Jen Smith on UK football

As was widely reported but unconfirmed late last week, Kentucky made it official and hired former UK player and assistant coach Mike Cassity to replace Steve Brown as defensive backs coach on Tuesday afternoon.

Cassity, who has held the same position at Marshall since 2009, has coached under UK defensive coordinator Rick Minter on two previous occasions. Cassity also has coached with five of the Kentucky coaches during his career, which has spanned 37 seasons and includes 22 seasons as a defensive coordinator at the Division I level. He served as a defensive coordinator at Louisville from 2004-07.

“We are happy to have Mike back with the Big Blue Nation,” UK Coach Joker Phillips said in a UK release.  “Mike’s skills in coaching and recruiting made him a very attractive candidate.  He has the ability to teach fundamentals well and have his players play at a high level.  He is an outstanding recruiter, especially in Ohio and Florida.”

Previously, the Fort Campbell native was a part-time assistant coach at UK in 1979 and he was a full-time assistant coaching the defensive backs from 1980-81. Phillips was a freshman at UK in 1981 when Cassity was an assistant.

“Even as a freshman, it was apparent that he is a tremendous competitor and how very personable he is,” Cassity said of Phillips via the same release.  “Those traits have continued throughout his career.”

Next season’s revised Southeastern Conference football schedule looks to have set up favorably for Kentucky.
The schedule, which was put out by the SEC on Wednesday morning, stayed with the eight-game format when moving Missouri and Texas A&M into the mix.
With the new additions, there had to be some reshuffling and for UK that means a trip to Missouri (Oct. 27) with no return trip from Louisiana State as previously scheduled and it also means a second straight season where Mississippi State will have to play in Lexington (Oct. 6).
The SEC release indicates that the 2012 schedule may — with six games in division and two out of division — may not be the permanent fix moving forward.
“The SEC athletics directors will convene in Spring 2012 to begin formulating scheduling principles for the 2013 season and beyond,” the release said.
This season’s schedule has Missouri playing in the East Division and Texas A&M playing in the West.
The 2012 SEC title game will be played on Dec. 1 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Here is the revised SEC schedule for Kentucky: Sept. 22 at Florida; Sept. 29 South Carolina in Lexington; Oct. 6 Mississippi State in Lexington; Oct. 13 at Arkansas; Oct. 20 Georgia in Lexington; Oct. 27 at Missouri; Nov. 3 Vanderbilt at Lexington and Nov. 24 at Tennessee.

Senior punter Ryan Tydlacka was named the Special Teams Player of the Week by the Southeastern Conference for his performance in Kentucky’s win over Tennessee on Saturday.

The senior from Louisville punted nine times for 43.6 yards (including one punt for 60 yards). Tennessee did not start a drive outside its own 30-yard line during the game. His efforts included a 60-yard punt.

For the season, Tydlacka punted 79 times for 43.6 yards and 19 punts inside opponent’s 20-yard line. Tydlacka ranks second in the SEC and 17th in the nation in punting, while Kentucky ranks second in the conference and 13th in the nation in net punting.

One quarterback, Morgan Newton, is feeling better and the other quarterback, Maxwell Smith, is still trying to get there.
Smith didn’t have any reps at practice on Tuesday because of the shoulder sprain he suffered against Georgia, but he’s working hard to get back in time for Saturday, Coach Joker Phillips said after practice on Tuesday at the Nutter Fieldhouse.
“I was here until 10 and (Smith) was still here last night getting rehab, strength training and all of those things,” Phillips said. “He’s a guy that really wants to play, that’s half the battle. When a guy really wants to play, he’s going to work to play and Max is working.”
Trainers are telling the coach that Smith might be able to practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
Newton, who has a hurt shoulder and ankle, got “light reps at the quarterback position,” Phillips said.

• Safety Martavius Neloms (ankle) did not practice on Tuesday and is doubtful, as is linebacker Ridge Wilson, who is still not back from dealing with family illness. Defensive tackle Christian Coleman (elbow) did not practice either.
• Defensive tackle Donte Rumph (ankle) is better this week than last. “He’s still a little hobbled, but he looked better today than he did all of last week,” Phillips said.

With three of Kentucky’s major programs playing on Saturday (including two at the same time), the radio is going to be a little bit crazy on Saturday. According to my pal Neil Price, the women’s basketball radio man, the football game called live by Tom Leach will be on 630 WLAP-AM. The competing men’s basketball game versus Penn State will be called live on WBUL-FM 98.1 by Price, who also will call the other men’s game at Connecticut. The women’s basketball game at 3 p.m. will be on 1580 WXRA-AM and be called by Keith Elkins.

Several small “scuffles” broke out during practice this morning in the Nutter Fieldhouse. Coach Joker Phillips joked that it was his team’s way of entertaining the media before the daily press junket.

“We staged some entertainment for you guys,” he said. It was an “energetic practice, some guys were flying around, playing with emotions and those things happen.”

The coach also said they were a good sign, showed team still has plenty of fight left in it.

He said the scuffles end when practice does. “You’ll see those guys hugging and kissing when they leave here. I probably shouldn’t have said that … It’s like brothers. They get into scuffles. It’s over when the scuffle’s over.”

