* Joker says RB CoShik Williams is banged up a bit and has been in the red, "no-contact" jersey the last two days of practice. He should be able to go this weekend, but Raymond Sanders and Dyshawn Mobley could factor bigger into the rotation. No changes to Josh Clemons' status. He's still day-to-day recovering from that knee scope. He won't play Saturday, but could be getting closer to action.

* Team is dealing with a bit of a stomach bug this week. Joker didn't seem to be in top form, either.

* Joker announced they've instituted a 24-hour no-Twitter rule prior to games and after games. This is something that is becoming a much bigger headache for college coaches, as we saw with the Michigan State controversy earlier this week with tweets calling out Michigan QB Denard Robinson.

* Joker said you're going to see more freshmen in the rotation on defense, especially at LB with Pancho Thomas and Khalid Henderson and in the secondary with Fred Tiller and J.D. Harmon. He said he learned last week that they can give up 460 yards with veterans, why not give young guys a try? They can't be much worse than that. He sounded very down on the LB play. Joker said they'll also simplify some things on D to help accommodate the younger guys.

* Joker talked about the alignment issues again. Said there were many occasions when Louisville would move guys around at the line of scrimmage, and the defensive guys just didn't see and make the adjustment calls. Other times, they overreacted and did something that made matters worse. "Everything that could and would happen did," Minter said. He and the other defensive staff members all said film review confirmed it wasn't so much physical issues, mainly alignment/mental/execution mistakes.

* Minter: "It wasn't very good. A lot of it is structural issues at the moment. Out of place, wrong time, wrong place. That's why we practice. We've got to fix some things."

* Minter mentioned one of their "cardinal rules," then realized the pun and said "Maybe we shouldn't call it that."

* "We have to lick our wounds and march on," Minter said. "... We have to be better, all around, coaches and players... We can't let Louisville beat us twice, wallow around for two or three days and then all of the sudden lose the next game because you're still looking back."

* Max Smith said he loves the new hurry-up, no-huddle offense, and is excited to get back on the field Saturday and see what else they can do. He said he saw room for improvement in his play, even though most have praised it for being outstanding. Obviously, they want to convert more of those drives into points.

Love Smith. It will be interesting to see if the offense improves week to week. The big question in the SEC is whether the big time defenses will line up on the line and dare UK to throw down field. Can Max make teams pay? UL played with a cushion in sort of a bend, but not break manner. I think the UL defensive coaches were caught off guard a bit.

But, without a doubt, UL's OC duped Minter and made this defense look not only young, but bad.

Looking forward to see what Mobley can do. Typically, the anticipated new talent in the backfield gets a chance in this sort of game. Last year's offense was so pathetic, the game was never out of reach. Let's hope we see Mobley early.

CatFansince73 wrote: He said he learned last week that they can give up 460 yards with veterans, why not give young guys a try? They can't be much worse than that.


Similarly, if the upperclass running backs are just going to fumble the football anyway, why not go ahead and play Mobley?  

I think that will be the case if it becomes a trend. But those guys played pretty well with the exception of the fumbles. (Granted, extremely costly.) The defensive guys didn't do anything well.

Extremely costly. UK is credited with two fumbles and two fumbles lost, but Aaron Boyd is another person who better keep his mitts on the ball. He lost one out of bounds after a catch and put another on the ground just after a tackle. He is going to get some playing time. SEC DBs and Safeties will take the ball from you if you do not have strong hands. Catch and do not lose.

I can understand the defensive coaching staff and team being fooled by the shifts and trick formations that UofL was running for a few plays or even a few series but come on UK is supposed to have a big time college coaching staff and big time college players.    They should have been able to make adjustments not let Uof get away with it the entire game.

* "We have to lick our wounds and march on," Minter said. "... We have to be better, all around, coaches and players... We can't let Louisville beat us twice, wallow around for two or three days and then all of the sudden lose the next game because you're still looking back."

