Cats are once again going to be short on playmakers. With Cobb's long term future at wide receiver, and his value as a reverse runner and punt returner, and blue chip QBs waiting in the wings, the coaching staff would have to prefer him out of the QB business. If the race is a push, Hartline should win all ties.

Which brings us to the other candidates. The Cats have taken the unusual step of signing two top notch QB prospects, Morgan Newton of Carmel In. and Ryan Mossakowski of Frisco, Tx. Both are 6-4. Mossakowski is said to have a cannon arm, while Newton is more of a dual threat. I did get to see Newton play on TV once this year. He looked a lot like Michael Bush did when he played quarterback for Male. He was bigger and stronger than everyone else, and bulled his way into stats, first downs and wins. Like Bush, Newton did not look to have a classic passer's throwing motion. Then again, he doesn't need to fit the mold of a classic dropback passer to play in our system. Newton was recently named Mr. Football in Indiana after leading Carmel to the state championship. I see Newton as a Curtis Pulley without the baggage. Of course, we already have a running quarterback with a great arm. That said, Newton can learn the offense, but Cobb cannot learn to be 6 inches taller.

Mossakowski's senior year went the other way. After having a less than stellar season to begin with, Ryan was lost for the year with a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder in early November. Between the need to rehab, and the fact that his bench press max was reportedly just 21o lbs. to begin with, I question whether Mossakowski can be a factor in next year's quarterback race. He probably needs a year to mature physically. But we'll see. Looking at all the schools that recruited him has me licking my chops. He turned down some great programs to come here, as did Newton.

Finally, we have made an offer to a JC quarterback this past week. After watching tough but abysmal Kevin Craft throw my UCLA Bruins' season away, I am really down on JC quarterbacks. In fact, I cannot remember one who has been successful at an SEC school. This isn't something I want to consider.

Whoever quarterbacks the Cats next year will face a pretty tough schedule. (Note that since this was created, we have filled in the late open date with Louisiana-Monroe. Also note that we will still be adding one game prior to the Louisville game. Presumably this will be an easy home win, though Rich Brooks has hinted that it may be a road game.) I am not a big fan of what our brass has put together. Rather than starting with a couple of cupcakes, we will have one undetermined cupcake, a bye week and then Louisville at home. The U of L game will kick off a stretch of 11 straight games. With how injuries effected this season, you'd think this would have been avoided at all costs. The schedule looks tough. The most winnable games will of course be the 4 non conference, at home against Mississippi State and Tennessee, and at Vandy and Auburn. The four that would be major upsets would be at home against Alabama and Florida and on the road against South Carolina and Georgia.

All in all, I'll go back to my original thesis. Next year's outlook should look about like this years' did. If the Cats can get some off season growth at the skill positions and sustain the losses well enough to field a comparable defense, this could be a pretty good team. However, if the offense does not find a way to put points on the board, and a couple of people turn pro early, next year might be a long one.

Early prediction: Another 6-6 finger in the dyke season which will serve as a precursor to an amazing 2010.

2009 Preview Part 1

I am doing a 2009 preview before the 2008 season is officially over. Admittedly, there are reasons why this is a bad idea, chief being that the season isn't officially over. We have an important game coming up, and next year's outlook could certainly change based on how the game goes.

My defense? Judging from the number of hits, UK Football Fan is on life support. It is too early to do a game preview and there is little else to write about. So, to keep the act moving, lets talk a little bit about next year. I'll even spread this out over a couple of posts. So, hopefully people will check it multiple times. While you read, would it kill some of you to click on a banner ad every now and then?

So that you don't get fooled again, know that the new boss is the same as the old boss. Next year's team will look much the same and will rise and fall with the success of its defense. As I alluded to in an earlier post, the strength of that unit will hinge largely on three young men testing the NFL waters. Trevard Lindley, Jeremy Jarmon and Micah Johnson have all presented paperwork to be evaluated by the NFL for their potential stock in this year's draft. This is a preliminary step that Rich Brooks has encouraged his players to take in the past. It doesn't mean they are leaving. Lindley would appear the most likely to be a high round pick and thus the most likely to go. A dirty secret about Trevard. After building a national reputation early, he slipped as the season progressed, most notably against Vandy, where he was toasted by a guy playing his first ever game at wide receiver.

Still, most projections have Trevard going as a second round pick. No one is guaranteed tomorrow in the NFL. My guess is that he will leave. There is less information available on Jarmon and Johnson's chances. Jeremy didn't have a particularly productive year, and sounds the most positive that he is coming back. Johnson says he hears that he would be a second or third round pick. That probably means he'll be a fourth or fifth round pick. Hopefully the NFL tells him that and he stays. Johnson is a potential NFL starter as a run blocker, but still has light years to go in moving those hips in pass coverage. Possessed with the heart of a lion, Johnson is my favorite player on the team. My son wears a #4 jersey on game days that I thought he could grow into by next year. Thus, I have a $28 vested interest in Johnson's decision. I really hope he sticks around and think he will.

