NCAA Football: Florida Cheating To Get Punt Blocks?

by Glenn Logan on Sep 21, 2011 11:42 AM EDT in Kentucky Wildcats Football

Andy Hutchins over at Alligator Army makes a pretty compelling case that they have, at least on a couple. On thing is for sure, Florida has managed a really large number of punt blocks over the last few years. Here's Andy:

Florida's proficiency at blocking punts since Urban Meyer came to Gainesville has been something for Gators fans to celebrate. Since 2007, the Gators have blocked 20 kicks and punts, and Chris Rainey's five blocked punts in that period are a Florida and SEC career record. But Kentucky coach Joker Phillips raised questions of foul play in talking to the Lexington Herald-Leader's John Clay on Tuesday:

Here is the Phillips quote: "Speed. Speed, you know, at which they come off. And their speed are big guys. Their linebackers and defensive ends are on their punt team. We’ve got receivers and DBs on our punt team to try and get that speed on the field. They’ve got big guys pulling this guy that way, and this guy thata way and a little fast guy with world-class speed comes up the middle to block it. And you can’t get off the block. We’ve got to punch them in the mouth when they try to grab you and get their hands off of you and come off and block the little guy that tries to split the gap."

So what this is saying is that the defensive linemen are pulling the blockers aside to create a gap for the punt blocker to get through.

Nice work by John Clay to expose this bit of football malpractice, which I'm sure has been brought to the attention of the league and the officials by now. But not all Florida's blocks were illegal, so Kentucky must be at their best on special teams this weekend to prevent getting killed there.

Louisville blocked on on us last week, and although I haven't reviewed the video, I'm pretty sure it was just the poor blocking on punts that UK has become kind of infamous for lately. That needs to change.

Hey, Greg Nord! How 'bout addressing this problem, eh? Little help?

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There will be ample opportunities for officials to flag this Saturday....

Dayman, Fighter of the Nightman, Champion of the Sun

@btcoop71

by btcoop71 on Sep 21, 2011 11:56 AM EDT reply actions

Unfortunately, probably true.

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by Glenn Logan on Sep 21, 2011 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Kentucky needs to practice the quick kick for 3rd down.

Don't take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.

by hoboat33 on Sep 21, 2011 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm still laughting at this one - but you have a valid point - surprise them

A man is nothing more than a summation of his scars!

by KansasUKCat on Sep 21, 2011 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Let's be real here

Although they are more than likely doing this on purpose is it really cheating? To me cheating would be things like using a spotter to steal play calls and stuff. What they are doing is similar to Pitino’s style of foul the living hell out of them and the refs can’t call them all. They are simply getting hedging their bets that the refs won’t call all of these.

Is it extremely dirty? Yes. But I wouldn’t call it cheating.

by Clint Phelps on Sep 21, 2011 1:01 PM EDT reply actions

Unless they are holding to do it, it just sounds like smart coaching to me

I am now and shall forever be the Cat in The Hat, The Artist Formerly Known As ABC!!!

by Greg Alan Edwards on Sep 21, 2011 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed

The point is really not that they are holding (which, in my opinion, occurs almost every play). The point is that they rush the punter with blazers like Rainey and Demps, both of whom can get to the punter faster than most anybody else in the SEC. Not only is that good coaching, it’s good recruiting as well. To combat this strategy, UK needs to tell its backfield blockers to find Rainey/Demps before the ball is snapped, and to block them as they are charging into the backfield (to the exclusion, if necessary, of other slower punt rushers.)

Seems simple enough, right? I guess we wil see soon enough.

by tooblue on Sep 21, 2011 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Dirty = Cheating

in my book.

I woke up feeling BLUE this morning. It's gonna be a great day.

by kywineman on Sep 21, 2011 8:22 PM EDT up reply actions

This matters little to UK...

Even without blocking Tydlacka’s punts, UF should still pretty much manhandle UK. UK is outmatched in all areas. UF’s DBs are ballhawks who will be familiar with Newton’s (current) mistake-prone game.

There are several frames of analysis to utilize in looking at this game, but I’ll compare this year’s squad to last. This year’s offense is awful. Last year’s was above average. Let’s just say the defenses are about the same. Thus – and we can all agree – this year’s team is worse than last. UK lost 48-14 and was essentially out of the game within the first 8 minutes. The only thing keeping this from ending up a 40 point massacre is a present and enthusiastic crowd at Commonwealth…which might be unlikely considering the most recent loss and the general ineptitude of the offense.

I love Joker, and he deserves more time (Towles and some other athletes approaching “elite” are on their way in over the coming years), but the first 3 games have been surprisingly disappointing. He might have shot himself in the foot with all the offseason hype, especially the “Morgan is a different player than he was in the bowl game.” Yes, he’s worse. His play in the U of L game was encouraging, but he looked bad the previous 2 games (“cupcakes,” says Lou Holtz!).

by mrmondaynite on Sep 21, 2011 2:18 PM EDT reply actions

ugly may be too nice a word for what we are about to witness

I am now and shall forever be the Cat in The Hat, The Artist Formerly Known As ABC!!!

by Greg Alan Edwards on Sep 21, 2011 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions

Evidently UK admistration is ok with this kind of coming humiliation - they have had 50 years to correct the problem

As long as the bucks keep rolling in and most of the fans still attend the games they are content.

A man is nothing more than a summation of his scars!

by KansasUKCat on Sep 21, 2011 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Unfortunately, I think this is true.

I just don’t see Kentucky hanging with Florida this weekend. The game opened up in Las Vegas with Florida being an 11 pt favorite and now I think they are favored by 17+ points.

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by SaturdayDownSouth on Sep 22, 2011 9:15 AM EDT up reply actions