Spring football is in the air, and with our Spring Practice Primers the Eye On College Football Blog gets you up to speed on what to look for on campuses around the country this spring. Today we look at Kentucky.
Spring Practice Started: March 21.
Spring Game: April 21
Returning starters: 6 offensive, 6 defensive, 1 specialist
Three Things To Look For:
1. How hard can Joker Phillips ride the wave from the Tennessee win? In most cases, we're skeptical a season-ending victory -- whether in a bowl, rivalry game, or whatever other situation -- actually provides much carry-over into the following spring (much less season). But most season-ending victories aren't like Kentucky's over Tennessee to wrap up 2011, one that ended the nation's longest annual series losing streak at an unbearable 26 games. That kind of victory, by far the biggest of Joker Phillips's two-year tenure, can propel some real excitement and legitimate change within the program if Phillips can convince his charges it's just the beginning of even bigger things.
That could be easier said than done; that Phillips had to resort to throwing a wide receiver (Matt Roark) under center and overhauling the offense in the space of week to make it happen speaks to Phillips's ingenuity ... but also to how far the Wildcats have to go to beat even lackluster teams without one-shot gimmickry. But the win over the Vols should nonetheless give Phillips the morale boost he needs to keep the team pushing forward.
2. Is there any hope at quarterback? Numbers don't really do justice to the kind of despair generated by the Wildcats' quarterback situation in 2011, but the team's collective 96.20 QB rating -- 118th out of 120 FBS teams -- comes fairly close. The most painful part of that statistic for Wildcat fans is that it's not easy to see it getting dramatically better in 2012, not when presumptive starter Morgan Newton will miss spring camp with a shoulder injury and true sophomore Maxwell Smith is, well, still a true sophomore (who threw for 5.4 yards an attempt and just four touchdowns in 153 attempts as a freshman). Short of a quantum leap forward for Smith, the 'Cats' best hope for a quarterbacking breakthrough may be Eastern Kentucky transfer Jacob Russell, a sophomore who impressed in practice during his transfer year. Of course, if Russell can't at least put some heat on Smith during the spring, it seems unlikely he'll be the answer this fall, either.
3. Can Donte Rumph and Mister Cobble hold down the defensive fort? More bad news for the 2012 'Cats: maintaining that 72nd-to-53rd 2010-to-2011 improvement in scoring defense was never going to be easy (the 'Cats actually got worse in yards-per-play ranking in coordinator Rick Minter's first year), and it's going to be even tougher with the defense's only two All-SEC players -- linebacker Danny Trevathan and corner Winston Guy -- having graduated. The hope for the 'Cats lies in their defensive line, where defensive end Collins Ukwu is the team's leading returning pass rusher and tackler-for-loss and the Wildcat tackle tandem might rank among the best in the league. Both juniors with a full year of starting under the belt, both tilting the scales at over 300 pounds, both with high ceilings, Rumph and Cobble could create the kind of interior push that would make up for the loss of even a wihrling dervish like Trevathan. If the evidence from spring is anything less than that, though, the 'Cat D will be in trouble.
To check in on the rest of the SEC and other BCS conferences, check out the Spring Practice Schedule.
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