So, assuming Trevard leaves and the others stay, that will give UK a nucleus of Johnson (ILB), Jarmon (DE), Sam Maxwell (OLB), Corey Peters (DT) and Calvin Harrison (FS). Winston Guy should step up as one corner, and Paul Warford is expected to return from a year of academic ineligibility to man the other. Shane McCord and Ricky Lumpkin will rotate as tackles, and Danny Trevathan and Mike Schwindel should battle it out for a spot at outside linebacker. Matt Lentz and Ashton "The Joker" Cobb will either start or provide depth at safety.

In addition to Lindley, the Cats will feel the loss of Braxton Kelly and Myron Pryor the worst. The defense had some rough patches late, but we never got pushed around. We had big guys filling the gaps and on occasion really punishing people. These two seniors were big reasons for that. Next year's defense will be more finesse. That makes losing a shutdown corner like Lindley especially tough.

Next year's defense will have to rely on a couple of karmic factors to perform on par or better than this year's. First, they need to avoid injury. Had this year's D not looked like a MASH unit each week, it would have accomplished more. Secondly, next year's D needs to hope the offense finds a way to perform a little better. In the end, our guys got run down, both within individual games and over the season as a whole. One of the many things keeping Rich Brooks up nights this year will be the loss of Tim Masthay. Time and time again he salvaged field position for our struggling offense and gave our D a fighting chance. He'll be doing so in the NFL (or Montreal or Frankfurt) next year. The D will need to gird its loins for another tough season.

Which brings us to the vaunted O. Lets end with the quarterback discussion and start with other things. The running back situation will be regrettably more of the same. We'll be relying on the trio of Derrick Locke, Alfonso Smith and Moncell Allen. Locke and Smith are speedsters, Allen is a bowling ball who runs hard and downhill. Unfortunately, all three are missing the elusive quality that makes an SEC starter caliber running back. Simply put, these guys don't make people miss. When the first guy always brings you down, and you play against the nation's best defenses every week, you aren't going to gain a lot of yards. Locke had some great games as a freshman, and has the best chance of transforming into the kind of player we need him to be. Of course, he will also be coming off of knee surgery and might not emerge as the same player. Incoming freshman Dakotah Tyler from Pike H.S. in Indianapolis has the best chance of cracking the rotation.

The running back position is a sore spot, but not nearly as sore as. . . .

Wide receiver. One hopes that a year of experience would have done the Cats young receiving corps some good. If so, I missed it. Kyrus Lanxter and EJ Adams appeared to be the best of the lot, but no one distinguished himself. Wildcat wide receivers combined for 1103 yards in receptions over 12 games, a paltry 92 per. Take Dickie Lyons and Randall Cobb (who combined got only 7 starts) out of the equation and the numbers shrink to 642 and 53.5. The Cats Pause is reporting that UK has a commitment from one of the top JC wide receivers in the country, Chris Matthews, at 6'5" 210 lb kid with 4.5 speed playing at LA Harbor college. I'm glad if this is the case, but recall that Steve Johnson, as good as he was, came to UK from the California JC ranks and basically needed a whole year to adjust. Any discussion of the wideout position must include pencilling Randall Cobb in as a starter if he is not the starting quarterback. Maybe Matthews and Cobb will prove a respectable tandem if someone can throw them the ball.

The line will lose Garry Williams but gain back Christan Johnson, who is recovering from injuries and academic problems. Overall, it should be much improved. Maybe it is the former offensive lineman in me, but I think this year's group was much better than advertised. They gave up very few sacks, and running backs in general and Locke's injury in particular contributed to the running problems more than most other observers seem to think.

This is the end of part one. Stayed tuned for a discussion about next year's quarterback competition and a look at the 2009 schedule.

Is 6-6 Half Empty or Half Full?

