#j. d. harmon

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Rick Minter transcript (Oct. 9)

Have you heard the UK football team's defense is young?

There are seven true freshmen in the defensive two-deep this week before the Cats travel to Arkansas.

Defensive coordinator Rick Minter met with the media Tuesday, and fielded plenty of questions about his team's youth and where they go from here.

You can see a full transcript of his comments below:

It has nothing to do with the offense. We stay on the field too long because of our inability to get ourselves off. Each game you get the same amount of drives as the opposing team gets -- 13,13; 12,12; 11,11 -- whatever it turns out to be. When you’re giving up 50 percent of your plays on third down, you just keep playing plays. So if you’re not getting takeaways, which you’re not getting yourself off. If you’re not getting yourself off on third down, you’re just continuing to play a lot of football. It’s just a game of math; I think arithmetic as Bill said. Add it up. If you’re not getting takeaways and you’re not stopping them on third down, then you’re just out there until they run out of time or space. It’s what’s happening, you know. It’s nothing to do with any other factor. I mean, we’ve got to get ourselves off. We don’t have any control of how or when we get on -- we always tell our guys that -- it’s only how we get off. And we’re not getting ourselves off. Four times the other day, third-and-8-plus, we let them off the hook. We should be off the field in those situations. If you are, then you’ll see that time of possession change. You’ll see that score go down; you’ll see that yardage go down. You’ll see our offense get more opportunities, perhaps. It all works together.

What's your health status right now? 

I feel fine. Unfortunately, they don’t need me on the field. We’re fighting through some things, you know. Next man up is our motto. We’ve got some DBs hurtin’ on the back end, so we’ve got some young guys trying to step up and assume their roles. So we’ve got guys who are day to day, but whether that day comes, who knows?

Did any of the day-to-day guys practice today?

No.

We've seen the Blaylock twins out there at the same time -- obviously you don't want to throw two true freshmen in…

Why not? (Laughs)

But is there some added connection between those guys, having played together for their entire lives?

I hope there’s some can carry over from their infancy years. Those are two great young kids. They’re really going to be great football players; we hope it’s by Saturday. They know how to play; they come from good stock. They’re heady guys; they’re good fundamental football players coming from a good high school football program that went to a state championship game last year. That’s the kind of kids we want to bring into this program and whether or not they’re playing before their time, it’s now their time. We just have to close ranks and march on with those that we have. If we’re young, we’re young. Everybody was young at one time and stars are born every day.

Joker said Zack Blaylock played about 23 plays and had four tackles Saturday. What did you see from him?

He was productive. We had contemplated on him to play or not to play. We had plenty of seniors back there. The depletion expedited the decision for us. He had his own little setbacks the last two to three weeks with some tweaks and some bangs and that slowed him down a little bit. But we just threw him out there when Tay (Neloms) went down and he just started playing. That’s what he’s capable of doing.

Does this get frustrating for you, what's going on?

It doesn’t matter how I feel. That’s just life, it really is. Whether it’s Murphy’s Law for this team right now, who knows? But things happen. Things don’t always go the way we want them to, and what are we going to do? Wallow in self pity or make lemonade out of the lemons being dealt to us? We just kind of suck it up, tighten up our boot straps and make sure our guys can execute the things we call on Saturday, go out there and go against a great quarterback and a good football team, a team that’s finally perhaps found itself offensively last week. We’ll have a major challenge ahead of us, but we’ll feel good about the guys we take to Fayetteville.

When you lose a guy like Martavius Neloms, who's experienced not only physically but can make calls and things like that...

You lose a lot. You don’t replace those guys, not with a true freshman. So you’ve got to be careful with what you do, how much you can do. The guys who aren’t out there are security blankets for us as coaches, guys who have been around the program for a couple of years under our direction. So you’re going to miss those guys. It’s like we said earlier in the season when Danny (Trevathan) and Winston (Guy) left, you dropped all the way down. Now you’re losing some of those starters form a year ago and in comes infants. So you’ve got to be careful to not do more than they can do. So there’s two prongs: one, we’ve got to do what we can do and we have to be good enough at what we’re doing to beat a good football team.”

So much has gone wrong for you guys on that side this season, is there anything you feel really good about right now?

