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Big Plays Were Missing From 1985 Wildcats
'We Just Didn't Make The Key Plays This Year," Says Claiborne
One or two key plays each game can change a season for any college football team.
Last year it seemed like all the key plays went Kentucky's way. When the Cats .needed a big play, someone always produced. That's why the team finished a surprising 9-3.
This season, though, the opposite was true. The opposition, not Kentucky, made most of the key plays.
"We just didn't make the key plays this year," says UK Coach Jerry Claiborne. "When we needed a sack, a fumble or a big pass we just couldn't get it.
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Larry Vaught
Cats' Pause Columnist
"That's the difference in our season. And if knew the answer to why it happened, we would have made the big plays. But sometimes good things happen and sometimes they don't. When we needed the ball to bounce our way this year it didn't."
Not much good happened to this year's 5-6 team. And even now no ones seem to be able to pinpoint the exact reason a season with so much promise ended in disaster with a 42-0 loss to Tennessee.
"I tried to figure out all year what was wrong," says offensive guard Jim Reichwein. "We were one step or one play away from being another great team. We had the personnel to finish with a much better record.
"It's nobody's fault. Things that you can't explain just happened to us all year."
Defensive end Brian Williams, another senior who will always remember the disappointing 1985 campaign, felt the team just never came together the way last year's team did.
"We expected so much this year but it all just ended up falling apart," says Williams. "The team just didn't jell. We never developed a big-play personality. Maybe we lacked leadership on the field."
Claiborne, though, sensed that his Wildcats had turned into Fat Cats when the players reported for practice in August. Instead of gaining strength during the off-season, the team actually lost strength.
"I talked about that at the first of the year and it came back to haunt us," says the UK coach.
Maybe the players grew complacent after two straight winning years and back-to-back trips to the Hall of Fame Bowl.
"Perhaps everybody wasn't fired up entering the season," says Williams. "In the past we used our previous season to motivate us but maybe too many people got satisfied with what we had accomplished. This season should be a lesson to the young kids. You can't get complacent. You have to work as hard after a 9-3 season as you do after an 0-11 year. We didn't do that, though, and it cost us."
Claiborne has upgraded the overall program since taking over after the 1981 campaign. But Kentucky still does not have enough pure talent to line up and beat other Southeastern Conference rivals unless it plays with emotion.
Too often this year the team didn't play with enough emotion. That's why it could lose to Bowling Green and Vanderbilt and why it struggled to beat East Tennessee:
And the lack of emotion could have kept UK from making the big plays it needed to win more games.
"Change three plays and I'm convinced we would be 8-3," says assistant coach Jake Hallum. "If we knock down a pass in the end zone we beat Bowling Green. If we kick the first field goal at LSU we win. If our guys pick off the pass in the end zone we beat Florida."
Still, Claiborne knows this season was a step back for his team.
"This was definitely a step back because we lost," says Claiborne. "If we had salvaged a winning season I would have felt we were still making progress."
But this year's losing campaign makes 1986 critical for Claiborne and should determine just where the football program at UK now stands.
Those inside the program, though, are not ready to panic. They still believe in Claiborne.
"This program is going to do nothing but get better," says Reichwein. "I'm just sorry we let the coach and fans down this year. But UK will be back."
Hallum says, "The program is still on good footing here. We have some fine freshmen that probably could have helped us the last few games but we couldn't sacrifice a year of eligibility for one or two games. If we can just add another good recruiting class we will be okay.
"It's up to us to sell our product. We compete in the best league in the country and we need to bring the very best players possible here. That's the theme we have to sell."
And when the coaches are selling UK to potential recruits, maybe they can mention the way sophomore running back Mark Higgs feels about the team.
"We aren't losers here," says Higgs. "We just had a losing season but we are winners here no matter what anyone says."
But to post another winning season UK needs bigger, stronger recruits and more off-season work from the returning players.
"I hope the ones returning realize that if you slide back on your work you quit making progress," says Claiborne. "This should be a good lesson for us and, hopefully, something we can build on in the future."
Hallum
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Higgs
UK WILL have four more basketball scholarships available in April when players who did not sign during November can ink college scholarships.
And Sutton insists there are many talented players left unsigned.
"I think if you look at the top 150 prospects not as high of percentage signed early this year as they did last year," said Sutton. "We encouraged the young men who visited our campus to make the early decision so they could enjoy their senior year. But some just have not found the right institution to further their education and basketball career."
Sutton, though, considered the early signing period a success despite the loss of 6-11 Terry Mills to Michigan.
"We got the player we felt we needed so badly at Kentucky in Rex Chapman," said Sutton. "I never want to put pressre on a player but he has the potential, if he stays healthy and keeps the attitude he has, to be one of the all-time greats at UK."
The UK coach would like to sign at least two or three more quality players in April to go along with Chapman and 6-7 Reggie Hanson of Pulaski County, who also signed early.
"We are trying to find guys that are hard to guard," said Sutton. "There are not many outstanding centers coming out of high school but we need some big players. We need two or three more quality players."
But Sutton won't sign any guards in the spring. That's quite a vote of confidence for current Wildcats Ed Davender, James Blackmon and Paul Andrews.
"It makes James, Ed and I feel real good that Coach Sutton has shown that much confidence in us," says Andrews. "When a coach shows that type confidence in you it helps you produce better.
"And we are all looking forward to playing with Rex Chapman. All of us wanted him to come here and be a part of the team."
Davender Andrews
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