PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES – MARCH 26
Head Coach Rich Brooks
?We?ll it?s that time of year again, and we?re excited to get going. I do have some housekeeping issues that I need to address before I start talking about the start of spring practice. From an injury standpoint, Rafael Little will be limited for the first two weeks coming off of his knee scope three weeks ago. He had a piece of cartilage in there, but the rest of the knee looked great. He should be participating fully before the end of spring practice. Zach Hennis, (Jorge) Gonzalez, (Justin) Jefferies, (Jason) Leger, and (DeMoreo) Ford are all recovering from off-season surgeries and will probably not have any contact drills during spring practice. Obviously, four of those guys are offensive lineman, which leaves us a hole there. Josh Winchell, coming in from junior college, had surgery over Christmas break on his knee and may be limited to start, but will be participating in spring practice. Johnny Williams and Myron Pryor also have injuries that will probably limit them the first week of practice but then they should be ready to go forward. Micah Johnson would be in that category too with the sports hernia operation. Following that, Jamil Paris will be suspended indefinitely for academic reasons. Marcus McClinton and Sefo Blaylock will be suspended for violation of team rules. Garry Williams has been reinstated as of today to participate in football activities.
?Looking forward to spring practice ? We need to determine where the players who played so well last year are headed as far as improvement is concerned. Where are the players who didn?t participate as much? Are they ready to step up and take a role in the successful 2007 edition of Kentucky football? We have a lot of new players, new in that they didn?t play a lot last year or didn?t play at all in games. We need to see if they are ready to challenge for serious playing time. The biggest question mark is, obviously, our offensive line especially because of the four people I mentioned here that won?t be participating in contact drills. Therefore there will be quite a few people getting a lot of reps. We may have to conduct practice in certain ways to avoid beating those guys up, so they don?t get worn down. The good news is that we have quite a few people coming in the position, and when these people get well we should be in pretty good shape as far as depth. There should be good competition in the offensive line as well. I think we have more competition in the other positions since I?ve been here ? at every position: running back, quarterback, receiver, tight end, defensive line, corner, safety, linebacker. There?s just more people that catch your eye and intrigue you to see where they are, whether they are stepping up their game or whether they are coming out of obscurity and coming to light. So, it?s going to be an exciting spring from that standpoint. We obviously finished the season well. We?ve raised expectations, not only our own, but as well as the fan base. We need to go about our business and conduct ourselves in a manner so that we can be better than we were last year. We have, I think, every opportunity to do that but we have to go out and show it and earn it on the practice field as we get ready for next fall.?
On what the team has been doing since the bowl game to prepare for spring practice?
?Well, the off-season program (for players) and coaches have been recruiting and going through all of that. Preparing for spring practice you go back and review all of your plays on offense and defense and special teams to see what you did well and see what you didn?t do well, and find out why you didn?t do them well. And then try to improve on the things you are not doing well enough. The players try to improve on their strength levels and their conditioning levels and speed levels. One of the things that I was very encouraged about was our 40-yard dash times we got on pro-timing day. If I remember correctly, it was right around 15 players who ran under a 4.5 (seconds in the 40-yard dash). My first year here I think we may have had one who ran under 4.5. So the overall team speed and the ability to make plays has increased from a speed standpoint. That doesn?t necessarily mean that all of the fast guys can play that well, but at least we have speed that we didn?t used to have. I think that showed up last year on defense as well as on offense.?
On the opportunity to scrimmage in spring practice?
?It may be limited or it may be slower. What I don?t want to do is hurt the guys (offensive lineman who are available), because they get tired from taking a lot of reps. We may scrimmage for awhile, (then) we may take a break and give them some rest and then resume if we need to do that.?
On whether or not his team is staying grounded despite their successful season?
?I think I can answer that better after a week or so of spring ball when I see them working on the field. I think they went into the off-season in better condition than they have ever before. That?s because of us being able to practice in December. I?m not totally pleased with our focus and concentration in the classroom and off the field problems. That part disturbs me. I look at my football team as an extended family. Those of you who have children may understand that they don?t always do what you want them to do, or what you tell them to do. That probably disturbs me more than anything. Those are the things I lose sleep over easier than others. I would just like to have no problems. Now, I know that is Pollyanna, and I know that?s probably never going to happen. When we do have issues with players, in class attendance or tutors or whatever, if they aren?t taking care of business or have misjudgments or having lapses off of the field, that bothers me.?
On whether or not spring practice will help determine a backup quarterback to Andre? Woodson?
?Well, the emphasis first is going to be on getting better, getting Andre? better and getting us better as a team. Then trying to determine at the quarterback position if Andre? goes down, who?s the next guy? Does that mean they get half of the reps split between them or a third, a third and a third? We?ll determine that as we go through it. Part of that will be determined on where we think Andre? is, whether or not we think he needs a lot more work in certain things as we move on with practice.?
On if there are any position changes?
