Unsung Hero: Mississippi State Edition

I’m well aware, as I admitted on one of our very own A Sea of Blue podcasts, that I see all of our UK sports through rose-colored glasses.

I think we should be able to win every game we play, so obviously, last night’s loss was tough to swallow. It wasn’t close like the losses to Auburn or Florida. It was a blowout, and that hurt. Like with most situations, despite the outcome, I found some bright spots.

Garrett Johnson had another big game with five catches for 74 yards, and something a lot of UK fans have been waiting for, freshman tight end CJ Conrad had six catches for 56 yards. Boom had a strong showing, as is usual when he’s in the game, rushing for a team-high 95 yards.

The brightest point, for me anyway, was Chris Westry intercepting a second-quarter Dak Prescott pass, ending his streak of attempted passes without an interception at 288.

It's also an SEC record held by Kentucky's own Andre Woodson, who went 325 passes without an INT during his final year in Lexington.

That's is why I'm naming Chris Westry the A Sea of Blue Unsung Hero for this week. The fan in me is really happy that Westry is just a freshman because he’s going to be SO good here.

Now for my side note: As I often do, after watching the game I listened to the postgame call-in show. It’s one thing to see people’s reactions on Twitter about Patrick Towles' play in the game, and Barker getting some playing time and everything else that had happened, but listening to last night’s show was when I hit my boiling point.

A gentleman called in and said, more or less, that Towles was not the quarterback for the future at UK. I couldn’t even listen to the rest of his comment, because I had to hang up. I was done. I just cannot understand how some fans are so quick to give up on him, or even suggest (no offense) that we replace him with Drew Barker. (This isn’t me hating on him, I’ll be a Barker fan when it’s his time.).

Just stop it!

So far this season, Towles is 146-of-242 passing for 1,730 yards with eight TD’s and nine INT’s while rushing for four more scores. Is he a perfect quarterback? No. Has he thrown some interceptions? Sure, but you know what, I’ve seen plenty of great players have bad stretches and do the same thing, so that doesn’t make Patrick a terrible player.

Myself, I’m a big fan of Towles, but as someone who (obviously) doesn’t understand all the schematics and ins and outs of football, I do believe that Mark Stoops does, and he knows what he’s doing, so I trust him. If Stoops says Patrick is the best quarterback on our team and that this is Pat’s team (as we’ve heard him say), I’ll believe him. And anyway, last time I checked, the next 5 games are in the future, therefore, as far as I’m concerned, Patrick Towles is the quarterback for the future at UK If you’re really ALL IN, support our kids, support our team, and just stop all the hating.

Go Cats!