True Blue Kentucky

There are several questions surrounding Kentucky's game versus Tennessee this Saturday.  Like, will this be Joker Phillips last game as head coach of Kentucky?  Will Maxwell Smith start after being injured Saturday at Georgia.  And most importantly, will this be the year that the streak finally ends.

The 2011 season has been a year of disappointment for Kentucky, but it has also been a year in which some streaks has ended. Kentucky has been on the wrong end of a couple of streaks this season.  First, UK ended its streak of consecutive wins against UL after losing to the Cards 24-17 earlier this season.  Then Georgia ended UK's hope of six straight bowl appearances after knocking off the Cats 19-10 in Athens.

Yet the streak that gets the most attention to the fans as well as the players is the 26-game losing streak to Tennessee.  It is very disheartening not being able to go to a bowl, but would a win against UT put a positive note on a rough season.  Players and coaches talked about the streak in Jennifer Smith's article for Kentuckysports.com. Here are some excerpts.

The last time Kentucky beat Tennessee was in 1984.

The Vols' 26 straight wins over the Cats is the longest active win streak between two major college teams in the country,

Phillips didn't want to discuss the decades of futility on Monday.

"I'm not going to talk about the streak," the UK coach said, almost as if discussing a living, breathing thing. "I'll talk about the goal of ours to win the last game."

Tennessee Coach Derek Dooley shook off talk of the streak, as well.

"Our focus this week is Kentucky," he said. "I know a lot of people are going to want to change the focus away from Kentucky to other things like streaks and bowls and all that."

Before the scoreboard lights were turned off on UK's 19-10 loss at Georgia, which ended the bowl streak Saturday, Raymond Sanders was discussing the UT dominance.

He knows a thing or two about football at Kentucky.  Tim Couch has seen his fair share of success on the field while wearing the Blue and White jersey. Couch compiled enough passing yards and touchdowns to be ranked third in UK history at the quarterback spot.  His talent earned him a number one pick in the NFL draft to the Cleveland Browns.

Now an analyst for Fox Sports South, Couch is back in Lexington to call UK's game against Mississippi State tomorrow.  Couch gave his thoughts on Kentucky's season so far in Mark Story's article for Kentuckysports.com. Here are some excerpts.

"It's going to be fun for me to be back in Commonwealth because I don't get a chance to see Kentucky play much during the season," Couch said Wednesday. "I'm always on the road doing other games. It will be fun just to be around and see familiar faces and just be in the stadium again. I'm really looking forward to it."

"The first thing that jumps out to me is the lack of playmakers," he said. "When I think of Kentucky in recent years, they've always had a really good group of wide receivers. I don't see that right now.

"Obviously, La'Rod King has put up some nice numbers. I don't see anyone else on the outside that is going to threaten a defense or anyone else who can go up and make a play the way La'Rod can. So if you can take away one guy, they don't have a lot of options."

Last Saturday, Couch had an off week and was able to attend the Kentucky-Jacksonville State game. It's hardly surprising that one of the best quarterbacks ever to play at UK spent a lot of his time watching the current Cats signal caller.

"The thing that jumped out at me, especially early in the game, was the body language of Morgan Newton," Couch said. "I just didn't think he was playing with a lot of confidence and, rightfully so, they haven't had a lot of success offensively. They have to find a way to get him going and, especially early in games, get him some confidence going."