The University of Kentucky football team will open the 2007 season against in-state rival Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, Sept. 1. The game will kickoff at 6 p.m. ET live on Lexington?s WKYT and also is available on ESPN GamePlan.
Kentucky returns 15 starters from 2006, including seven offensive starters and eight defensive starters from a team that went 8-5 last season and defeated Clemson in the Music City Bowl. It was the Wildcats? first bowl appearance in seven years and the most wins and first bowl victory in 22 years.
On offense, Kentucky has improved its scoring average and total offense each of the last two seasons and hopes to continue that trend this year. Kentucky has fielded a very young defense the last two seasons and the Wildcats hope that a more experienced, deeper unit will result in progress on that side of the ball.
Kentucky has five players on the squad who have earned first- or second-team All-Southeastern Conference honors during the 2005 or 2006 seasons, including wide receiver Keenan Burton, tailback Rafael Little, tight end Jacob Tamme, quarterback Andr? Woodson, and linebacker Wesley Woodyard.
PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES – AUG. 27
Head Coach Rich Brooks
?We?re back for another one. I want to start out by giving you all a little bit of an injury update. We?ve had four, actually five players injured since we started camp; four of which are having surgery, have had surgery or will have surgery — Charles Mustafaa a defensive lineman, Terrence Jones a redshirt freshman receiver, Greg Meisner a true freshman defensive lineman and Nii Adjei Oninku who obviously was the most experienced of that group. James Alexander has made considerable progress with his back. He will be out this game, but we?ll see if he?ll be able to go by next week. Other than those players, at this point, everybody else will be ready to go. Obviously, Moncell Allen will play in a cast. Wesley Woodyard had his cast removed yesterday. He will just be playing with a small pad on his surgically repaired hand. Garry Williams at tackle will also play with a cast and we will see how that progresses this week.
?Other than that I?ve been pretty pleased with what has happened at practice. We will unfortunately, have somebody not participate in this game, Myron Pryor. He has been suspended for violation of team rules and will not participate against Eastern (Kentucky). That puts us in a position going into this game that we don?t have a lot of experience, which means Ricky Lumpkin will start at the defensive tackle as a redshirt freshman alongside Corey Peters. It?s good that we have Ventrell Jenkins available for at least spot duty in this game. He will practice most every drill in the coming days. We?ll see how he holds up. His conditioning will be limited for a little while. Still, it?s a relief to have him released for at least spot duty this week.?
On what his week is like leading up to opening day?
?Well, the nerves start acting up a little bit. The stomach starts churning. The anticipation of the uncertainty of what is going to happen there?s always the big butterflies floating around. You feel good about a lot of things, but you have to go out on the field and make sure that you?re doing things well that you feel good about. You worry about some things. You have to go out on the field and see if those things you?ll need to continue to worry about. It?s an anticipation that I think always kind of brings an adrenaline rush at this time of year.?
On how he will define expectations this season?
?I can say what comes to my mind, but we?ll really have to see how it happens on the field. We have to see how we handle the expectations and whatever success we may have had last year. Really all of that right now is totally meaningless. We?ll have 12 opportunities this year to go out and prove that we are an improved football team. Are we a team that can handle a small amount of success and see if we can build on that? Or are we a team that has success and is a flash in the pan? This will be the first of those 12 opportunities. Really, you can sit there and argue which one is more important (the games), but we need to take each of them individually and one game at a time. Each one has to be the most important game of the year. If we can get by the first one, then there are 11 more. When you want to achieve something special in a season you don?t have a lot of margin for errors. This is a very important game for us. I also know that Eastern will be very fired up to come up here and show us what they can do.?
On the Kentucky defense?
?I hope on third down they?ll be coming off the field and standing next to me on the sideline a little more often. I hope we?ll see a defense that?s more aggressive, tighter coverage, doing a better job of containing the running game, and just not spending as much time on the field. Those would be nice things to see.?
On Eastern Kentucky?s offense?
?It?s a multiple offense. They do a lot of different things, whether it is two tight-ends, two-backs or a single back and a shotgun formation. Some of their shotgun option stuff is something we struggled with late last year against Louisiana-Monroe. I?m sure they looked very heavily at that film, as we have. We?re trying to get better at it. I?m not certain what we?re going to see, to be honest. I?m not sure what they?ll emphasize most in their offense. I know that they throw the ball well. They have an outstanding quarterback. He?s a senior, so we?re facing a guy who has taken a lot of snaps and played a lot of good football games. Eastern has played a lot of good football teams, so we?re not getting rookie under center. It?s going to be a challenge for us I?m sure.?
