Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Despite the four game losing streak by the Kentucky Wildcats football team, you can not argue with the fact that progress has been made. However, the frustration of losing is a slow burn and some of that surfaced during Mark Stoops’ press conference on Monday when he seemed to throw JD Harmon under the bus. Now, normally Stoops has been great at not doing this, but you don’t really know what kind of relationship Stoops has with Harmon and if these comments were a kind of “final straw”.
"“It’s been the offense playing well, then the defense playing well, trading off,” Stoops said Monday at his weekly news conference. “We have not put it all together.” The Kentucky special teams and its coach, newcomer Craig Naivar, have become lightning rods for fan criticism during the losing skid. The Wildcats have allowed four kick-return touchdowns in the past four games — two on punts, two on kickoffs (one of them coming on an onside kick vs. Mississippi State). In his UK tenure, Stoops had adroitly walked the line of being honest about the state of the program without throwing individual players under the bus. On Monday, uncharacteristically, the coach gave a withering public assessment of sophomore J.D. Harmon’s play on special teams. He essentially said the ex-Paducah Tilghman standout — who came to UK as a walk-on under Joker Phillips before Stoops put him on scholarship — was hurting the team by going rogue. “The thing that I was talking about the past couple of weeks, you’ve heard me talk about having the toughness and attitude to do what you’re asked to do,” Stoops said. “I’ve got a certain player out there that did not do that. That’s a choice. That’s aggravating.” Stoops noted that the player in question was one “I have rewarded with scholarships and done some things and put it out there to help him and he’s making a decision not to help us by doing his own thing.” Asked if he were referring to Harmon, Stoops said “Yes.”"
Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Even with the recent losing streak, the Kentucky Wildcats are still doing pretty well on the recruiting trail. We all know how UK has had historically good classes the last few seasons and the future is bright for when these players start to mature and are juniors and seniors. However, you don’t have to have a top five recruiting class to compete for a national title. Just look at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs 2011 class had just one four star player and that class was ranked from #35 to #45 nationally.
"Quarterback Dak Prescott is among the top candidates for the Heisman with 2,231 yards passing and 18 touchdowns and another 729 yards and 11 scores on the ground. Running back Josh Robinson is second in the SEC in rushing with 984 yards and 11 touchdowns on 140 carries. Linebacker Benardrick McKinney leads the Bulldogs’ defense with 55 tackles, while end Preston Smith is the team leader in sacks (7) and tackles for loss (11.5). All four were part of the Class of 2011. Also from that class has come three players who have started in the secondary this season, safeties Taveze Calhoun and Kendrick Market and cornerback Justin Cox; starting offensive guard Justin Malone; starting defensive tackle P.J. Jones; and a junior-college transfer who is now a starter in the NFL, Detroit Lions cornerbackDarius Slay. “I heard somebody in the media told me, we got bashed, we had a terrible recruiting class that year, we kind of lost in recruiting that year,” Mullen recalled last week. “Three years down the road, it would look like we possibly won in recruiting that year."