Aug. 21, 2008
Lexington, Ky. – Special teams were the focus of the Kentucky football practice Thursday morning at the Nutter Training Center.
“We did some scrimmaging in the kicking game today and got some good work in,” Coach Rich Brooks said. “More importantly, we got some good things on tape to teach from as we move forward. This Saturday we can concentrate a little more on some situational things and not as much on the kicking game in the scrimmage.”
Brooks also discussed additional items related to special teams
On improving blocking in special teams…
“That’s why we did what we did today. We scrimmaged it and tried to get looks at a few different people doing it more than once, twice or three times and being able to teach from it in a full-speed tackle situation.”
On the possibility of personnel changes to help improve special teams blocking…
“There will be some new people on there from a year ago. Part of what we did today is try to identify somebody who might be able to move up that food chain a little bit.”
On using offensive and defensive starters in special teams…
“LSU won the national championship last year and they had starters on every special team. We will play the people that we need to play to be good on special teams and that includes starters.”
On who will be returning kickoffs…
“Dicky (Lyons Jr.) is doing some kickoff returns, also Alfonso (Smith), Eric Adeyemi, Tony Dixon, Winston Guy, and others.”
On what you look for in a kickoff return man…
“Kickoff return and punt return are totally two different animals. It’s a lot harder to catch a punt when there is a guy coming 100 miles per hour at you and is four yards away from you when you catch it. You have to not only have courage, but you have to have great anticipation and vision as a punt returner, because we usually say you have to avoid one guy and that’s usually very quickly before you can get into any type of return. On kickoff return, they are usually a lot farther away from you and we need them to just be able to hit the thing full speed. When you look at 11 or 10 guys coming at you as fast as they can run and then you have to run into that wall as fast as you can run, that is a different kind of courage than covering punts.”
The Wildcats’ return to the practice field Thursday afternoon for the last of two-a-day practices. UK will practice once on Friday and have a second major scrimmage on Saturday.
FSN South and SportSouth Preview Kentucky Football: The SportSouth and FSN South cable channels will carry a 30-minute show previewing the 2008 Kentucky football team. Here is the schedule, all times Eastern:
SportSouth
Fri. Aug. 22, 11 a.m.
Fri. Aug. 22, 5 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 24, 9 p.m.
FSN South
Thurs. Aug. 21, 7 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 22, noon
Raycom SEC Preview Begins This Weekend: The Raycom Sports “2008 SEC Football Kickoff”show can be seen in the following stations that service Kentucky markets. For a complete list of the 54 stations carrying the show, go to raycomsports.com
Bowling Green, WBKO Sat. Aug. 24, noon CT
Cincinnati, Ohio, WSTR Sat. Aug. 23, 4 p.m. ET
Evansville, Ind., WTVW Sun. Aug. 24, 5 p.m. CT
Lexington, WKYT Sat. Aug. 23, noon ET
Louisville, WAVE Sun. Aug. 24, 3:30 p.m. ET
Paducah, WPSD Sun. Aug. 31, 12:30 p.m. CT