When this season began, I felt that the hallmark of success would be a 6-6, bowl eligible season. I scoffed at any projections that had us doing better. The Cats did not have much back on offense, and the defense, though reportedly improved, wasn't very good to begin with. I love going to my bowl games, and as of August 28th, the thought that I would have that chance again this year was good enough for me.
So why now, three and a half months later, does 6-6 feel like such a disappointment? That so many key players lost the season and games lost to injury makes the feeling in the pit of my stomach even harder to understand. Is it just because I am too selfish and demanding? Surely not. Here are some of the reasons for the dissonance:

1. The 6-6 record was obtained in the cheesiest manner possible. Only two conference wins, against poor teams, with both games coming by the narrowest of margins. The 4-0 non-conference mark, in retrospect, was totally unimpressive. I did not think that Louisville would be worse than it was last year. It was. The Cats got to a bowl without beating so much as a decent team. This isn't a real original angle (everyone in the Herald has mentioned the same thing), and moreover, isn't the true reason I feel the way I do. Here are more salient ones:

2. Paradoxically, the season felt disappointing not because we barely beat bad teams, but because we had chances to beat good teams and didn't. Georgia and South Carolina wins could have moved our program forward and instead slipped through our fingers. This stings more because the SEC was way down this year. Win against South Carolina, even with the losses to Vandy and UT, and we are probably in the Outback Bowl. Think about it.

3. We have watched many a defense struggle at UK over the years. God knows, few things were more painful than Hal Mumme's squads tittie tackling their way through the SEC. On the pain scale, however, UK's 2008 offense was Kathy Bates to my James Caan for most of the year. Which is to say, they had Mumme's Matadors beat. As a football fan, its hard to watch a team string together 3 and outs while seemingly running the same 4-5 plays over and over again. Watching a team with a bad offense is, for lack of a more artful description, no fun. We haven't had to do that for a while here.
(While I am bringing up Mumme, how is this for a parallel. Unconventional football coach comes in. Team takes unusual step of not tackling in practice. Team is glaringly unable to tackle during games. Coach sees no connection. Team ends up on probation despite not having accomplished a whole lot. Unconventional basketball coach comes in. Team takes unusual step of practicing hard on game days. Players suffer numerous stress injuries and appear tired at the end of games. Coach sees no connection. Team. . . ????)

4. The overarching reason why 6-6 feels like a bummer, though, is the way the season ended. With a Chick-Fil-A, and perhaps now in retrospect, Outback Bowl bid on the line, UK came out embarrassingly flat against a by then very crappy Vandy team. We looked like the UK era Kelenna Azibuike of football teams. "Here it is, take it, no really, take it. Oh, you don't want it? Ok." Seriously, how do you fall behind 24-7 at the half to a school not even 10% of your student population could get into? Oh yeah, you rough the passer once and the kicker three times. Vandy had not won in 34 days, including a home loss to Duke. Here are the yards that Chris Nickson rushed for against SEC competition this year: 17, 2, 40, -5, 39, 118, -7. Guess which one was that night? Fans froze their asses off, and the Cats decided to show up with an epic, all systems failure. If you think I am still bitter about this game, you are right. Then, with a week to rest, against the worst Tennessee team anyone can remember, the Cats fell into a wormhole. Playing a team that lost to freakin Wyoming two weeks before, our boys could not break triple digits in either passing or running yards.

Had these games have been our first two, with Louisville and Norfolk State the last, the season would have felt like a success. As it was, the Cats saved their two most disappointing, and arguably worst, games for last. Not good times.

The takeaway here? The Liberty Bowl is more important for us than our last two bowls. A win makes us 7-6, with our third straight winning season, the program still feels headed in the right direction. A loss, and the season is a losing one, and we will have dropped like a rock since the Mississippi State win that got us to 6-3.

More later with a preview of the 2009 team and our prospects. Expect to see the words season, success, hinges, Lindley, Jarmon, Johnson, declare and NFL Draft in or close to the same sentence.

Arbitration Arbitrary post

I have an arbitration tomorrow and have been out of town for the better part of the past week, so I have not had time to write.

Quickly, I swallowed hard last night and bought my Liberty Bowl tickets. Here is something to tide you over until I say more:

Memphis

It looks like,as always, I was wrong. The Cats appear headed to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl. Here are some quick thoughts.
1. Nashville and Vandy really get screwed in this deal. I would not be surprised if the SEC office didn't try to step in.
2. I am surprised that the Liberty has a preference for us. We have to bring fans a longer way, Vandy has proven itself a better team and has a better story. But if they prefer us and we them, I guess that is the end of it.
3. This will probably not be a very well attended game. UK brass may want to think about that before dissing the Music City. I know plenty of people who would make one trip but not the other.
4. Along those lines, I think this will be a hard sell on the home front for the me. Stay tuned.

UK Bowl Projections

Saturday's games solidified the notion that the Liberty and Music City Bowls will choose between Vandy and Kentucky. For the record, the Bowls will rank the two teams for preference. Assuming both pick the same team first, that team will choose its destination. That's it. I still don't see why the Music City would want a team from its own city, yet 4 of the 5 sites I've been quoting in my projections say Vandy will stay at home and we'll be going to Memphis.

