UK alum Tom Leach has been the play-by-play “Voice of the Wildcats” for the football Cats for 13 years and 10 years for men’s basketball. He is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year award. Tom offers an entertaining and insightful perspective into UK athletics. Column entries will be posted twice per week through April. Read Tom’s full biography
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Most of the changes in the Kentucky football program at the start of Joker Phillips era will be subtle ones to fans. Like Randy Sanders moving from the sidelines to the booth in his role as offensive coordinator.
Sanders will use reserve quarterback Tyler Sargent to signal in plays, a job he assumed when Sanders suffered a broken wrist. Sanders said he likes the idea of using one of his QBs to do it because they’re the ones in the meeting room with him each day and they know how he communicates best.
Don’t look for any great shakeup in the playcalling, since Sanders and Phillips have worked in concert for so many years already. And Sanders said play calling itself is overrated.
“I have called plays that are actually perfect, but if we don’t execute them — throw it, catch it, whatever — it doesn’t work,” Sanders said. “I have called plays that have been the best for a particular situation that have worked out very well, so it all gets down to the execution and preparation and play calling, which counts, but not as much as people think.
“You try to find a rhythm in the play calling and it is easier to find a rhythm when you have a little success. It is easier to set things up when what you are calling is working and you go out there and execute. You need to go out and have a little success and be able to find a rhythm because once you find that rhythm, it is easier to set things up and get it going.”
There’s more mystery on the Louisville in terms of what to expect from an entirely new coaching staff, but Sanders has an inkling of what he will based on watching Charlie Strong’s defenses at Florida.
“I’ve been going against Charlie for a long time,” Sanders said. “There will be a lot of Florida’s personality and a lot of Charlie’s personality, which is very aggressive and they are a lot of man-to-man, lot of blitz, zone blitz, and their third-down packages are also difficult to deal with. A big key for us will be to manage the pressure, stand in there man-to-man and (stay out of a long distance) on third down so that you are not having to deal with all the different looks and fronts.”
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“I don’t think anybody will have a feel for it. I don’t think I even had a feel for it when I first got here knowing who you are playing against.”
That’s the assessment from center Matt Smith, who will make his first start Sautrday at Louisville — where he grew up.
“I played on the field a few times in high school but never played them on that field, it is just a whole different experience being out against those guys,” he said. “I feel there is more pressure. I will have a lot of people at the game and know a lot of guys that are on the team, so it is a chance for me to go out and show what I can do and prove that I came to Kentucky for a reason. I have grown up a Kentucky fan and always been a Kentucky fan and having to hear all that ‘You should have gone to Louisville and all that stuff, it is really exciting to be on this team and know that we are in contention to do some big stuff this year.”
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Count one-time Indiana and U-of-L Lee Corso, now an ESPN commentator, among those who would like to see the Kentucky-IU series resume.
“If I was the Indiana coach I would play Kentucky and if I was the Kentucky coach, I would want to play Indiana,” Corso said this summer while attending the annual Governor’s Cup Luncheon. ” It is about the same distance from Louisville and all that same area. It could be a great rivalry and was for us because, I guess I made it more, but it was a great rivalry.”
