Jen Smith on UK football

There will be a lengthy notebook in Sunday’s paper but if you can’t wait that long, here are a few bits from Saturday’s scrimmage at Commonwealth Stadium. It was the final scrimmage of the spring before Kentucky’s annual Blue-White Game next Saturday. Media are not allowed to watch the scrimmages, so any stats provided below come from the UK media relations staff.

Coach Joker Phillips seemed pleased with the direction his team is headed on both sides of the ball when he met with reporters after the scrimmage.

“I told the team, one side might think they won, the other might think they won,” Phillips said. “From where I stand, I felt Kentucky won today.”

Some scrimmage highlights included an offense that had no turnovers, but still Phillips liked what the defense was able to do, too. He specifically mentioned Bud Dupree, Farrington Huguenin, who had a couple sacks, and Martavius Neloms’ leadership.

The coach cautioned against any of the players getting too cocky, though.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” Phillips said. “I don’t want anyone to think we have arrived, because we still have a lot of work to do, but I’m pleased with how this went.”

UK has been stressing a need to find playmakers this spring on each side of the ball. Several made big-time plays on Saturday, at least statistically. Quarterback Maxwell Smith completed 25 of his 38 pass attempts for 227 yards and four touchdowns. Two TD passes went to senior LaRod King and two more went to DeMarco Robinson. King finished the day with seven catches for 76 yards.

UK’s second string offense had three touchdown drives of 50, 70 and 30 yards, led by running back Jonathan George, who scored two touchdowns, including one for 70 yards. He finished with 10 carries for 134 yards. Second-string QB Jacob Russell passed for 166 yards and a touchdown (a short pass to fullback D.J. Warren, which he turned into a 30-yard score). Tight end Anthony Kendrick had five catches for 72 yards for the second team.

• Other notes in Sunday’s notebook will include status updates on the deep running back group, Josh Clemons’ knee, coaches’ takes on the departure of several players and more.

Kentucky’s game versus Louisville has been picked up by ESPN and will be played on Sept. 2 at 3:30 p.m. at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

This is the seventh time the series will be played on a Sunday, with the last one coming in 2008.

The times for UK’s home games versus Kent State and Western Kentucky will be announced later this summer.

Southeastern Conference games, starting with a Sept. 22 game at Florida, will be determined 12 days prior to the game.

Three defenders have parted ways with Kentucky football.

Defensive end Justin Henderson, defensive tackle Nermin Delic and linebacker Tim Patterson are no longer with the team, UK spokesman Tony Neely confirmed on Monday.

Henderson and Patterson opted to leave the program and Delic was forced to leave after an unspecified violation of team rules.

Including these latest defections, UK has lost six players on the defensive side of the ball since the end of the 2011 season. The most high profile of those was linebacker Ridge Wilson, who was arrested on felony drug charges in late February and dismissed from the team.

Of the three latest departures, only Henderson saw action last season, playing in four games after taking a red shirt his freshman year. The 6-foot-3, 242-pound sophomore was listed on the spring depth chart as second string behind Alvin “Bud” Dupree.

Delic, who left UK last fall and had several surgeries (to repair a torn groin, remove a blood clot and to remove a rib), played in eight games as a freshman, where he showed promise, including a getting a quarterback sack and forcing fumble.

Patterson, a 6-4, 250-pounder from Central, was listed as a third-string weakside linebacker on the spring chart.

Patterson was considered one of the top prospects in Kentucky in 2010. He played in two state championship victories for the Jackets.

A couple of quick notes from Coach Joker Phillips‘ meeting with the media after Friday’s spring football practice …

This is roughly the halfway point of spring football and Phillips said on offense, he likes how UK is starting to throw the football.  “One of our goals offensively was to be more efficient throwing and catching the ball,” he said. “I feel good about where we’re at now.” Defensively, the Cats are trying to develop more depth with a full understanding of coordinator Rick Minter’s system. The first string players seem comfortable, but the backups are still learning, the coach said.

Other notes:

• Top tailback CoShik Williams had a red jersey on Friday after banging up his shoulder in a previous practice. He may not be available for the Cats’ scrimmage at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday. But Phillips said it would mean more repetitions for players like Raymond Sanders and Jonathan George.
• The goal of the scrimmage on Saturday will be similar to the goal this spring, which is finding some playmakers on all sides of the field.
• UK seems to think it’s found a true playmaker on special teams in 5-10 sophomore wide receiver Demarco Robinson. “We’ll start working him more and more as the No. 1 and start giving our No. 2 guy less reps because we need to make sure he’s our one,” Phillips said. “He has the ability and we have to start feeding him confidence and him understanding our blocking schemes. We really do think he has the ability.”
• Alvin Dupree has become a true leader on the team despite being just a freshman, Phillips said, including tutoring teammates in HIS 109, apparently. He’s holding two tutoring sessions this weekend. He’s leading on the field, too. “He looks like a senior and he’s 18 or 19 years old and he’s one of the leaders on this football team,” Phillips said. “He’s running around, screaming and hollering and I like that. He’s getting everybody pumped up.”

