Random Monday Notes

*There has been some grumbling about UK's non-conference scheduling, which is admittedly weak. I've always been of the opinion that the Cats should not add another BCS team other than Louisville until it is consistently winning 8 games a season and can afford another loss. Here is another thought I had just now. One relevant question in the debate is this: If UK went undefeated with its current schedule, would it go to the national championship game? To me, that is an unequivocal "Yes". Most years, that would mean beating two top 10 teams and winning an SEC Championship game against another. Assuming this is true, why voluntarily play a harder schedule?

* The SEC went 11-1 this weekend, the sole loss being Georgia falling to Oklahoma State. A number of schools fattened up on cupcakes. Vandy beat a poor 1-AA team, Western Carolina 45-0. Of course Tennessee crushed Western. Arkansas took it to Missouri State. Not sure that much should be read into any of those games, though the same could be said about ours.

*Auburn beat Louisiana Tech 37-13, in probably the biggest test for the conference outside of the big games Alabama and Georgia took on. This is the kind of game Auburn would have lost last year. Most bowl projections have the Tigers ahead of the Cats despite our big win. Still, a lot of football left to be played.

*On the "lets not read too much into this first game" front, I note that the UK-Miami (OH) score is not much different than our 41-3 win over Western last year. Like Miami (OH), Western is a bottom rung BCS school. Lets compare some states between the two games. Hartline's game last year didn't feel like a revelation, but the numbers aren't too different. He was 19-30 for 172 yards, for 5.7 yards a throw. One touchdown and one pick. (Compared to 18-27 for 222, 2td-0 int Saturday) The running game against Western in 2008 was actually more effective than it was against Miami (OH), the Cats gaining 216 yards on 38 carries, with 3 TDs. (Compared to 245 on 49 for 3). Recall too that the Cats played Western without Randall Cobb. As The Wolf in "Pulp Fistion" said . . . well . . lets just say it translates loosely to, "lets not go breaking our arms patting each other on the back just yet".