There was no wireless connection in the media room at LP Field and unfortunately our wireless cards weren’t working, so the live blog didn’t pan out as planned. Nonetheless, we’ll still have coverage from this afternoon’s news conference.

Although there wasn’t anything major in terms of news from the coaches’ news conference, I’ll quickly run some of the highlights. We’ll have video of the news conference later as well as a couple of posts over the next few days. I’ll periodically update the notes as I go through the 30-plus minutes of coverage. Bear with me. …

– Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney compared Randall Cobb to his Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, C.J. Spiller. “They use him kind of like we do (with Spiller). He throws touchdowns, he rushes touchdown, he returns touchdowns – he does  a little bit of everything.”- Swinney believes it’s one of the better bowl matchups of the bowl season and said he likes the fact that it’s the only bowl game on the schedule on Sunday.- Both coaches downplayed the rematch from the 2006 Music City Bowl. As Swinney said, it’s different coach, different players and different personnel. Swinney believes Kentucky is a better football team than the 2006 team. UK head coach Rich Brooks said the same thing about Clemson as well. In terms of his own team, Brooks said he has a different football team. Said they have had to become more “multi-faceted” on offense since the loss of starting quarterback Mike Hartline. – Although it’s the third appearance in Nashville, Tenn., in four years and the Cats had to spend Christmas away from home, Brooks said he’s been pleased with the focus and spirit of his team. Brooks said they had to deal with multiple bouts of illness over the last week, missing two or three players just about every day. – Hartline does not have any swelling in his knee and is “back to where we feel confident that he can go in the game physically and play,” Brooks said. He’ll likely see some minutes on Sunday.

– Neither coach sounded concerned about the anticipated chilly temperatures, although Brooks (with his usually classic one-liners) said he was concerned about the wind. “I just hope that every time we punt, kick or pass the wind is at our back,” Brooks said. More than anything, both coaches emphasized holding on to the ball in a cold-weather game. Brooks said they have done well in games where they haven’t turned it over and haven’t fared as well in games where they have turned it over. There is a concern with the weather, Brooks said, with the team having a month off. He said you never know how they’re going to respond.- Both coaches talked in length about their stars (Randall Cobb for UK and Spiller for Clemson). They were both asked to compare the two, but I’m going to save that and go into more detail for a post later this evening.- For all the talk about Brooks’ potential retirement, he sure doesn’t sound like a man ready to hang it up after this season. When Brooks was asked where going to four straight bowl games ranked on his list of accomplishments, the seventh-year UK coach sounded like he wasn’t satisfied yet with the job he’s done. “I don’t feel like we’ve accomplished as much as I would like to as far as winning more football games,” Brooks said. “But to establish consistency in a program, in my mind, you have to be in postseason play on a regular basis and then maybe take that shot at the top rung of the ladder on occasion. It’s pleasing, but right now I’m trying to figure out how win another football game and it’s not going to be easy.”

– Brooks was asked what other Clemson players jumped out to him other than Spiller. He quickly pointed to the defensive side of the ball. Brooks sounded very worried about the pass rush of the front seven and said the secondary covers as well as any team in the nation. “They’re very good tacklers,” Brooks said. “A lot of people you see look impressive and athletically but they miss a lot of tackles. Clemson does not. They tackle very well.”- But to win eight games, you have to have an impressive offense and more than just one guy (Spiller) to lead the show. Brooks pointed to the Tigers’ freshman quarterback, Kyle Parker, as a catalyst behind their success. “I’m extremely impressed with their young quarterback,” Brooks said. “He’s not only a guy that can beat you with his feet and pull it down and run it, but he also buys time, has a vision down the field and finds open receivers and he’s got a quick release. Hard guy to get pressure on and sack because he gets rid of the ball so quickly.” Brooks also mentioned that this is probably the “two best combination tight ends” UK has played all season long.- When asked what a bowl win would do for his team heading into the offseason, Brooks needed only to look back to the previous three seasons as a source of wisdom. “I can promise you the last three offseasons have been a lot more pleasurable than the first three were,” Brooks said. “Anytime you’re able to get to a bowl game and win it, I think it’s a lot more positive impact on your fan base, on your players, on your recruiting and it’s been very, very helpful giving us more enthusiasm heading into the offseason program with the returning players.”- A win would also signify four straight bowl wins for a group of seniors, a feat that no other senior class in UK annals has ever accomplished. “This would be a very special thing for a group of seniors who when they came to Kentucky, it was not a very popular thing and a lot of them were maybe criticized for why you would want to go there,” Brooks said. “I think this would be the final validation that they could leave with not only four bowl games, but if we were able to win it with four bowl wins.”

– True freshman quarterback Morgan Newton has impressed in practice over the last few weeks, but Brooks would like that to translate to the game. Brooks doesn’t believe his last game – a heartbreaking loss to Tennessee – was very good, calling it maybe his worst game of the year. He’s anxious to see how he responds from that game. – Brooks praised the Clemson defense, comparing it favorably to several teams in the Southeastern Conference because of talent, speed and size.- When the teams faced off a couple of years ago, the turf at LP Field was plagued with divots and loose sod. That’s the not the case this year, according to both coaches. Swinney called this year’s field “Augusta National.”- When UK travels to Atlanta for the SEC men’s basketball tournament, fans like to call the city “Cat-lanta.” After the historic turnouts of the 2006 and 2007 Music City Bowl games – the top two Music City Bowl attendance records occurred during UK’s bowl appearance – and UK’s strong showing in Vanderbilt stadium, should we start calling the Music City “Cats-ville.” It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “Cat-lanta,” but Brooks was quick to point out how well UK fans have traveled to Nashville. “Our fans have been great traveling,” Brooks said. “The experience in 2006 against Clemson was a real eye opener for our team and me to see how the fans followed us to that first bowl game and the response they had during that game. It was just overwhelming. I’m just very, very pleased that they’re close proximity again and can come to a great bowl and not have to travel too far.”- Swinney was asked about what impresses him about the Kentucky defense and he said that the Cats are really good inside, especially at the tackle position. When he looks at film of UK, he sees a defense similar to that of Wake Forest and Florida State in the way the Cats pursue the football. He said they don’t get out of position very often and create timing issues. Swinney said injured linebacker Sam Maxwell was as good of a player as they likely would have seen all year (Maxwell will miss the bowl game with a shoulder injury), but said linebacker Micah Johnson and defensive tackle Corey Peters are equally as impressive. “(Peters) is a guy that looks like will be playing on Sundays here in the near future,” Swinney said. “A really, really good football player.”