On running back Mark Dunn ?
?Well, I think they have two good running backs. From what I?ve seen they have good size, good speed and they break tackles. That?s going to be a key for our defense. I hope we are going to be a much better defensive team at stopping the run. If we can?t stop these guys it could be a long day.?
On freshmen who should see some game action this season?
?Shane McCord is clearly in the rotation (at defensive tackle). He will play this year, and as the season goes on he could be a significant contributor on the defensive interior. Other freshmen: (Jacob) Dufrene could see some action at linebacker. He did have an injured shoulder which hurt his snapping a little bit, but he could still be in the mix there. (Greg) Wilson at safety could see some action. (Brad) Durham at tackle. (Phillip) Hibbard is possible. (Kyrus) Lanxter at receiver and Moncell Allen and Derrick Locke (at running back).?
On the offensive line?
?I think our line will play well. I think that it is a very athletic group. It?s probably the most athletic group that we?ve had since I?ve been here. It also has some good size. We?re not enormous, but we have very good size. They?ve had over a week of functioning together and we?ll have another week going into the game. I think this unit has a chance to be pretty good.?
On his senior leadership?
?First of all, it means a lot to a football team to have leaders like we do on this team. I?ve coached a lot of years, and I?ve coached some good teams, some average teams and some bad teams. This group of leaders on this team is about as good as I?ve ever had. Based on what they?ve gone through and how they?ve held their head up, and not given into the enormous criticism that was leveled on this program for two or three of the years that they?ve been in it just speaks volumes of the character that they have. It is an absolute joy and pleasure to work with young men who have the conviction that these guys do.?
Kentucky Players
#19 Keenan Burton, WR
On fall training camp?
“Tired of practicing and I?m just ready for the games to start. It?s been an interesting camp just because we?re hungry. There are some things we need to overcome and the coaches have us trying to work on those things to get better.”
On expectations surrounding the team and the offense?
“We love the support from all the fans ?We can talk about success, but until we get out there and show it, it means nothing. As for the offense, the fans should expect to be excited. We have athletes and playmakers everywhere and the coaches are going to open it up. So people should definitely be excited.”
On opening up against someone other than Louisville?
“It doesn?t seem weird at all. We can?t think about it because if we do, we can easily get beat this weekend (vs. Eastern Kentucky). That?s our first game this season, so that?s how we?ll treat it. We play Louisville in the third game this season, so when we get there, we?ll prepare as if we would any other game.”
On added pressure after last year?s success?
“There?s always going to be pressure no matter what. When we had some down years, there was pressure for coaches and players to keep their jobs. Now there?s pressure to go out there and follow up what we did last year. We can?t run from it, we must accept it. We just all need to come together and do well so we don?t fail and let down coaches and fans.”
On who may have a breakout season?
“Stevie Johnson. He does everything you need a wide receiver to do. He runs his routes well, catches the ball and works hard. He?s so talented and is one of the best athletes I?ve ever seen, and he could easily be one of the best receivers we?ve had here in a long time. If he can keep his head straight, learn the game more and continue to work hard, I think the sky?s the limit.”
On facing Eastern Kentucky?
“They?re a good team and will definitely play with a chip on their shoulder, so we need to play with one on ours. We?ve been there before with teams in the SEC who have looked at us in the past as a bad loss if we beat them. They have so much to gain from this game, so we need to stay focused and play hard.”
#20 Dominic Lewis, DE
On the difference preparing for Eastern Kentucky in the first game as opposed to Louisville?
?We try to take every game one game at a time. We try to prepare for every team the same. We give 100 percent effort. We know they are going to bring their best game. We are playing a good team at Commonwealth, and we won?t hold anything back. We get hyped for every game.?
On opening game preparations after the team?s great season last year?
?Yes and no. We try to forget about last season and start a new slate and do better than last season. The confidence coming in has grown. We know if we come in and work hard we can win in the SEC. The confidence has been the most since I have been here in five years. Hopefully we can have a better season than last year.?
On the new approach this year on the defensive side of the ball?
?I think the approach is pretty much the same. We are going to line up and try to beat different teams with different things. This year we are going to try to be more aggressive and enthusiastic during the game. We are not changing much but we are improving. Some of our defensive schemes have changed. Our defensive line has changed from straight get-off-the-line to reads. We are going to attack and make plays. We have almost everyone back on defense, so this is our year.?
On this week?s opponent Eastern Kentucky?
?We know they have a long streak of consecutive winning seasons. They have an explosive offense. We have been banging on each other and we are ready to start banging on someone else. If we can set the tone and play well, the offense will play well. We feed off of our offense.?