These are the same sites that prefer sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. (If you don't get this joke, you are under 33)

I've put in an e-mail to John Clay at the Herald-Leader to see if he thinks these people know something I don't. He has not responded. So I guess we'll see.

Lets pretend its our choice instead and break it down mano a mano.

Towns
Nashville is one of the south's best cities, if not the best. Great restaurants, great nightlife, great music scene.
Memphis is kinda dirty, and not necessarily in a good way. There is Beale Street, which cures a lot of ills, but it isn't a panacea. Unlike Neil Simon, I'm not going to Graceland.
Advantage: Music City

Proximity
Duh
Advantage: Music City

Stadium
LP Field is a modern NFL stadium with all the amenities. It is also huge and a little impersonal. If you have nosebleeds here, and I have, you are in another area code. It you are looking at Ticketmaster today, you see there are no decent seats left.
Memorial Stadium is reportedly a dump. That said, it is a smaller venue, the game never sells out, and right now you can still get seats between the 20s.
Advantage: Music City, in a tight one.

Game
The Music City Bowl matches SEC 6/7 (actually 7/8 with two SEC teams going to BCS Bowls) against the ACC 5,6 or 7. The ACC tie ins work about the same as the SEC's do. In the case of a disagreement, the Music City get the fifth pick. It looks like that will be North Carolina or one of a host of 7-5 teams .
The Liberty opponent will be the winner of the East Carolina-Tulsa Conference USA final. Tulsa is a 13 point favorite in that game. It also started the season 8-0 and up to #18 in the country before losing to Arkansas and gagging up a ridiculous 70 points to Houston the following week.
Advantage: Depends on your perspective. I'll pick the Liberty because it might be a winnable game.

The Hotel I have booked
In Nashville, it is the Hotel Indigo near Vandy. Not liking my downtown options, I went for a place a mile or so up the road. The last two years my friends and I have made this a one night trip, which makes for a nice savings. This is a hip looking place that I think we got for about $170.
In Memphis, there are no great hotel options for stadium proximity. The Zs and Scutchfields instead opted for Beale proximity with the Crowne Plaza Downtown (I think). At two nights at $200 per, it wasn't a great deal, but made the most sense.
Advantage: Music City

X Factor
For some reason, I find myself hoping we end up in Memphis, despite the empirical data above. I have enjoyed Nashville, but I've seen three games there in the past two years (including last year's UK-Vandy game) and would love to try a different bowl game. I've been to three UK bowls in my life, and each was a Music City. Also, seeing the Cats lose that Bowl after watching them win the last two would probably be too much to bear. I could be more philosophical about a Liberty loss.

Plus, there's always Tunica, a gambling destination as depressing as it is loose with the comped rooms, meals and drinks.

SEC Bowl Projections

Here are your now written in stone projections for most all of the SEC bowls. More on the Music City and Liberty in a separate post.

National Championship
Florida-Alabama winner

Sugar
Florida-Alabama loser

Capital One
Georgia

Cotton
Ole Miss

Outback
South Carolina

Chick-Fil-A
LSU

Only other possible scenario is the Capital One going with Ole Miss, sending LSU to the Cotton, Georgia to the Ouback and South Carolina to the Chick-Fil-A. (The Capital One must take the team with the next best overall record unless another team is within one game of that record. Ole Miss is the hot team, and it fits this bill, but I don't see it happening.)

The lesson here? Let's start with one 7-5 team playing on New Year's Day and another going to the Chick-Fil-A which is to say that this was an unfortunate year to start 6-3 and then not win another game.

More later.

My bad

I have not been able to do post mortems on the last two UK games. The Vandy loss took too much out of me and I didn't feel like writing about it. Saturday's game was tough, but if you read my pregame post, you know it was nothing I didn't expect. I wasn't able to write Sunday as I was driving home from Gulf Shores for 11 hours. Since then I have been too busy with work and am actually preparing to leave town again tomorrow.
So I am not even sure I'll be able to get out a SEC Championship preview.
I will post a very quick bowl projection doohicky and that may be it this week.
If I do not get the SEC thing out, look for a lengthy season wrap up some time next week.
Things will slow down after that, though I will throw in both a bowl preview and a breakdown of next years team prior to New Years for sure.
In response to an earlier question, I will not be creating a UK Basketball blog. I'm sure there are plenty of good ones, and I am so disgusted with the state of our program it would not be the labor of love that UK Football Fan is (or at least the labor of love it had been up until November 15th). I'll probably go back to writing on Scutch Speaks to keep the fingers moving, or may experiment with a more open sports related format. If anyone has suggestions about this, please comment or e-mail me.
In case you do not already know, Randall Cobb is undergoing knee surgery today to repair cartilage and is questionable for the bowl game.