One of Britain's leading big cat consultants is Rick Minter. Minter has been studying the possibility of non-native big cat species roaming wild in Britain for over 20 years. He believes that there must be a population of at least 250 wild big cats to contribute to a healthy gene pool. Minter even suggested that the UK could be home to a brand new subspecies of big cat due to the breeding between released species. He stated, “In an isolated population, things can change very rapidly, and nature can take a burst forward. That is scientifically really bloody interesting.”
The beast of Rodborough Common strikes on farmland after being spotted near Winstones ice cream parlour
Big cat expert Rick Minter thinks the mystery animal spotted by Winstones ice cream parlour could be the same creature that savaged a sheep near Rodborough Common.
Last month, Mollie Davis, a trainee manager at the ice cream factory on Rodborough Common, was driving her car to work when she spotted the ‘Labrador-sized’ mystery black-coated beast in broad daylight near the car park next to the…
A big cat expert gives his verdict on recent sightings.
Credible reports of mystery beast sightings near Amberley have been circulating for more than 20 years, according to a big cat expert.
Commenting on last week’s big cat sighting near Amberley, as featured in Stroud Times, the big cats’ podcaster, Rick Minter, said black panthers and large tan-coloured cats resembling mountain lions or cougars, have been pinpointed near Culver Hill.
Rick said:…
Tuesday is coordinator day at UK football practice, so here is a Four Downs notebook from the media availability with offensive coordinator Randy Sanders and defensive coordinator Rick Minter.
FIRST DOWN: Quarterback rotation to stick as Whitlow 'needs help'
Monday, I brought you Joker Phillips' thoughts on the quarterback rotation between freshmen Jalen Whitlow and Patrick Towles. Today, Sanders chimed in with his thoughts about how the two should rotate.
"We'll figure out exactly what the plan is as the week goes on," he said. "It's always a hard thing. You have a plan to put a guy in. Last week we moved the ball pretty well the first two series, we put Patrick in and we never were really able to get it going again. At the same time, it's almost unfair to put a guy in if things aren't going well. It's a roll of the dice. Hopefully it works out well. You look at it after the game, it's easy to figure out what you should have done. In the heat of the moment, you try to figure out what's best."
"Jalen is doing about as well as we can expect him to do," Sanders said. "We'd like for him to do better, but realistically where you expect him to be, he's not that far off. He needs some help from someone. If Patrick can come in and provide some help, then that's a bonus for him."
SECOND DOWN: Minter coy about motivation 2012 Vandy play
If there was one play that summed up UK's 38-8 loss to Vanderbilt last season, it was running back Zac Stacey carrying at least eight UK defenders into the end zone for a touchdown. Minter was asked Tuesday if he uses that play for motivation.
"Well, we try to keep our eyes forward, rather than our eyes back," he said. "We’ve tried to work on tackling and keeping our legs going and play to the whistle and try to avoid those kind of situations. That’s a credit to the runner in that case and try to go forward."
THIRD DOWN: Sanders thinks blitz might help young quarterbacks
On first glance, the idea of extra blitzers charging at a freshman quarterback might seem to be a terrible situation for the offensive team, but Sanders says that's not necessarily the case. Asked how Missouri stacking the box affected his freshmen quarterbacks, Sanders had an interesting theory.
"The easiest thing for a young quarterback to play against is blitz," he said. "As a play-caller, you can help them out. You can max protect, (say) throw it to that guy. When they start showing you the blitz looks and bailing out, that's when as a quarterback you really have to see where they go to and you have to execute against those things. Very similar to what Mississippi State did to Jalen. That's what Missouri did. They caught Patrick a couple times last week. The one he got sacked and fumbled on was that exact type scenario. The answer he gave me on the sideline, he obviously did not see anything that happened to him on that play."
FOURTH DOWN: Revenge factor may not provide much motivation
Minter was asked how far his defenders playing with a chip on their shoulder after being embarrassed last season by Vanderbilt would take them. Judging by his answer, not far.
"Probably until somebody hits you in the mouth," he said. "Motivation comes with preparation and confidence comes from practicing hard and preparing hard and you take that field knowing full well that you’re as good or better than the guy you’re lined up across and you hit him the mouth before he hits you. Then you have a chance to be successful. If all you’re doing is looking backward whether than forward, then you’re not really preparing for this year’s game plan. Kids get motivated in different ways. Eighteen- to 22-year olds, we all remember that. I just believe that preparation is the best motivator to be successful and that’s what we’re trying to get done."
There was nothing pretty about UK's 49-7, weather-shortened loss to Arkansas Saturday, especially for a young defense that started three true freshmen in the secondary. Defensive coordinator Rick Minter met with the media Tuesday to break down what happened in Arkansas and where his unit can go from here.
You can see the full transcript of his comments below:
How valuable would it be to have Martavius Neloms and Ashely Lowery back, especially if you're going to be without Cartier Rice and have two freshmen start at corner?
Priceless. It's always good to have veterans, kids that have been around the program for a long time. The guys that are out there are all we can coach. They've been battling their tails off and playing extremely hard. We've been proud of their efforts.
