Kentucky Wildcat football – Filling the Holes: The Backs

We’ve had time now. Time to accept that we weren’t going to have Randall Cobb, time to accept that while this season was head-achingly bad, it’s not indicative of the direction of the program. The tears have dried on our #18 teddy bear and the Hartline dartboard (you can throw anything you want at it! If it tries to throw anything back it will fall two yards short) has been retired while still intact. The season is over, the team is now metamorphosing into what it will become next year; let’s just hope the defense plays harder than a butterfly. But who will fill the shoes of our Cobbs (nobody), Hartlines (anybody), and Lockes (somebody?)? Over the next week or so (depending on how long I want to draw this out) I will look at the individual units on the field and check out the underclassmen and recruits coming in, and give you a forecast of who I think next years’ studs will be. We’ll start with the most exciting players on the field, and the area where we need young guys to grow up the most.

QB: Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. For the last year and a half he was the guy, then wasn’t, then was the guy, maybe, then he wasn’t. The brief starting experience he got last year showed he wasn’t quite ready to take the reins yet, but showed that he could make plays however he needed to. But that didn’t mean he was ready to turn into Vince Young, and the game plan based around Morgan turning into Cam didn’t help at all. So why not give Mossakowski a chance? For two years we’ve heard how this pro-style pocket passer has a stronger and better arm than Newton but was sitting in redshirt purgatory and then was quietly buried somewhere between QB2 and QB2-A. With only one obstacle in his way now and the supposedly “wide open” QB battle going into next year I’d like to see him perform and get more than hand-off duty at the end of the game. Tyler Brause and Ryan Phillipi are underclassmen learning the playbook right now and QB’s Maxell Smith and Theltus Cobbins are coming in next year, although Cobbins projects to play WR at the next level.

RB:With Locke out and Donald “Imma take my ball and go home” Russell leaving, the duties of RB fall to Raymod Sanders and Jonathan George and as much time as I’d like to give them to become the next Cadillac Williams, their time has become now and somebody is going to have to step up and become the playmaker out of the backfield. Fortunately RB is the one place we have plenty of depth, but not much experience. Brandon Gainer has a year of practice under his belt, and CoShik Williams will be the elder leader of the bunch, although starting may not be in his regular schedule. The fullback position will be solid next year as upperclassmen Greg Meisner and Brian Murphy are entering their senior year and freshman Lewis Tatum has a little while longer to build under Rock Oliver. The recruiting got a nice little bump with the commitment of Marcus Caffey and Josh Clemons, both three-stars and both welcome additions to the UK stable.

Wednesday I’ll be looking at the area hardest hit by the man-god shortage on the team, and who will be attempting to conquer the tests of god-ship.

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