Brooks stands firmly behind Hartline

Posted at 4:54 p.m. EDT – Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Mike Hartline didn’t need to review the film after Saturday’s game to tell you how he performed. Not even 30 minutes after leaving the field at Commonwealth Stadium, Hartline delivered an honest, upfront evaluation of his play.

“I didn’t think that I played very well, plain and simple,” said Hartline, who finished the game 17-of-31 for 168 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. “I thought we ran the ball very effectively today. We had some stupid penalties here and there, but I’ve got to stop throwing interceptions and complete more passes, plain and simple.”

Head coach Rich Brooks offered the “plain and simple” evaluation, telling reporters Saturday and Monday that Hartline has to play better football.

“His accuracy was not good last game,” Brooks said. “His progression and the reads were not as good as they’ve been in the previous games, and he knows it. “He needs to throw the ball better and make some plays, and he can’t make the bad plays like he did.”

However, despite the critical mistakes in Saturday’s loss to No. 3 Alabama, Brooks stood firmly behind his quarterback after the game by calling Hartline the team’s best option to win. He echoed that statement at Monday’s weekly news conference, going as far as to say that there has been no discussion about replacing Hartline at any point in the last couple of games.

Asked if he was saying that highly touted freshman quarterback Morgan Newton would not play this year, Brooks all but said yes.

“I would not rule it out at this point, but it is unlikely unless something drastic happens,” Brooks said.

Technically speaking, Newton would have to leapfrog current backup Will Fidler on the depth chart to even sniff the field. However, the potential and promise that he and fellow freshman quarterback Ryan Mossakowski possess has had a number of fans itching in their seats to give the heralded quarterbacks a try.

Brooks said it isn’t quite that easy. When you throw an unproven and inexperienced player into the fire, sometimes they literally burn.

“I know what a difficult thing it is to throw a true freshman quarterback into a league like the SEC unless you have six or seven All-Americans around him on your offensive unit,” Brooks said. “It becomes very hard to ask a freshman quarterback to come in and make the decisions, make the checks, and make them as quickly as he has to make them in this league and be successful.”

Brooks made comparisons to the first years of the former UK great Tim Couch and former Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington in the NFL as prime examples as to how difficult it can be for a player if they’re thrown into a situation unprepared.

Even André Woodson, the gunslinger largely responsible for UK’s recent turnaround, battled through serious ups and downs in his first year as a starter.

“I think if you look at the progression of André Woodson, he was very average and he almost had his confidence broken in his sophomore year,” Brooks said. “Now Hartline is going through a tough stretch. If you throw a freshman in there, in a lot of ways, as the old saying goes, it doesn’t know whether it’s pumped or stuffed at this point. It’s a real tough deal, especially in this defense-oriented league.”

One of Brooks’ biggest concerns is throwing the freshman studs into a situation that even the nation’s best quarterbacks would struggle in. Fresh off games against No. 1 Florida and No. 3 Alabama, the highest ranked back-to-back opponents UK has played in school history, the Cats must now venture on the road against two more top-25 teams in South Carolina and Auburn.

If you make a change at quarterback now during this brutal stretch and one or the other doesn’t succeed, will it do any long-term damage? Brooks said he must caution from damaging their psyche.

“It can play with your mind because you just don’t understand the difference in speed from high school to college, and then from college to the NFL,” Brooks said. “It is a different game, speed wise. And that decision-making process has to be made very quickly, or you are going to get the ball stripped. In high school, these guys are so much better athletes than the guys they play against. Now, they have defensive linemen that can run them down. In high school, there were only defensive backs that could run them down.”

Brooks said earlier in the year that he was as encouraged about the future of the quarterback situation as he’s ever been since arriving at Kentucky. Although Newton and Mossakowski struggled in the early part of summer camp and haven’t played a down this season, that notion has never wavered.

“Just because we aren’t throwing the young guys to the wolves does not mean that they are not really good players – because they are,” Brooks said. “We just need to make sure that they are getting every opportunity to be successful when they go in there. And if it happens they have to go in maybe before that time, then so be it. But at this point, it doesn’t make a lot of since to do that.”

And quite frankly, too much of the criticism has been piled on Hartline. Although the junior quarterback has made some critical mistakes against some unforgiving defenses, UK just got through playing the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the nation.

The statistics would indicate their defenses aren’t too bad.

“We just played the top two defenses almost in the nation that a lot of people have struggled to throw the ball against,” Brooks said after Saturday’s game. “Arkansas struggled to throw the ball on (Alabama), and Arkansas has been throwing has been throwing the ball on everybody.”

Hartline has to cut out the mistakes, Brook said, but he remains UK’s guy.

