LEXINGTON, Ky. — On Wednesday morning at the Nutter Training Center, the Kentucky football team began 2008 spring football practice with a two-hour, 20-minute workout in helmets, jerseys, and shorts.
The team will return to practice Friday morning. The Wildcats have 15 practices scheduled, capped by the Blue/White Spring Game on Sat. Apr. 19.
Coach Rich Brooks held a news conference after today?s practice. Here are some excerpts from that news conference:
Injury update?
?Let me bring you up to date on some injury things for spring practice. Maurice Grinter will do some drills, he will have no contact because of the off-season shoulder surgery. Tyler Sexton will have no contact for a couple of weeks because of a lower back injury. Charles Mustafaa will not participate this spring because of a knee surgery last fall. (Nii Adjei) Oninku will do drills only, no contact. (Robbie) McAtee will be limited the first couple of weeks as well because of a lower back problem. Ahmad Grigsby has just been cleared and will participate as conditioning will allow because he hasn?t been able to condition fully. We?ll just have to work him into shape. Calvin Harrison had a knee surgery and I think will be able to come back before the end of spring but right now he?s out. Brandon Thurmond had knee surgery again on the same knee, will not participate in the spring. We all know Jamil Parris is not going to be able to play football any more. Jeremy Jarmon had his knee scoped last week. He?ll be out for at least the first two weeks of spring ball and should be able to return, but a little lateral cartridge taken out. Ricky Lumpkin has got a little hip problem and will probably be back hopefully sometime the middle of next week.
?That?s the injury update. Let me give you my impression of the first day, which is limited obviously, because we are in shorts and not full gear so its hard to gauge where the lineman are on both sides of the ball. I think from an athletic standpoint the secondary is in the best shape it?s been in my tenure here at the University of Kentucky. We have more competent athletes, competing and doing things. That makes that (area) an exciting thing to look forward to. Also with the new secondary coach, Chris Thurman, who I?m very pleased to have, I think it?s going to be an outstanding spring in the secondary. I was impressed early today by (Anthony) Mosley at receiver and by (Kyrus) Lanxter at receiver. Dicky Lyons and DeMoreo Ford both have been bothered by patellar tendinitis, and had a procedure done on their patellar tendon about a month ago, and both of them looked good. In fact DeMoreo looked quicker and faster than he?s looked in over a year and a half. And they both say the procedure has had some very positive effects on both their patellar tendinitis. So I?m encouraged there and I?m also impressed with T.C. Drake and Ross Bogue at tight end, I?m very encouraged by how they looked first day out of the chute. (Mike) Hartline and (Curtis) Pulley, and (Will) Fidler threw the ball much better today than I anticipated coming off of shoulder surgery. I would say that he (Fidler) has got a chance now to be a factor this spring now as well. Given the windy conditions of today I was pretty pleased with how they threw the ball overall. The first day out there, there?s always a little rust but I think in arm strength all three of those guys look pretty promising.?
What do you look at when evaluating quarterbacks?
?You look at mechanics, obviously, you look at how they?re making the throws. And then the key thing will be when we get them in scrimmage or game-type situations is the quickness of the decision making, the ability to avoid negative plays and make positive plays.?
On how it was at practice, not having last year?s seniors as the foundation of the team?
?In the off-season workouts, where you have different groups working out at different times, you don?t notice sometimes the ones that are missing until you get them all together and start participating (in practice). Obviously there?s a bigger void from this senior class than there has been in recent years. But on the same token it?s an exciting time for me as a coach, knowing that there are people capable of stepping up and replacing those guys, and I?m anxious to move forward with that process. It?s an exciting time to me as a coach and I think it?s an interesting time for Kentucky football fans.?
On how the team is athletically in replacing last year?s players?
?Athletically I don?t think we?re going to be much different. In some cases we?ve got as good or better athletes at the positions of the people we lost, but the thing that you never know is how they are going to replace that production. Athletic ability doesn?t always translate into play- making ability, and that will be the key thing to start judging as we go through the next 14 days of practice. But I?m encouraged that we have some people in place, plus we?ll have some people to join them in the fall, that are athletically gifted enough to make plays in this league.?