I’m about to go eat lunch. (Laughter) Nah. The kids are really great and they’re trying extremely hard. They’re giving us all they’ve got. Our guys up front, I think are playing solid football. Our linebackers are getting better each and every week. Our young corners that have begun to play, it’s been a great opportunity for them. They’re stepping up. Knock on wood: We have not been hurt very often at the cornerback position, which was our biggest fear in August once we lost some kids, who’s going to step up? Well, opportunity came and they stepped up. Cody Quinn seized that moment. (J. D.) Harmon and (Fred) Tiller are seizing those moments. Cartier (Rice) is playing like a senior and the linebackers are beginning to settle in a little bit better. So now we’ve got some growing pains at the safety position.”

What are the biggest challenges Arkansas presents?

You name it; they can do it.  Tyler Wilson’s a great quarterback. They’ve got good, ample receivers. They’ve got No. 11 and No. 17. They’ve got a tight end, who very well could be back this week, they’ve been missing a lot. They’ve got a good runner, solid big old guys up front, left over from Mike Summers a couple of years ago that are coached very well. They’ve got an aggressive play caller in Paul (Petrino), and I don’t think he likes Kentucky. That won’t help us any. We’re going to have to defeat all forces. We feel good about what we’re doing right now and who we’re doing it with. The most important thing is our kids are trying their tails off, couldn’t be more proud of how they’re playing effort wise.

Avery Williamson is leading the conference in tackles. Is this the kind of season you were expecting him to have?

Absolutely.

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Joker Phillips previews Kent State

On Thursday, UK football head coach Joker Phillips met with the media for the final time before the Wildcats' game against Kent State. He broke a little news with announcements that CoShik Williams and Josh Forrest will miss the game with injuries and continued his week-long message that fans can expect to see more playing time for freshmen this week.

You can see a full transcript of his comments below:

What's cooking?

What's cooking? Another heated day, which is good. We had a lot of team, a lot of special teams also. Trying to get these young guys honed in on their assignments. Again, let them play. That's what we'll do.

What is CoShik Williams' status for Saturday?

He will not play. It doesn't look good. Again, it gives us an opportunity to play the young guy.

What's wrong with him?

It was tougher than having a baby, that probably was. He got torqued, he got muscle spasms. That's why we said early the young guys is going to play -- (Dyshawn) Mobley -- he'll play for us, get some reps in there. We'll see how he does.

Who starts?

We'll start with Raymond (Sanders). Jonathan (George) will get a few snaps, then we'll put the big fellow in there.

You've talked about Williams' toughness a lot, so it must be a pretty serious injury to keep him out?

It is. The guy is a tough guy. No doubt about that. The thing we have to have him for is long haul too. I'm not taking these guys for granted by any means, but we need CoShik at full speed. He's not a real big guy. He needs to be full speed. The guy busts his gut on every play, wether it's in practice or pregame. We just got to make sure we take care of him and get him to the field healthy.

What happened when you watch film of Kent State player running the wrong direction?

The first thing I was thinking was 'Why aren't the officials blowing the whistle?' It's dead. Official should have been blowing the whistle. They probably were, but everybody was so excited, trying to make blocks, everybody was excited about trying to make a tackle. The funny thing was watching the coaches' reactions. You really couldn't see Kent's coaches, but you could see Townsend State's coaches like 'Don't tackle him, don't tackle him, don't tackle him.'

I was around to see the old Viking (Jim) Marshall go the wrong way, and that was a live play. At least this one wasn't a live play. The guy is a really good football player. No. 10 is a really good football player. It's again, 18-22-year-olds sometimes react in a strange way. The thing he did is he reacted quick, and he stuck with it.

You briefly mentioned playing young DBs yesterday. Are you going to have a lot of movement at corner and safety?

Those young guys will play in different packages. They played a little bit last week on third down -- J. D. Harmon and (Fred) Tiller. They're going to get better as the season goes. Again, they are talented guys. I said it last year with (Darrian) Miller. Miller rotated because he's probably a little bit more talented than the guys in front. These guys, I think they have equal or more talent as the guys in front of them. Therefore, we need to play them. They've already been in the game. Next year we'll be sitting here and saying 'They're inexperienced.' We've got to get them experience now, or (Martavius) Neloms goes down in week five and it's the first time those guys have taken a snap on the road or whatever. That would be a shame for us.