 

Volleyball moves into top 10

Posted at 3:05 p.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Following one of the biggest wins in school history at Florida on Friday, the UK volleyball team continued its ascent in the polls, moving up to No. 10 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 Poll.

It's the Cats' (15-1, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) highest ranking since being tabbed the No. 10 team in the nation in week seven of the 1993 season. UK's highest ranking was No. 5 in 1983.

After taking down the vaunted Gators in Gainesville, Fla., UK went on to sweep its weekend play at South Carolina.

Despite owning a better overall record than Florida and being the only team in the league without a conference loss, Florida remained ahead of Kentucky at No. 6.

 

Weekly Monday injury report

Cornerback Trevard Lindley is "very doubtful" for Saturday's game at South Carolina, head coach Rich Brooks said.

Posted at 2:10 p.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

The early returns for preseason All-American cornerback Trevard Lindley aren't good.

Rich Brooks said Lindley appears to be "very doubtful" for Saturday's game at South Carolina. Brooks said that it appears he's suffering from a high ankle sprain because his ankle is not responding to treatment.

"He's been consistent performer for us for a long time," Brooks said at his weekly news conference. "If he is unable to play, we'll definitely miss him, particularly in a game where people like to throw the ball."

Brooks said cornerback Paul Warford, who missed Saturday's game with a quad injury, will try to practice Tuesday, although he's not too optimistic about that.

Without Lindley and Warford, Brooks said they'd rely on sophomores Randall Burden and Anthony Mosley, redshirt freshman Cartier Rice, and freshman Martavius Neloms. Burden, Rice and Neloms all saw significant action in Saturday's Alabama game.

Outside of Lindely and Warford, UK seems to be plagued by heavy dose of thumb and wrist injuries, Brooks said. Tailback Alfonso Smith, tight end Ross, offensive lineman Stuart Hines, linebacker Danny Trevathan and offensive lineman Jake Lanefski all are battling thumb injuries and are wearing casts.

Brooks sounded particularly concerned that Smith, the opening-day starter at running back, will have to wear a cast.

"It's not ever good to have a cast on a hand of a ball carrier," Brooks said. "Whether he'll have play with a cast or a splint, it's still problematic. It's his dominant hand. Unfortunately he was carrying the ball in that hand, which I consider the wrong hand when you're running to your left. ... It will limit his ability to be a ball carrier and a receiver."

Junior Moncell Allen and freshmen CoShik Willians and Donald Russell will likely see more playing time as Smith is limited.

 

UK-Auburn tabbed for 7:30 start

Posted at 1:25 p.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

The Kentucky-Auburn football game on Oct. 17 has been picked up by ESPNU for a live telecast. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

UK's game this week against South Carolina has been tabbed for a 12:30 p.m. EDT start on FS South.

 

Simply the best

Kentucky basketball has been ranked the No. 1 men's basketball program of all-time.

Posted at 1:10 p.m. EDT - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Kentucky basketball is a notch above the rest, according to Jeff Sagarin of the well-known Sagarin Ratings.

The editors of ESPN have put together an exhaustive, 1,000-plus page book called the "ESPN Basketball Encyclopedia," subtitled "The Complete History of the Men's Game." In the comprehensive all-you-need-to-know basketball book, ESPN empowered noted computer guru Jeff Sagarin to compute a statistical analysis of the all-time greatest basketball teams.

It turns out the numbers don't lie. Kentucky is the No. 1 men's basketball program of all-time.

OK, OK, so they're just numbers and ranking the all-time programs should be viewed with a skeptical eye (really, how can we really determine the best basketball program of all-time?). Nonetheless, the lofty distinction will likely qualify Big Blue Nation's notion that Kentucky is the most storied program in college basketball history.

Sagarin looked strictly at wins and losses, scoring margin and a rating that is the combination of the two. The longtime computer guru looked at the last 72 years of the sport, ranking UK two percentage points ahead of UCLA.

"To be a part of this program, with this storied history, it humbles you," head coach John Calipari said in an ESPN story by Andy Katz. "Once I traveled the state, I understood the importance to all of Kentucky."

Kansas checked in at No. 3, North Carolina at No. 4 and Indiana rounded out the top five.

Kentucky is the all-time winningest program in NCAA Division I history. The Cats sit just 12 wins short of becoming the first school to 2,000 wins.

 

Home, sweet home

Senior Tim Muessig has been one of UK's best defenders since transferring from Western Kentucky.

Posted at 10:36 a.m. EDT - Caitlin Sanner, UK Media Relations

Not everyone gets a second chance, but Tim Muessig, a senior defender on the Kentucky soccer team, got just that - a second chance.

