UK alum Tom Leach has been the play-by-play “Voice of the Wildcats” for the football Cats for 13 years and 10 years for men’s basketball. He is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year award. Tom offers an entertaining and insightful perspective into UK athletics. Column entries will be posted twice per week through April. Read Tom’s full biography
= = = Link: ESPN blogger Chris Low writes that Joker Phillips is eager to take next step
Some of Derrick Locke’s teammates may engage in the worlds of Twitter and Facebook but don’t count on the senior from Hugo, Okla. joining that crowd. Locke’s jaw is set and his focus is firmly set on taking his game — and his team — to a higher level.
“No, I don’t tweet and ain’t going to be tweeting back and forth and this and that about what I am going to do. I don’t have time for that,” Locke said. “People ask me all the time what is going to happen in the game (against Louisville), but I don’t say anything. We will see September 4 and after that I will tell you how I did.”
Locke burst on the season as a true freshman with a big game at Arkansas (nine rushes for 48 yards and a score) when the Cats’ top four tailbacks were injured by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. He’s had plenty of big games since and is on target to finish well inside the top 10 all-time rushers at UK.
But Locke talks more than ever now about team goals and he’s determined that the Wildcats don’t miss oportunities that he felt they should have seized last fall.
“It comes down to one selfish play to another selfish play to another selfish play,” Locke said. “And what I mean by selfish is that you don’t want to do it and you make this wrong step. There were some runs where if I could be just a little bit more patient — boom, it could have been an 80-yarder. Instead, I over-ran it. Or the line should have blocked him but didn’t come off of the double team. Or one bad throw, one missed route — it is that close. “We should of had 10-win season (last year),” Locke said. “We were close and didn’t get it and it was because of selfishness. Right now we need to make sure everyone is accountable. You need to do your part. If you do your part, then everything is going to be alright.”
And Locke is stepping to the front of the line in being accountable by doing extra work to prepare for his final season. It started with a conversation last spring with running backs coach Larry Brinson.
The fourth-year running backs coach helped Locke understand how he could get more out of watching tape.
“We talked about what it is exactly that I need to look at and what I need to study,” Locke said. “It’s not just looking at film and watching us practice. I need to know about the whole team. What are they doing? When they are in this front, they like to slant this way and how is this man doing that? I don’t have too many classes, so I can get in there watch a lot of film and try to get ready. I think it is important to be as smart as your opponent, so if I can learn my opponent, then I could be a better player.
“I am trying to take everything to the next level. I am trying to get my game to the level that it should be. I don’t want to have any doubts like, ‘Oh, he can do this OK but he didn’t do this good. Every run I want it to be good.”
With Locke and junior wide receiver Randall Cobb, Kentucky has two players on watch lists for major national awards for runners and all-purpose players. Wideout Chris Matthews is being touted as a breakout prospect, too, so the Cats do not lack for weapons on offense.
“We are going to be able to mix it up this year,” Locke said. “It shouldn’t just go one way. It shouldn’t just be pass, and shouldn’t just be run. It should be a mix of whatever we got to do in that game plans situations, so that is something I am excited for, to not have nine in the box. We can back them up a little bit and make them play honest, so that way (I have) the natural ability to take over, so I am happy (with where we are).”
The Louisville game is the one that stokes the fire of most fans more than any other, but Locke is staying focused on the season as a whole.
“There’s not any pressure,” Locke said. “You just have to go out and play every game. Starting with the first game and to get where we want to get, you got to win. It is plain and simple. I don’t feel like it is pressure, I feel like it is something that we need to go out there and do what we need to do. We don’t get it done, then the goals we want to get, we might not get there.”
Rival fans can talk this week and the hype can build — all Locke cares about is taking care of business.
“I am not concerned with it because this is who I play for, right here,” Locke said. “The guys that are in here and with me battling. So the fans, if they want to get into it, that’s fine, but we have got to get a job done and we need to get it done.”