THIS STATEMENT SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE FAN BASE AS WELL!!

Go Big Blue!!!!!

C1180 wrote: I can understand the defensive coaching staff and team being fooled by the shifts and trick formations that UofL was running for a few plays or even a few series but come on UK is supposed to have a big time college coaching staff and big time college players.    They should have been able to make adjustments not let Uof get away with it the entire game.

^This.  We "'sposed to be SEC."

C1180 wrote: I can understand the defensive coaching staff and team being fooled by the shifts and trick formations that UofL was running for a few plays or even a few series but come on UK is supposed to have a big time college coaching staff and big time college players.    They should have been able to make adjustments not let Uof get away with it the entire game.

I agree C1180,  there is nothing to be said about the defense's play,  it was awful,  and we did not adjust to anything that I saw.

JDrum wrote: 

* Team is dealing with a bit of a stomach bug this week. Joker didn't seem to be in top form, either.

Must've been watching game film from Sunday......

LiferCatFan wrote:

JDrum wrote: 

* Team is dealing with a bit of a stomach bug this week. Joker didn't seem to be in top form, either.

Must've been watching game film from Sunday......

I think the only upbeat person on this team is Maxwell Smith and should be. Heck he knew he played good.  

But speaking about that Defense....did anyone else get the feeling they were watching a Steve Brown Defense against Louisville???? I mean we were so horrid it was like watching a Steve Brown defense being coached out there.  Thought I was having a flashback to a previous year if they weren't calling out current players it was so ugly on defense

Steve Brown, no not really. More like a Mike Majors defense.

Max seems to be loving this and really seems motivated to get better. I think his combination of drive, skill and smarts is really going to keep other QBs on the bench.

Badinage wrote: Max seems to be loving this and really seems motivated to get better. I think his combination of drive, skill and smarts is really going to keep other QBs on the bench.

If Maxwell Smith keeps playing like he did in the Louisville game, I will be very disappointed if they pull the RS on Towles and put him in on useless snaps and waste a year of eligibility. But I'm sure Joker will come up with some type of excuse for it.

C1180 wrote: I can understand the defensive coaching staff and team being fooled by the shifts and trick formations that UofL was running for a few plays or even a few series but come on UK is supposed to have a big time college coaching staff and big time college players.    They should have been able to make adjustments not let Uof get away with it the entire game.

In fairness, they did not. There were second-half adjustments, and that's when UK has traditionally made them under both Brooks and Joker. The thing that's tough to gauge is would those adjustments been effective if Bridgewater was still in the game? Strong taking him out made it tough to tell if the Cats were actually doing some things better. But most of the egregious screw-ups were before halftime.

nashorn88 wrote:

LiferCatFan wrote:

JDrum wrote: 

* Team is dealing with a bit of a stomach bug this week. Joker didn't seem to be in top form, either.

Must've been watching game film from Sunday......

I think the only upbeat person on this team is Maxwell Smith and should be. Heck he knew he played good.  

But speaking about that Defense....did anyone else get the feeling they were watching a Steve Brown Defense against Louisville???? I mean we were so horrid it was like watching a Steve Brown defense being coached out there.  Thought I was having a flashback to a previous year if they weren't calling out current players it was so ugly on defense

Maybe one of these days we'll figure out it's not so much about who the coach is. 

nashorn88 wrote:

LiferCatFan wrote:

JDrum wrote: 

* Team is dealing with a bit of a stomach bug this week. Joker didn't seem to be in top form, either.

Must've been watching game film from Sunday......

I think the only upbeat person on this team is Maxwell Smith and should be. Heck he knew he played good.  

But speaking about that Defense....did anyone else get the feeling they were watching a Steve Brown Defense against Louisville???? I mean we were so horrid it was like watching a Steve Brown defense being coached out there.  Thought I was having a flashback to a previous year if they weren't calling out current players it was so ugly on defense

This defense wishes it were a "Steve Brown defense".