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The Kentucky Wildcats gave the Georgia Bulldogs quite a game yesterday, and gave the homecoming fans something to cheer for. That's nice, for a change, even if the result was still the same.
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Holy 1986, Batman!
Your Quickies:
John Clay: Another loss, but UK football makes progress // Kentucky.com
After the debacle against Arkansas, quitting might have been easy to do. Throw up your hands. Toss in the towel. Look forward to next season and whatever changes that might bring.
"I was never worried," said Phillips when asked if he feared his team might fold its emotional tent for the remainder of the campaign. "I want to make sure that everyone understands we have not quit."
This team is too young to quit. Many of these guys are getting minutes they probably never expected to get this year.
Georgia Bulldogs 29, Kentucky Wildcats 24: When Winning Is Worrisome // Dawg Sports
Though all is not entirely hopeless---South Carolina also fiddled around with Kentucky, one week before annihilating Georgia, after all---such inexplicable lapses, both by the players and by the coaches, suggest strongly that, in 2012, as in 2008 and in 2011, the Bulldogs are apt to finish with ten wins without really defeating anyone particularly noteworthy.
What would Kentucky fans give for a 10-win season, even if we failed to "defeat anyone particularly noteworthy?"
A nervous night in Kentucky: UGA wins but doesn’t impress // Mark Bradley
Give Georgia this much: It won on the road in the SEC. But what does it say when you’re seven games into a season and your best showing is against Vanderbilt? When you allow an opponent that lost 49-7 last week at Arkansas — and that in a game that was called with five minutes left in the third quarter due to lightning — to enter this fourth quarter with a real chance to win? When a team with so much potential invariably leaves us wanting more?
I don't think there is any doubt Georgia underperformed last night. What is left unsaid by Georgia fans, perhaps not surprisingly, is that Kentucky played well. It's easy just to accept that your team was lackluster, but let's give credit where it's due.
Full transcript of Joker Phillips post-game // John Clay's Sidelines
Q. What do you think of Jonathan George?COACH PHILLIPS: Jonathan has done a good job all season. He was a guy who at the beginning of the season was our third back. Because of some injuries, because of some other circumstances, became the starter. That’s why I’m so proud of him. A guy that waits his turn, gets an opportunity, and now he’s been starting really since the Kent State game. He’s been starting since then.
That’s why I’m proud of him. He’s done a good job of taking care of the football in the pass protection area. When we’ve called on him to catch the ball, he’s done a good job in that area also. He’s a guy that plays behind his pads when he runs the ball.
I have been impressed with George all year, but never so much as yesterday. He has been a rare participant up until this year, and to have to play on such and unfortunate team, and yet play so well, is inspiring to me.
Kentucky football's Jonathan George had career night in run against Georgia // The Courier-Journal
Saturday night’s homecoming game drew a crowd of 54,553 — a season high for UK’s five home games, exceeding the 53,980 who watched the Western Kentucky game on Sept. 15.
For once, at least, the crowd got its money's worth.
Cats establish run game in 29-24 loss to No. 11 Georgia // The Kentucky Kernel
This schedule has been beyond brutal. It's particularly tough to face two teams in a row coming off bye weeks when you haven't had one all year. But that's life in the SEC.
Cats gain ground control, but Murray, Georgia too much for UK // Cat Scratches
If the cliche that winning and losing always comes down to running the ball and stopping the run were always true, the Cats would have blown out the Bulldogs. UK held a Georgia team that was averaging 226.5 rushing yards a game and had two backs averaging more than seven yards a carry to just 77 yards on 32 attempts, or 2.4 yards per carry.
Impressive. Unfortunately, the Wildcats allowed over 400 yards through the air.
No. 1 Alabama 44, Tennessee 13 // NBC Sports
Given the Vols' performance against 'Bama and ours against Georgia, there is reason to hope we could end the season with a 2-game winning streak against Tennessee. That would no doubt be the final nail in Derek Dooley's coffin.
Bummer. They wound up getting a taste of what they gave Kentucky.
Recapping SEC week 8 in 60 seconds // Saturday Down South
Just in case you didn't get to see them all.
helmet stickers 102112 // ESPN
He didn't so I will. Helmet sticker to Jonathan George, who had a career game against the Dawgs.
Geoff Calkins: Tennessee remains leagues behind Alabama // The Commercial Appeal
Tennessee opened the night by toasting Fulmer, Peyton Manning and the '97 team that won the SEC championship. The idea was to inspire the Vols to rise up and defeat their longtime foe.
Instead, it was just sad. Sad to be reminded how far this program has fallen. Sad to see the stark difference between then and now.
Is Tennessee on the verge of becoming a basketball school? No, of course not, but it must suck to be a Tennessee fan right now. Yes, they were saying the same thing about us and basketball five years ago.
Spammers Using Shortened .gov URLs // Slashdot
Be warned, cyber-scamming is not going away.
Florida 44, South Carolina 11: Winning the hard way, the easy way // Sunday Morning Quarterback
1. Watching this game, I was struck by how much the 2012 Gators reminded me of the 2011 LSU outfit that ran the table through the SEC Championship Game, in that it's able to generate a ton of points – or at least opportunities for points – without doing very much on offense. Or, in this case, without doing much of anything on offense at all.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Florida is turning into the new LSU. Weirdly enough, Will Muschamp is morphing into the new Les Miles.
After struggling against Alabama, Tennessee's Tyler Bray skips post-game interviews // GoVolsXtra
In the Vols' four losses, Bray has thrown eight interceptions and completed only 72-of-140 passes (51 percent). In the three wins, his completion percentage is 77 percent (59-of-77)with eight touchdowns and only one interception.
Is it really possible that the Volunteers actually are going to quit?
"Coach Broyles told me, 'The salaries are going to keep elevating, but bottom line, I pay you to win,' " Nutt recalled this week. "He said, 'I love what you do for the community. I love what you do for our athletes to help them graduate and make sure they're going to school. But the main thing I'm paying you for is to win.'
Hate to say it, but this is exactly the conversation that Mitch Barnhart should be having with Joker Phillips.
Snyder runs his program based on 16 goals, fairly simple concepts such as "Responsibility," "Expect to Win," "Eliminate Mistakes" and so on. Another is "No Self-Limitations," a creed that tends to build up players into more than others once expected from them.
This is what a seasoned, expert coach of many years can do with a team that has less talent than many of their opponents. I wonder if Mitch Barnhart is looking at Kansas St.'s program -- because he should be.
Via Sam Henson: