John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats are the iPhone of basketball recruiting

Saturday will mark the beginning of the Patrick Towles era at Kentucky and from all indications, he is pretty darn excited about it.  Expect Towles and fellow frosh Jalen Whitlow to share duties:

"“Time to go, we are going to throw them out there and see what they can do,” Phillips said. “Jalen will run out there first but it is really not a starter. It’s Whitlow or Towles. Jalen will run out there first but it is not really that he is starting. I guess you guys would deem it as a starter, but it is more a slash.” Phillips said coming off the field Thursday after practice he asked Towles if he was ready for Saturday. Phillips said the native of Ft. Thomas, Ky., told him he wanted the game to be in two hours. “You like that,” Phillips said. “I don’t want them to try to hide behind anything because you are going to be nervous, I don’t care how you spin it. You are going to be nervous the first time you run out on the field. But, he (Towles) is a confident guy and has a lot of confidence in his ability. We are going to throw him out there and see what happens.”"

Sept 29, 2012; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Jalen Whitlow (13) runs the ball against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Commonwealth Stadium. Credit: Mark Zerof-US PRESSWIRE

This weekend marks a historical weekend of sorts for Kentucky football with the third different starting QB in three weeks.  Evan Crane from the UK Media Relations Department has the historical context as well as a look at how Randy Sanders has juggled QB’s over the past few years:

"Three Different QB Starters for First Time Since 1979: Assuming Jalen Whitlow or Patrick Towles takes the first offensive snap of Saturday’s game, this appears to be the first time since 1979 that Kentucky has started three different quarterbacks in three consecutive games, following Morgan Newton at Florida and Maxwell Smith vs. South Carolina. Note that official start charts are available only since 1993, but this conclusion was made based on game statistics and play-by-plays.  In ’79, Mike Shutt, Randy Jenkins and Juan Portela appeared to be the starting QBs in consecutive games against Indiana, Maryland and West Virginia, respectively. Sanders Has Juggled Quarterbacks Since 2008: Coach Joker Phillips was asked today about the ability of offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Randy Sanders to deal with changes in quarterback situations, which Sanders has had to do during the last five seasons.  Sanders came to UK in 2006, during the midst of Andre’ Woodson starting every game at QB from 2005-07 but since then, UK has had at least two starting quarterbacks each season.  Here’s a list: 2008 – Mike Hartline started first eight games, Randall Cobb next four, then Hartline in UK’s win in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl 2009 – Hartline started first five games, Morgan Newton the final eight (note that Will Fidler also saw signification action, as did Cobb as a “WildCobb” formation QB) 2010 – Hartline first 11 games, Newton the last game (note that Cobb continued to see significant appearances as the WildCobb QB) 2011 – Newton started first eight games, Maxwell Smith the next three, then Matt Roark in the win over Tennessee 2012 – Smith started three games, Newton one, Smith again for one, this week Jalen Whitlow/Patrick Towles"

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