Bowl Eligible

This was another weird one. Derrick Locke led Kentucky in passing yards with 41. On the same vein, Morgan Newton had more yards receiving than passing. The Cats won because they played to win in the second half rather than looking for style points or to prove something. It is clear that Brooks and Joker lost almost all confidence in the forward pass after Newton and Hartline threw identical vomit inducing interceptions in the first half. For Hartline's part, I am concerned that he may have lost any chance at more meaningful snaps with one throw.

Back to the main point, this team's offense has an identity. It is built around two athletes the likes of which we rarely see at UK. Watching Cobb and Locke on the sidelines as the game clock ticked away, theirs was a look of understanding, "we just won this game, and we are both banged up and dog tired". Credit must also go to the O-Line, which is also one of the best we've had.

Finally, Sam Maxwell deserves special mention, anchoring the defense while Micah, Trevard and Corey Peters did not have great games. Sam has made a number of big plays this year, but this might have been his best overall as a Cat.

Of course, the best news is of the bigger picture variety. The Cats are bowl eligible for the fourth time in as many years. It is a nice accomplishment. Barring something very unusual, we will be bowling. I still see the Independence Bowl as a likely destination. Of course, this is bad news on a personal front as it is one game I simply won't go to. I've sliced it up and run the numbers, flights etc. a million different ways, but there is no way I can justify it.

So, how do we avoid the Shreveport hole? One way would be to not win another game, hope that everyone else gets to seven wins and we fall past Shreveport to the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham. As things stand, I expect USC to lose to Clemson on 11/28, making them 6-6 and probably the least attractive Bowl participant.

Better yet, we could find a way to win one of the next two games and get into the mix for a number of bowls. Right now, it doesn't appear the SEC will have more than 3-4 eight win teams. I'd say at least one 7-5 team will play on New Year's Day (as USC did last year).

Personally, I haven't sampled the Kool-Aid yet but I believe we have some chance to win each of the games. Georgia has had a disappointing year, but its only home loss is to Florida. Their only bad loss this year was a 45-19 beatdown by UT back on 10/10. Joe Cox has been inconsistent, but pretty darn good when he's been good. Stud receiver A.J. Green was hurt during yesterday's game against Auburn. Not sure of his status. If we play the way we played against Auburn or in the second half of the Vandy game, we at least have a puncher's chance.

I'll be curious to see which UT team shows up in Commonwealth. I am going to have to assume that UT will beat us until we finally beat them, so I can never feel to confident about that game. Still, UT hasn't won a road game, even during the stretch of the season when it was playing lights out. And no matter how much he has improved, they are still quarterbacked by Jonathon Crompton. So we shall see.

I know nothing about Cobb's shoulder, but word did not today that Hartline will sit the remainder of the regular season. He wasn't ready to play yesterday, that's for sure.

More during the week.