On the linebackers?
?Well knowing that we lost the leading tackler on our team for the last three years (Wesley Woodyard), I feel better about the linebacking group than I?ve felt since I?ve been here as well. This is a more talented, deeper group of linebackers that we?ve had since I?ve been here. The competition will be greater at all of the spots than any other time since I?ve been here. So right now I?m feeling pretty good about it and again we need somebody to step up. I don?t know that we?ll have a guy that has as many tackles as Wesley has had the last several years, but we certainly have a lot of guys that are capable of closing the gap on the number of tackles they?ve had. And one of the things that should happen is our safeties should make more tackles than they have in the last couple of years. That should have happened probably last year but we missed a lot of tackles at safety last year, and that has to improve dramatically. If we do that, I think we?re going to have a chance with the competition at those two spots, at the secondary and linebacker positions, to make a more significant improvement than we?ve made in recent years. We were quite a bit better (defensively) last year even though the numbers didn?t indicate it as much because if you remember the plays came back into college football. We had more plays than the year before because the timing rules changed. We had the two overtime games which puts a strain on defenses numbers. But this year I expect, and we definitely need to have, significant improvement on the defense numbers.?
On expectations for offense?
?My expectations are high for the offense as well as the defense, we have more questions on that side of the ball. Last year we had a few questions on the offensive side and that was in the offensive line and if you remember even the guys that were going to play there in the fall, weren?t in the spring, so our offense didn?t look all that great last spring. But I think offensively we just need some people to step up and take hold of their positions and move forward. And if we do that I think the production will be fine, I think we?ll be fine on offense. But there is still that uncertainty there. Defensively there?s less uncertainty but there?s still enough you get interested in seeing how it all develops. I think we need to make significant improvement on defense this year. And hopefully if we do that, and even if we aren?t quite as productive as one of the most productive offenses in Kentucky football history was a year ago, then we still should have the same results. We should be able to win games. And that?s what we need to see and why we?re out there practicing.?
On the offensive line?
?I?m going to make the same statement I made a year ago at this time. I think that this offensive line will be the best offensive line I?ve had since I?ve been here. Last year?s turned out to be that way. Even though last spring, (we) didn?t even resemble an offensive line. We have some very good young players, redshirt freshmen that are going to make a major impact on what we do. You have to believe that Zipp Duncan is going to be markedly improved on what was I thought a very, very good year last year as a sophomore, first time playing the position. Garry Williams and Justin Jeffries should be very good at tackle. I just think we have some really good players competing for those positions, and little more athletic overall than we?ve been in some of my earlier years.?
Thoughts on this year?s postseason chances?
?I would be very disappointed if we?re not in postseason play. Having said that, we know we have some really good players to replace, it?s not going to be easy. There?s going to be pressure on the quarterback position just because there always is. And when you replace a guy who has put up the numbers Andr? (Woodson) has, you have some serious work to do at that position, whoever ends up being the guy. The receivers, the same thing there. The good news is we?re not totally void with Dicky Lyons returning at receiver, and with DeMoreo Ford, who?s played a lot in the last several years and made some big plays even though he hasn?t got the numbers (of other receivers). But I was excited (today) to see Ford with the quickness and speed that I haven?t seen in over a year from him. I don?t know if I see a momentum building from spring practice, I just expect it I guess. It?s a long, hard road to get to where we?ve been the last two years. Where we got to isn?t where we want to end because we want to be better than that. And certainly if we fall short of it, even from what we did last year, than it?ll be very disappointing, regardless of how many players you have to replace and whatever you have to do. The program, in my mind, is at a different level than it was four or five years ago. And the hard thing to do is to keep it at that level and get it better, because just like we all knew last year it would be different for us going forward because people (opponents) wouldn?t take us for granted anymore. I?m sure they?re all looking at the graduation losses that we suffered, and they?re saying, ?Well Kentucky?s going to go back to where they belong? in their minds and I?m here to say we aren?t going back there. We need to keep climbing the ladder, we need to keep knocking those teams off and making an impact in this league.?