Top of the morning to you. Coach Joker Phillips tweeted that the first letter to roll in for UK today was from four-star prospect Patrick Towles of Highlands. Here are bios of Towles and the others, per UK athletics:

As was widely reported but unconfirmed late last week, Kentucky made it official and hired former UK player and assistant coach Mike Cassity to replace Steve Brown as defensive backs coach on Tuesday afternoon.

Cassity, who has held the same position at Marshall since 2009, has coached under UK defensive coordinator Rick Minter on two previous occasions. Cassity also has coached with five of the Kentucky coaches during his career, which has spanned 37 seasons and includes 22 seasons as a defensive coordinator at the Division I level. He served as a defensive coordinator at Louisville from 2004-07.

“We are happy to have Mike back with the Big Blue Nation,” UK Coach Joker Phillips said in a UK release.  “Mike’s skills in coaching and recruiting made him a very attractive candidate.  He has the ability to teach fundamentals well and have his players play at a high level.  He is an outstanding recruiter, especially in Ohio and Florida.”

Previously, the Fort Campbell native was a part-time assistant coach at UK in 1979 and he was a full-time assistant coaching the defensive backs from 1980-81. Phillips was a freshman at UK in 1981 when Cassity was an assistant.

“Even as a freshman, it was apparent that he is a tremendous competitor and how very personable he is,” Cassity said of Phillips via the same release.  “Those traits have continued throughout his career.”

Next season’s revised Southeastern Conference football schedule looks to have set up favorably for Kentucky.
The schedule, which was put out by the SEC on Wednesday morning, stayed with the eight-game format when moving Missouri and Texas A&M into the mix.
With the new additions, there had to be some reshuffling and for UK that means a trip to Missouri (Oct. 27) with no return trip from Louisiana State as previously scheduled and it also means a second straight season where Mississippi State will have to play in Lexington (Oct. 6).
The SEC release indicates that the 2012 schedule may — with six games in division and two out of division — may not be the permanent fix moving forward.
“The SEC athletics directors will convene in Spring 2012 to begin formulating scheduling principles for the 2013 season and beyond,” the release said.
This season’s schedule has Missouri playing in the East Division and Texas A&M playing in the West.
The 2012 SEC title game will be played on Dec. 1 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Here is the revised SEC schedule for Kentucky: Sept. 22 at Florida; Sept. 29 South Carolina in Lexington; Oct. 6 Mississippi State in Lexington; Oct. 13 at Arkansas; Oct. 20 Georgia in Lexington; Oct. 27 at Missouri; Nov. 3 Vanderbilt at Lexington and Nov. 24 at Tennessee.

Senior punter Ryan Tydlacka was named the Special Teams Player of the Week by the Southeastern Conference for his performance in Kentucky’s win over Tennessee on Saturday.

The senior from Louisville punted nine times for 43.6 yards (including one punt for 60 yards). Tennessee did not start a drive outside its own 30-yard line during the game. His efforts included a 60-yard punt.

For the season, Tydlacka punted 79 times for 43.6 yards and 19 punts inside opponent’s 20-yard line. Tydlacka ranks second in the SEC and 17th in the nation in punting, while Kentucky ranks second in the conference and 13th in the nation in net punting.

One quarterback, Morgan Newton, is feeling better and the other quarterback, Maxwell Smith, is still trying to get there.
Smith didn’t have any reps at practice on Tuesday because of the shoulder sprain he suffered against Georgia, but he’s working hard to get back in time for Saturday, Coach Joker Phillips said after practice on Tuesday at the Nutter Fieldhouse.
“I was here until 10 and (Smith) was still here last night getting rehab, strength training and all of those things,” Phillips said. “He’s a guy that really wants to play, that’s half the battle. When a guy really wants to play, he’s going to work to play and Max is working.”
Trainers are telling the coach that Smith might be able to practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
Newton, who has a hurt shoulder and ankle, got “light reps at the quarterback position,” Phillips said.

• Safety Martavius Neloms (ankle) did not practice on Tuesday and is doubtful, as is linebacker Ridge Wilson, who is still not back from dealing with family illness. Defensive tackle Christian Coleman (elbow) did not practice either.
• Defensive tackle Donte Rumph (ankle) is better this week than last. “He’s still a little hobbled, but he looked better today than he did all of last week,” Phillips said.

With three of Kentucky’s major programs playing on Saturday (including two at the same time), the radio is going to be a little bit crazy on Saturday. According to my pal Neil Price, the women’s basketball radio man, the football game called live by Tom Leach will be on 630 WLAP-AM. The competing men’s basketball game versus Penn State will be called live on WBUL-FM 98.1 by Price, who also will call the other men’s game at Connecticut. The women’s basketball game at 3 p.m. will be on 1580 WXRA-AM and be called by Keith Elkins.