Didn't that happen to Neloms early in his career?

He had to go in a Alabama his freshman year. The other guys was Cartier Rice. He was the one who had to go in at South Carolina. That was his first snaps. That's difficult to do on the road. We said we're going to play them, and we'll play them. Every year we've said 'Alright, these guys are good enough to play,' but we kind of get a little nervous. To heck with that. Let those guys play.

How will Kent State challenge you?

They're physical. They won four out of their last five last year, beat a team handily. They've got a lot of confidence. They've won five out of their last six games that they've played. They're a team that has seen their league go into top conferences and come out with wins. They'll be excited. Again, there's two guys on their staff that (are coming back to UK). I've been on that other sideline too and had a chance to come back here with all the emotions that are played. We'll be feeling some of that too. That will go through their football team also.

What is Josh Forrest's status?

Josh has not done anything either. He's out also.

Who's the guys who will backup Miles Simpson then?

(Kory) Brown. Simpson is a little banged up also, so you'll see a lot more of Brown than you will Simpson. Simpson will be the guy that's the starter.

Where is freshman linebacker Pancho Thomas lining up?

Pancho is the middle (linebacker). He's the middle backer behind Avery (Williamson). Again, different guy on game day. I like that. Pancho and (Demarcus) Sweat and (Daryl) Collins, those guys are different on game day. Sweat is running up and down the sidelines, screaming and yelling, cheering on the defense. You've got to play those kind of guys. Those guys like to play. We'll see all those guys. Pancho, you can tell leading up to game that it was different for him. A lot of things became different with the way he approached it, the closer we got to game day. He deserves to play also.

What do you want to see from your defense Saturday?

I want to see us get lined up. I want to see us attack guys in front of us. I want to see us get lined up, play physical, get off blocks and go make plays. Again, I've said our defensive front is good. I still say that. Our defensive front is good enough to win with. They are. We've got to give those guys a chance.

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J. D. Harmon talks collegiate debut

I talked to UK freshman defensive back J. D. Harmon Wednesday after practice about his first collegiate game, moving from wide receiver to corner back, freshmen playing more on defense and a few other topics. You can see the transcript below:

What was your first playing experience like?

It felt pretty good, kind of getting a feel for the game. Coach has been talking about me needing to step up, so getting in early in the game kind of got me looking more comfortable out there with the rest of the team.

Did you feel like you had something extra to prove coming to UK as a walk-on?

I've always felt that way. For me, I always figure nothing is really given to you. You've got to fight for it. Either way, it didn't kind of make me more determined. I just figured I'd kind of come here, do what I was recruited to do.

What was transition to corner like?

The only adjustment really was getting to know the defense. It's a little bit more complicated than the offense. It really wasn't that difficult for me. Me and one of the assistant coaches would practice on our drop backs, coverage and stuff like that. It got me a better feel for playing DB and making the transition from receiver.

What did you do to make an early statement in camp?

It all started in the weight room. Coach Rock is one of those coaches that if you don't feel motivated to lift weights, he'll kick you out. We come in, we're motivated. We're lifting weights. Everybody is going hard. Stuff like that shows up. Then you make the transition and come out on the field and all the hard work you put in in the weight room kind of shows on the field. When we did seven-on-sevens, one-on-ones, it actually showed up on the field. I think that's what gave me a bit of an edge.

Are you a physical CB like Marcus Caffey, who you moved to CB to help replace?

Definitely. I feel like I'm one of those guys that can play that position and not really lose anything from Rocco's ineligibility. You get the same effect. I feel like me making the transition, I felt like it was needed for the team. I need to play my role.

What has practice been like this week for freshmen who might play more?

It's been pretty tough. We've been going in a lot, getting more reps. The heat played a big factor today. We haven't faced this much heat really in full equipment, shoulder pads and helmet. We fought through it. Everybody is working hard -- the starters, the freshmen -- everybody has been putting in work. I feel like this week, we're going to be really more focused and have a good outcome.

What's the morale like on defense after poor performance against Louisville?

That one game doesn't determine the rest of our season. I feel like that we took it more as a learning experience. That feeling we had in the locker room after the game, I think we all had the same mentality about how we don't want to feel that feeling again. I think that's what is motivating us now to put that behind us and be more focused on our future games.