Oct. 27, 2008
Head Coach Rich Brooks
Opening Statement…
“Injury update: I would list (Myron) Pryor as doubtful, (Maurice) Grinter questionablefor this week and Justin Jeffries as questionable. We’ll see how those guyspractice this week. I would say Pryor is pretty doubtful. I would list Micah Johnsonas doubtful from an ankle sprain. He had more trouble in this last game even thoughhe didn’t play the whole game. He was not able to play his normal game. MarcusMcClinton who played 20-some snaps in the game, had a slight setback with his kneeand is questionable.
“Going into this game, after looking at the film, we’re going to make a few changes in the starting lineup. E.J. Adams and Gene McCaskill will start at the wide receiver. Randall Cobb will start at quarterback. We’ll probably reverse the action and bring Mike Hartline in at some point in the second or third quarter. They’ll both play. As far as the strong safety position, we’ll determine at that position after the week of practice.
“ Mississippi State is a team that needs this game as much as we need it. They’re running out of opportunities to get bowl eligible, as we are. This is a huge football game for both programs. Certainly, they are a team that is coming off one of their better offensive performances. It seems like that’s a broken record for the teams we have been playing in recent weeks. They did a very good job of running the ball against Middle Tennessee and throwing it. Their quarterback (Tyson) Lee is a Fran Tarkenton, if you will. He just runs all over the place. He makes plays with his feet as well as his arm. They are a team defensively that exemplifies their head coach. They’re physically tough on offense with the way they run the ball. They play hard. This is going to be a very difficult game on the road. We’re going to have to get back to playing our game of physical, tough football that we did not play this past week.”
On what made the coaching staff make the switch at quarterback…
“Mike (Hartline) has done a lot of good things, obviously. We’ve beenstarting games slowly over the last several weeks. When Randall (Cobb) is inserted,we seem at least to be able to move the ball. I think (Cobb) gives the defense alittle more problem with his feet and his ability to improvise than Mike does. Heis starting to understand the offense a lot better. Well, he’s still got alot to catch up on. But what he has on it is pretty good. He understands it and he’sexecuting it pretty well.”
On leadership from the quarterback position…
“Mike Hartline has been doing a good job of leadership. He is a positive guy.Randall, as I’ve said many times, is mature beyond his years. The best wayfor somebody to show leadership is to go out and play well and then act like a leaderafter they’ve done it. I think both Mike and Randall have done that at differenttimes. We just think Randall could give us a little spark and a little diversityin what we’re able to do on offense.”
On if it is an advantage to scout MSU after they played an opponent UK has already played…
“Yeah, (MSU) moved the ball better than we could on (Middle Tennessee); theyran the ball better than we could on them. They beat them easier than we beat them.We were lucky at the end to hold on. We know that going on the road is always difficultto win in this league. Mississippi State is going to give us everything they’vegot. They always have since Sylvester (Croom) has been there. I don’t expectanything less. We’re going to have to be physically tough, disciplined, executeand make some things happen.”
On the team’s attitude in Sunday’s film session…
“Well, I think they all understand that we were embarrassed. We didn’tplay like we were capable of playing in any phase of the game. What I tried to dois go through the game film quickly. I don’t think there was any further reasonto embarrass anybody about what went wrong in the game. I stated after the game thatit is my responsibility to get the players to play better than they played. I thinkto do that, if execution is a problem, then I need to get somebody in there to executebetter. To me, the game did not represent what we have accomplished and what we are.It was a throwback, if you will, or a throw-up of days gone by and days that we don’twant to revisit.”
On missing players from last year as far as team leadership …
“You lose good players every year. We lost good players two years ago and wewere able to come back and put the pieces together. We’re at the crossroadsof putting it together again this year. We started out reasonably well, trying towin games in a lot different manner than we had won them the year before. We hadan absolute avalanche and collapse and now we’re going to find out what kindof response we get from the current players. It is never the same from year to year.It’s never the same. In all of the games that we played up until last week,we had a field position, solid defense and relatively mistake-free football team.The field position difference in the Florida game, where Florida started their drivesand we started our drives, you could see we were going to get beat just looking atthat. Those are the things that we have to get back to, understanding and playingto the strengths of our football team.”
On if there will be changes on special teams next week…
“We will make a couple of changes, yes. We had guys miss blocks on the puntteam. What can I tell you? Florida did some different things but where they weretrying to block the punt is not where they blocked the punt. They blocked it in anarea on the left and the right two different times where we just didn’t blocka guy. All of a sudden a couple of good players open a gap and then someone runsthrough and blocks it.”