• On the injury front, the big news is that Martavius Neloms (ankle) and Ridge Wilson (shoulder) are both now listed as “doubtful” for Georgia. Winston Guy is expected to practice full strength on Thursday. Ronnie Sneed and Cartier Rice are both feeling better and practiced on Wednesday.
• Phillips said QB Morgan Newton is healing steadily and is still available in an emergency to sub in for Max Smith. As Phillips said on Tuesday, Bookie Cobbins will keep his red shirt on the rest of the season regardless of what happens. The coach did indicate that the team has a “Wildcat” package featuring Matt Roark that could be used in case of emergency.
• The UK coach also said that mistakes being made by UK 10 games in are all of the mental variety and that the 30-point loss versus Vanderbilt was hard on everyone. “It was embarrassing last week — there’s no question about that — the way we performed,” he said. “We want to get that corrected.”

After reading my story this week about UK senior linebacker Danny Trevathan being left off the finalist list for the Butkus Award, the nation’s top linebacker honor, reader Bill Gardner contacted Ron Arp, an award committee spokesman, to voice his displeasure. Gardner got a quick response from Arp and shared it with me. It will run as a part of my game notes package tomorrow, but thought it might be fun Friday food for thought today.

The response from Arp is as follows:
“As promised, I spoke with the selection committee coordinator, and he said the committee studied Trevathan closely because he indeed has good stats. They noted some softness in his inside coverage, pulling guard reads, etc. He was right on the edge of making the semi-finalist list with a few other players, but the selection committee was comfortable drawing the line with the 12 named. I figure this doesn’t make you feel any better about it, but he was indeed studied carefully relative to the 12 semi-finalists.”

Junior quarterback Morgan Newton was back home in Indianapolis on Thursday getting a second opinion on his high ankle sprain and strained right shoulder, Kentucky Coach Joker Phillips said after practice.
The coach said the quarterback, who started UK’s first eight games before getting injured versus Mississippi State, will be back on Thursday evening and in time to make the trip to Vanderbilt, for which he is still listed as questionable.
“He and his parents, his family decided to get a second opinion on both his ankle and his shoulder,” Phillips explained. “They’re not the first family to do that. They went about it the right way and communicated with everybody and we gave him permission to go.”
Phillips said Newton’s parents were concerned that Newton’s injury is not healing as quickly as they thought it should.

• Ridge Wilson’s shoulder has not shown marked improvement and that the linebacker likely will not make the trip to Vandy. “It doesn’t look very good, we’re just hoping to get him back for the rest of the season after this,” Phillips said, adding that freshman Alvin “Bud” Dupree will take Wilson’s place and that UK likely will change some defensive formations to make up the difference.
• Running back Raymond Sanders practiced lightly on Thursday, but will see game action against Vanderbilt, Phillips said. “We tried to rest him as much as we possibly can,” Phillips said of Sanders. “All the backs are banged up. We want to make sure he gets into the game.”
• Phillips was asked to give his opinions on the firing of legendary Penn State Coach Joe Paterno late Wednesday night by the school following an alleged sex scandal coverup with a former assistant coach. “You try to go past Coach Paterno and your thoughts are with the victims who were involved,” Phillips said. “Past that, I don’t know enough to be here speculating about what should or shouldn’t have happened.”

Coach Joker Phillips’ list of injured players has gotten shorter this week with running back Raymond Sanders (ankle), wide receiver Matt Roark (foot sprain), defensive tackles Donte Rumph (ankle) and Mister Cobble (ankle) all practicing on Wednesday.

• Phillips said getting Rumph and Cobble back on defense is important, saying those two “have really changed the way people try to attack us now. You can’t attack us up the middle. Those guys are big blocks that hold the point of attack.”
• The coach didn’t address Morgan Newton‘s high ankle sprain on Wednesday, but I asked UK and it was clarified that Newton is listed as “questionable” for Saturday.
• When asked about Vanderbilt’s push to get fans in the stands this weekend, Phillips said he hopes to see plenty of blue there, too. “There’s still a lot out there for us to play for, hopefully (our fans) show up,” he said.
• With rain looming and windy conditions, UK practiced indoors on Wednesday. Phillips said he tries to bring the team into the Nutter Center as often as he can because “it just sounds like football … It helps our guys and the way they practice.” He specifically wanted to pipe in noise to prepare quarterback Max Smith for his first road game as a starter.

True freshman Max Smith will be Kentucky’s starting quarterback against Ole Miss on Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium, Coach Joker Phillips announced after Thursday’s practice. There turned out to not be much of a quarterback competition this week since starter Morgan Newton has been “very limited” by a high ankle sprain. The sprain is so severe that he would not be able to play at all if the game were held today, the coach said.

In the loss to Mississippi State last week, Smith, a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder from Granada Hills, Calif., completed 26 of his 33 pass attempts for 174 yards in relief of Newton. The 29 pass completions were a season high for the Cats.

If something were to happen to Smith and Newton is still a no-go on Saturday, Phillips said third-string quarterback Bookie Cobbins is willing to burn his red shirt and play. If it was an “emergency situation,” Newton could go in to hand off the ball, the coach said.