Okay, either Joker Phillips is playing a little cat and mouse game with us, or it is extremely unlikely that he'll take the redshirt off Bookie Cobbins at South Carolina on Saturday. When Phillips was asked about playing Cobbins, he said it would be "tough" and that the possibility would be re-evaluated in a couple of weeks.
In other news, the Oklahoma City Thunder is in town, including Kevin Durant and Nazr Mohammed, and they were out near the practice field when the team was coming off, reportedly having some interactions with the Wildcats football players. It can never be a bad thing for your school's teams to rub elbows with guys like that.
As most of you know by now, the Head Ball Coach has decided to bench his senior quarterback, Stephen Garcia, in favor of sophomore Connor Shaw. Shaw started the season off as the quarterback for the Gamecocks due to some off-the-field issues that Garcia had become mixed up in, but didn't really impress. Garcia hasn't been much better.
So far this season, Garcia has only completed 52% of his passes, 4 for touchdowns and 9 completions to the other team, also known as "interceptions." Those stats are almost Newtonian in their futility, and it's not hard to figure why Spurrier feels like he needs a change. Plus, with a running back like Marcus Lattimore in the backfield, all Shaw should have to do is hand him the ball -- a lot.
Phillips said that the team practiced better today, but we've heard that before. In fact, we've heard a lot more good about this Kentucky team in practice than we've seen anywhere near the football stadium, so I'm taking that as coachspeak. I'll change my tune if UK shows some offensive competence against the Gamecocks on Saturday.
At the end of the day, improvement ought to be easy for Kentucky since the bar is set so low right now a midget with one broken leg could clear it. If UK manages 350 yards of total offense, it would be for the first time all year. I'm not even thinking about the defense as it is impossible to win a football game if you cannot score, and last week's 7-point output against LSU during garbage time doesn't give me any confidence they can do much better against the Gamecocks, based purely on past performance.
To be fair, this is a team that is due to break out and have a good offensive day. It would be nice to see.