On improving red zone offense…
“Well, we have to execute and we didn’t execute down there whether itwas a block, a throw, a catch, a run, or breaking a tackle. As we all know, the fieldshrinks when you are down there. Florida is a good defense. Mississippi State isa good defense. They are not ranked as high as some of the teams that we have playedrecently but they play hard, are physical and have good athletes. There is no easyanswer to getting the ball into the end zone. Some years it seems like it is a prettysimple thing. But this is not one of those years for us. We have to earn everythingand work hard to get it into the end zone.”
On his confidence in the team to rebound this week…
“I am confident that we won’t play like we did down there. I am confidentthat we will play a lot better than that. Now whether that’s good enough towin remains to be seen, because the other team that we’re going to play wantsto win really bad too. They’ve got scholarship athletes and went to a bowlgame and won it last year too.”
Tailback Moncell Allen
On the team’s reaction to the Florida game…
“We all made a lot of mistakes, not just the special teams. The offense wasa little slow and Florida had some big plays against the defense. We can’tlet that happen this week, and we have to take control of that.”
On team leadership…
“We have leaders on our team that always step up and say something. Some ofthe younger guys are stepping up as leaders. When we hear them talk it inspires usto get the job done. Everyone on the team should feel like a leader on the field.”
On coming off of Saturday’s loss…
“Anyone can overcome a bad loss, and it’s something you learn from. Ifeveryone stays focused and plays their hardest we can beat Mississippi State. Everygame is a must-win game. These last four games are must wins because we want to goto a bigger bowl and play better teams. I feel like that may not happen unless wewin these next four games.”
Defensive Tackle Ricky Lumpkin
On his reaction to the Florida game…
“It’s just one for those games that went wrong and we got off on thewrong foot. The only way to get over it is put it behind you, watch the film andget ready for Mississippi State. Every loss is hard to get over, but it is how welost that is harder to get over. A lot of us were embarrassed because people knowwho you are around here and I don’t want to face the fans that we let down.”
On expectations for the next game…
“Our backs are against the wall every week. We’re Kentucky, we alwaystry to fight for respect. We didn’t do a good job of that by losing by 58 points.So we know that we have to come back and win if we want to earn that respect.”
On the team’s reaction to the loss…
“Everyone was disappointed. When we went back to the locker room, everyonewas quiet. We’re not that kind of team. This is the first time we got beatlike that in two years. We’re trying to change the perception of this programand you can’t do that losing by 58 points. It just hurts because that’sa lot of scoring. We don’t want that to happen again. We want to go out therethis week and put that behind us.”
On letting the coaching staff down…
“I think we let Coach Brooks down a lot. He takes a lot of blame for us andit’s not his fault. It’s on us; we’re the ones playing and they’rethe ones coaching. We just didn’t execute and came out flat. We were messingup and people were in the wrong spot. We let the coaches down a lot and they reallybelieve in us.”
Cornerback Shomari Moore
On preparing for the game against Mississippi State…
“We have to get ready for this game just like any other one. For both coachesand players, this is one of the worst losses we’ve had. A loss is a loss, andwe have to go into the next game as if we lost a close one.”
On Kentucky’s defense…
“Defensively, Coach Brown encourages us to be one of the best defensive teamsin the SEC. That would also make us one of the best defenses in the country, andwe want to go for that goal each week. We obviously didn’t do that Saturday.Losing and winning games is often determined by defensive performance. We need toget back to being the physical defensive team that we were at the beginning of theseason, tune things up, and take it upon ourselves to get better.”
On Saturday’s game against Florida…
“From my eyes, Florida didn’t show us anything different from what weexpected. That’s the disheartening thing about the loss. When the punts wereblocked during the game you would think they were doing something special, but itwasn’t anything different from what we expected.”
Tailback Alfonso Smith
On if they can turn things around against Mississippi State…
“I really think so. There is a lot of talent and athletic ability on this teamright now. We all have to work harder in practice. The receivers are doing betterand still need to improve, and the running backs need to step their game up also.Everybody on this team needs to step their game up. It is not going to get easierso we have to stay focused.”
On putting the Florida loss behind you…
“You have to put the loss to Florida behind you, but you also have to rememberhow it feels. We have to use it to get ourselves motivated and to remind us thatwe need to work harder in practice. Coach Brooks is going to be on us and he willpush us to get better. He knows, as do we, that we are a lot better team then weshowed last Saturday, and he is going to ask a lot more out of us now.”
On the team’s reaction to the loss…
“When you lose like that you can’t point a finger at anybody. Everythingwent wrong, and everybody has to get better. I’m ready to get back on the fieldand prove that we are a better team than what we showed and we can win in this league.”
