LITTLE ROCK — The 13th in a series previewing SEC football teams.
Two months of Kentucky football awaits before the Wildcats’ defending national champion men’s basketball team opens its season.
Football Coach Joker Phillips would like to create a more pleasant fall for Kentucky football fans before the champs return.
“We want to hitch our wagon to our basketball program,” said Phillips, who will enter the season with an 11-14 record and a sense of unease after Kentucky’s five-year bowl streak ended with a 5-7 record last year.
Phillips took a lighthearted approach to a question at SEC media days in Birmingham, Ala., about being on the “hot seat” this season.
“I’m not sitting down right now, so there’s nothing hot,” he said. “I don’t have time to listen to that stuff. All we have time to think about is doing all the productive things in our program that we need to get it back to the level that we want to.”
Phillips exuded optimism about the 2012 season during his appearance at SEC media days, but the Wildcats, who suffered significant losses in personnel on the offensive line, at linebacker and in the secondary, were picked to finish last in the SEC Eastern Division.
While Kentucky would seem to have holes to plug in many areas, its play at quarterback has to get better.
Morgan Newton, who went down with shoulder and ankle injuries midway through last year, and Maxwell Smith combined to complete just 51 percent of their passes and combined for 12 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Kentucky ranked No. 118 out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams last year in total offense (259.8 yards per game), No. 114 in passing (135.6) and No. 117 in scoring with just 15.8 points per game.
The Wildcats were outscored 137-20 in their first three SEC games and didn’t score at least 10 points in league play until a 28-16 home loss to Mississippi State on Oct. 29.
However, they rallied to go 2-2 in the final four conference games, including a 10-7 victory over Tennessee that broke a 26-game losing streak to the Volunteers.
“What makes us excited is how we finished last season,” Phillips said. “Of those last four games ... there were a lot of true freshmen, true sophomores, that were thrust into playing time, playing significant roles [and] you saw a lot of those guys making plays for us.”
Newton and Smith are expected to battle through camp for the starting quarterback job, while true freshman Patrick Towles, who had a 38-1 record as a starter at Highlands High School in Ft. Thomas, Ky., could challenge.
CoShik Williams looks to be the top tailback. The Wildcats didn’t find a marquee receiver a year ago to replace Randall Cobb, but sophomore Demarco Robinson and freshman Daryl Collins have the best shot this year.
Center Matt Smith, who teams with guard Larry Warford to give Kentucky a force on its interior line, spoke about the team’s last-place selection in the East at SEC media days.
“Every year we get picked near the bottom of the SEC,” Smith said. “We know that a lot of people don’t give us a whole lot of respect at the beginning of the season because normally we have a lot of young guys that we’re going to be counting on.”
The Wildcats didn’t catch any scheduling breaks with the 2012 football schedule.
Kentucky will play 10 consecutive games before taking an open date, prior to a nonconference game against Samford.
NEXT Mississippi
About the Wildcats LAST YEAR 5-7, 2-6 (fifth) in SEC East RETURNING STARTERS Offense 5, defense 9, specialists 0 SURE THING Interior offensive line UNSURE THINGS Defensive line, linebackers OFFENSIVE MVP G Larry Warford DEFENSIVE MVP CB Martavius Neloms SEC TITLE SCENARIO It’s hard to picture any scenario in which the Wildcats, because of a lack of experience in so many areas, will be able to get past even half of the Eastern Division. However, if a productive quarterback emerges, the run game comes around and the defense plays better than expected, Kentucky could pull some upsets.
Sports, Pages 13 on 07/30/2012