A Lexington product who attended Dunbar High School, Muessig elected to attend Western Kentucky out of high school in an effort to move away from Lexington and experience life as a student-athlete in a new college town.

It didn't take him very long to make an impact on the Hilltopper soccer team, ascending to team captain as a sophomore in 2007.

In fact, during the 2007 campaign, Muessig's Western Kentucky squad welcomed a young UK team for the biggest game of WKU's season, played in Bowling Green in front of a capacity crowd. Western jumped out to an early 1-0 lead at halftime, but current UK seniors Tim Crone and Chad Hagerty took control of the game in the second half, netting goals in a 2-1 UK comeback win.

"That entire week I was looking forward to that game because I had some people coming from Lexington to watch," Muessig said. "When we scored first, I just grabbed everyone around me and hugged them because I was so excited. To play in that game was just a lot of fun and even though we lost it was a good experience."

What happened next was a crippling blow to Muessig's college soccer career at Western Kentucky, as the program was cut due to lack of funding. 

"I was extremely upset," Muessig said. "It was a down point in my life because I loved that school and the guys on the team. I understand for the most part why they did it, but on the other hand it was a blow and a shock to us all."

Shortly after, Muessig found out that Kentucky - in need of some veteran talent on the backline - was interested in his soccer ability. With the departure of defensive veterans Nathan Li and Andrew Alexander after the 2006 and 2007 seasons, UK was in need and Muessig filled that void perfectly.

 "Tim is one of those natural fits," UK head coach Ian Collins said. "He filled the need that we had at the time, so it was a win-win situation for everybody and it has really worked out well. We needed a little bit more size and a little bit more of athleticism and he is pretty versatile. He just is a contagious personality with a lot of enthusiasm and all those things are great to have around a team."

While the shock and disappointment of the folding of the Western Kentucky program set in, Muessig saw an opportunity to play at his hometown school and compete in one of the better conferences in college soccer.

"After it happened, coach (David) Holmes at Western said that they were going to help us out as much as they could," Muessig said. "The next day, I had a meeting with the coaching staff and they said UK had some interest. And immediately I said that would be great not too far away from home, at home, but it would be a good transition. I was extremely excited. It was a no brainer when Kentucky was the first one to call."

While the transition to Kentucky was a "natural fit," it did come as somewhat of a surprise.

"A year after the UK-WKU game, I turned around and started playing with those guys, after facing them in Bowling Green," Muessig said. "Shaking hands with Barry (Rice) as captains in 2007 and then getting to play with him the next year was pretty fun."

It didn't take Muessig very long to make an impact at Kentucky, starting all 29 games since transferring from WKU. In 2008, his first season at UK, Muessig was not subbed from the game until the Conference USA Tournament, leaving the game for a brief time due to blood on his jersey.

Now a fixture on the backline, Muessig has formed a dynamic tandem with veteran UK defenders Barry Rice and Brad Walker helping UK own a 0.89 goals-against average through 10 games in 2009.

"Tim is a great athlete, he is great in the air and is real quick," Collins said. "He's just a physical specimen, 6-foot-2 all those things come to my mind right away. He brings an attitude every day, which is unbelievable, he works as hard as he can every day and never quits, never says he can't do anything and that's a testament to him. He shows up and he's a 100-percent guy every day."

"He is relentless," Hagerty said. "He never gives up. He is always running, always working real hard, even if he makes a mistake he tries to recover and does everything he can to make it right."

Muessig quickly found a home on the UK soccer team and now living in his hometown, he noticed that his fan base had grown dramatically since he was at Western.

"It is definitely more nerve racking trying to perform in front of friends, family and coaches that come out to watch me, there's a lot more people to impress," Muessig said. "It's good to be able to go 10 minutes down the road for a home cooked meal , see the family and having a lot of people come out and watch you. Just having a lot of people around that I know and a lot of people around that I have gone to high school, it is a lot of fun."

It is not all fun and games, as Collins and the UK coaching staff continue to direct the 2009 UK team on a championship mission.

"He is a great coach, he knows more than any coach I've ever played for," Muessig said. "He expects the best from you. He teaches you everything you need to know about that game and he pushes you has hard as you can. He does it in interesting ways, definitely but he gets his point across and that's a very good asset to the team because he expects us to do our best and he doesn't settle for anything less."

Now a senior who rarely leaves the pitch, Muessig joins his eight senior teammates as leaders of the club and leaders with a united goal - bring home a championship.

"We are off to a good start," Muessig said. "While I was at Western, we won three or four games each season, so it is really a different mindset. This is really a great chance for the team and we have a lot we want to accomplish this season. This is my last year and with a lot of seniors on this team, we all want to leave our mark on the program. We don't want to settle for any losses and we want to keep building numbers on the left side of the win-loss column."