John Clay on the State of UK Football

09/21/2012 11:52 AM

by Will Mapes
• 1 Comments
• Filed under: On the Record

John Clay has been covering UK football for the Herald Leader since the late ’80s. And now that the Cats are about to begin SEC play, we wanted to get his thoughts on the future of Joker Phillips.

About Will Mapes

Will Mapes is producer of cn|2 Sports. He joined cn|2 in October 2010 as producer of KSTV. Will graduated cum laude from Syracuse University and has more than 13 years of producing experience in local television news. Will says he loves working with people who are passionate about sports.

Comments

Ronnie wrote on September 23, 2012 04:59 PM :

Hello John, I hope this note will serve as a feel good story for you. Hopefully, going forward there will be several positive reasons to touch base periodically. Saturday’s upcoming game against South Carolina will mark the last time former high school teammates Cartier Rice and Marcus Lattimore will meet on a collegiate field against one another. Cartier will officially graduate and move on to his next phase of life [optimistically, the NFL]. Marcus will obviously become a first round draft pick. The first meeting against these two, Cartier became a hero after deflecting the winning end zone touchdown pass away from the USC receiver to his UK teammate for an interception that sealed the win for UK. I am sure Steve Spurrier has every intention of erasing UK fans’ memory of that historic moment two seasons ago with a plan to annihilate UK on national television. Unfortunately for UK, last year’s meeting seemed to serve as a precursor to such a plan by humiliating, embarrassing and dominating UK in South Carolina.That victory goes to Marcus. The score between the two is now tied, 1-to-1.

UK, needs to start turning this season around somewhere so why not start here—again-with an upset. Sure, Marcus is expected to run through UK’s defense as if it’s made of balsa wood and Connor Shaw is expected to set TD records against UK, but, Cartier is due for a breakout performance as well. After a sensational high school career, after waiting 4 seasons behind other UK DBs to become a starter, why not make another mark and a statement against his home state and former Byrnes Rebels teammate! The spark has to begin with someone and now that Cartier is finally a starter, he has the opportunity to ignite it. On Saturday, September 29, 2012, let the magic begin!

I am sure you can weave this into a story of motivation and serve as a good read for fans. :)

Ronnie L. Rice 864.266.7439-cell 864.486.8785-Home