?Well, we?ve just got a couple in mind. I don?t think there is anything major. Some of the linemen are going to have to work both guard and tackle, or center and guard.?
On if the success of last year is helping in motivating the team this spring?
?Well, I hope it?s more fun than it has been. I think it?s clearly the motivation. The players understand most importantly what we are capable of doing by the way that they finished the season. They know that if we take care of business that they have a chance to do some things that haven?t been done around here in awhile ? again. We need to build on last year, where we were able to do some things that hadn?t been done in awhile. With the nucleus that we have returning it just leads to hoping that you can accomplish more this upcoming season. Certainly by and large, the players that we have as represented by at least the two that I saw here (Keenan Burton and Wesley Woodyard) are quality people. They understand more than just what they are doing. They understand the ramifications of improving Kentucky football means not only to them but to the University and to the fans. They have a pretty good perspective of what they were able to do last year and what we possibly could do this year.?
On what the positives are for this year?
?I think one of the positives things that had to be overcome was your own players? belief in that they can do it. You just have to believe that when you get into tough situations, well we can do this and we can win this game. They were able to come from behind in the fourth quarter in three straight weeks (Georgia, Vanderbilt, Louisiana-Monroe) which has to give them confidence that no matter what happens in a game next year they?ve done that. They?ve been there. They can do that. They?ve beaten a team in the SEC (Georgia) that Kentucky hadn?t beaten in 10 years. We won a bowl game against a quality opponent (Clemson) that hadn?t happened in 22 years. They know now what they are capable of if they apply themselves. So, that?s a huge positive. The expectation level is obviously raised, as it should be. That?s a good problem to have, a very good problem to have. I think at least this time the expectation level has been raised in at least an intelligent manner. It?s been raised because we accomplished something. It isn?t raised because somebody thinks we should beat all of these teams we hadn?t done in a whole bunch of years. Now, it?s happening and to me that?s a positive. I just think that we have a lot of very talented players returning and more players getting consideration for pre-season honors than we?ve had since I?ve been here. We?ll have some talk of us maybe being a team in the mix. Although, there are still a lot of doubters out there and it?s our job to go out there and start the season on a positive note and continue to build on that.?
On whether or not Kentucky can be considered a contender in the SEC?
?I fully expect teams in our league to take us more seriously than they have in the past. That means an increased focused on getting ready to play Kentucky. As I told our players after our bowl game in the locker room, I said what we did this year isn?t going to be good enough next year. We have to do everything better because the people that we play are going to take us more seriously. We need to raise our level of play, and raise our bar to a higher level so that we can accomplish something this year that got everybody excited about last year.?
Kentucky Players
#19 Keenan Burton, WR
On his decision to return to the University of Kentucky instead of go to the NFL ?
?I made a decision based on what was best for myself and what was best for my family. I don?t regret anything and I wouldn?t take the decision back for anything. I know that I made the right decision.?
On what he expects in the upcoming season?
?I think we have a lot of things we have improved on. I know we still have to get better in a lot of aspects of playing, but at the same time, we have positive things to look at instead of negative things. Usually in the past we have had negative things and we are trying to get to the tunnel, now we kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel.?
On the focus he sees in his teammates coming off the team?s Music City Bowl win?
?Our goal is not to maintain but to overcome. We don?t want to be mediocre by doing the same thing we did last year, we want to get closer. We have to strive to be better than we were. I think that more or less everyone understands that if we take care of what we need to take care of we can make it happen.?
On motivating the younger players?
?I try to explain to them what we?ve been through. It?s not easy to wake up every day and walk on campus as losers. That?s something we don?t want to go back to. I think they have a chance to take victory, a chance to take success, they need to hold on to it.?
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On next season?s challenging schedule?
?We have to take it game-by-game. We?re going to be a better and more experienced team. We?re going to take it game-by-game, despite the schedule, with whatever team we play.?
On the 2007 team?s defense?
?I think it?s going to be a lot of fun. We?re going to run around and make a lot of plays. We?re looking forward to seeing how things shake out in the spring.?
On the goal of next season?
?It?s been the same since I got here, to win the SEC championship. It is with out a doubt more possible this year, especially with Andr? Woodson in there. We have a lot of guys that complement our team, we?ve got new guys coming in, old guys with more experience.?
On the preseason rankings?
?We are hoping that with the [Music City] bowl win, that UK may be ranked higher than expected. It?ll be pretty exciting to see how that works out. To see Kentucky higher ranked would be something we?ve been waiting to see for years. We?d be really happy to see that.?
On returning to practice after winning a bowl game?
?That?s really big. It?s something we?ve been wanting to get done. In Nashville, we thought, we have to win this; it?s our first win for next year. The coaches wanted to make sure we realized that we?re starting off next season 1-0. Now we just have to build off of that. The bowl game made us realize what we can accomplish and what we need to accomplish. It made us really want to work hard this spring.?