On the 2007 senior players in the pro draft?
?You have no way of judging that. Every club has their own draft experts and scouts and people making decisions. And I?ve been in that draft room leading up to the draft and you?re moving guys around on your board and you?re judging it and you?re saying, ?If we?re drafting and these five players are available, which one of the five would you take first?? You kind of narrow it down and then you maneuver the board and you keep changing it around leading up to the draft. All I know is that there will be players drafted from Kentucky. There?ll be players playing in the NFL from Kentucky. Some of them may be getting beat up a little bit in the draft process, the more high-profile guys, (and) some of them aren?t getting beat up. It?s just a process, that?s what happens in every draft. Let?s say this, the NFL draft is not an exact science. Tom Brady was a sixth-round draft pick, Ryan Leaf was a second pick in the draft and he isn?t in the league anymore. They make mistakes, okay. And I will say this, if Andr? Woodson doesn?t get drafted real high, somebody?s making a mistake. Some of them have had individual workouts for different teams. Keenan has been worked out and just sometimes they just want him to catch punts. The special teams coach will come in and say ?Catch punts.? So different teams, and having been through the process, different teams will have certain guys higher on their boards than other teams. And it goes to what they need, what their impression of their numbers are, their character, their intelligence. And everybody has a little different opinion of that. It?s going to be an interesting two-day process when the draft comes around.?
On Kyrus Lanxter?
?I think Kyrus has done a very good job. He didn?t play a lot last year and hopefully people can understand why he didn?t. We had some pretty good production out there, but this is his year, this is his time. I think he can line up and play all three receiver spots. He has the knowledge to do that, he has the ability to do that, and as I said earlier, I?m very excited about Lanxter and very excited about Mosley today. Those two guys just jumped out at you today. That?s exciting and we have other guys who are going to be added into that mix as well.?
On people saying Andre?s stock dropped after the Senior Bowl?
?I get a little angry, to be honest, because Coach Marks decided to throw 200 plays at him and started tinkering with technique, you don?t usually do that in an all-star game. It wasn?t just Andr?, it was all the quarterbacks. You know, all-star games are all-star games. The great exposure is you get to have the coaches and scouts and everybody get to know you better as a person. And to me that is the biggest advantage in an all-star game. You have no control over the guys who are blocking for you if you are a quarterback, no control over bringing in receivers from a whole bunch of different offenses and having them understand the timing of the routes and doing it all. It?s a crapshoot always. The exposure from just the personalities of the people involved and the intelligence and the work ethic is something that I think all of those guys, including Andre, got out of the Senior Bowl.?
What are you looking for out of your quarterbacks in the spring athletics?
?Decision making ability, how quickly they make their decisions, whether they can get us out of bad plays at the line of scrimmage and get us into good plays. And then the production, are they going to make more good plays than they make bad plays. The one thing, and this goes back to Andr? Woodson, but all scouts have to do in this league, which has some of the best defensive talent in the country, is look at Andr?e Woodson?s interception versus touchdown ratio. It?s unbelievable what he did in this league in two years, it?s unbelievable. And I don?t expect the next quarterback here to be quite as proficient as that, but he better be fairly close, because we can?t be throwing the ball to the other guy very often and expect to be able to win here at Kentucky. So we have to understand that mistakes will kill us and we can?t make those and it?s better off getting back to the line of scrimmage without losing the ball or losing a bunch of yardage and then having a chance to make the next play work;. aAs well as having the ability to make some good plays, some big plays, some productive plays to bring your team back from a disaster and make it work. So that?s what we?re going to be looking for with this quarterback. I?m hopefully one guy will take charge and do it. But I hope that it isn?t because the other guy isn?t doing it very well at all. And I hope there?s very good competition, and I think there will be. It?s going to be a competitive position and as I mentioned earlier, I?m more encouraged by Fidler, who I thought maybe this spring wouldn?t be in the mix. and iIf we?re smart how many balls we allow him to throw as we go forward early hereearly, so he doesn?t get that shoulder sore and weakened, then I think he?ll be a factor. He?s a tough guy and I think he can make some good decisions.?