They've probably forgotten all about what happened at Arkansas. That's been what, three or four days ago now? Coaches linger, players move on probably faster. You just try to teach lessons. We buzzed through the film on Sunday and tried to point out the bad, try to point out the bad and try to learn from it, particularly at this stage of the career of all the back-end kids. Every day, every minute is a learning experience. Good or bad, you have to learn from it. Some of them were on the scout team two weeks ago, so every precious piece of film that you can show them is a lesson to be learned. Obviously, the x-plays we don't tolerate, but we had to show it to them to see what happened, how we prevent it from happening again and go from there.
You weren't able to get a lot of pressure on the quarterback. Was that a matter of technique, not being able to blitz how you wanted or something else?
It's a combination of everything. We didn't call a lot of them, but we also didn't want to put some of our guys in harm's way in that situation. We backed off. We've not been overly pressure oriented, particularly on third downs, so you have to play coverage. If you play coverage, you've just got to play a lot better coverage. We had an eight-man drop and gave up a touchdown. We might as well have rushed 10 and had one back there. We've got to correct what we're doing. Obviously he's going to have more time to throw, but the adage is if you've got more droppers you ought to play better coverage. If you've got more rushers, you ought to have less time to throw. It all works that way. We haven't been bringing a whole lot of guys, and yet they've been finding the holes or the missed assignment or whatever. We've got to get all those things corrected.
You've been hurt a lot by the wheel route in the last two years. How fixable is that?
We'd like to say it's fixable. We work on it every day. We ended up stumbling a little bit. What happens is those two wheel routes got off because they're going to get off in those coverages, in those fronts. What you can't allow them to do is go 80 yards or 70 yards, whatever they went. That's a 15-yard gain, little trick play. Wrap it up, and that's no different than a dig route. It's not so much that it was the wheel so to speak, this is like a new phenomenon. It's just that we can't let the darn thing go for the distance. Just go over there and corral the guy, get him down for 15, 20, rack it up and let's play again.
When you looked at the film, how many of the big plays had something to do with communication in the young secondary?
Miscommunication probably didn't have anything to do with anything. Technique, fundamentals, youth, inexperience, baptism under fire. You name it, it's happening to us right now. We've just got to get older and faster. We've got to get older every day. They're no longer just baby steps. We've got to get gigantic steps accomplished on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to try to get ready for the next game as long as we don't have the reinforcements.
So for the young guys it was more about what happened after the snap than before it?
Absolutely. You've got a post safety, you've got other cover players, you've got everybody hustling their tails off. Both those long runs looked like New York Life commercials. He goes, cuts all the way across the game. Fundamentals. Everybody is trying so hard that when the guy on the first play of the game gets caught, we've got about six guys hustling their tails off on the sideline. The next thing I did is fast forward the tape and I put the guy in the middle of the field now because he'd already done this. All our white shirts are over here (motions left), and he's over here (motions right). I said, 'How did this happen?' It's fundamentals. Everybody let the ball cut back across them. That's the fundamental techniques of being over-exuberant, happening maybe for the first time for some of those guys. They're trying so hard, they try to hard many times. Once a guy is across the line of scrimmage he's made positive yards, so let him get his yards and just gather up, break down, make a good tackle, lets rack it up and play another play.
What kind of growth have you seen from Cody Quinn?
Cody is growing fast. He's not getting any taller, but he's really becoming a real good football player. He came here prepared in the sense of mental toughness, physical skills, mental ability to absorb and retain. Since he's been given the opportunity to jump on that field -- knock on wood -- I don't really think he's hurt us much at all in terms of what he's doing. He's playing extremely well right now. He may have played as well as any of the 11 players last week when you add it all up with the grades out there.
Despite the results, are there one or two guys -- maybe Cody is one of them -- that are playing well that you feel good about?
Yeah. I feel real good about Cody Quinn. Some of the front four guys go so unnoticed because of all the things bad happening around them, but we're getting great leadership out of (Collins) Ukwu. Taylor Wyndham is playing pretty darn good. The guys inside…Tristain Johnson has played, battled hard being a little bit undersized. (Donte) Rumph has always played consistent. PC (Cobble) is battling back from his little nicks, bumps and bruises. Avery (Williamson) has always been solid. Bud (Dupree) is a work in progress. Miles Simpson is very solid for us, replacing some big shoes out there. We're fairly steady with those who have played ball before, lined up before.
We've got to continue to show growth and development in those players also. You know, Ukwu is not going to get a ton better his next five or six games of his career. He's at the end of his career, where Avery is just now getting to be a starting MIKE linebacker. Cody Quinn just got here. We've got all ranges of guys playing for us. We've just got to keep growing and keep getting better every day.
There has been a ton of UK basketball coverage on KyForward.com this week, so it would be understandable if some of the UK football coverage got lost in the shuffle.
Heres a quick rundown of what you might have missed:
Stories:
Patrick Towles out for Arkansas game
UK football team’s twin safeties seeing playing time together in unit decimated by injuries
UK football to rely heavily on true freshmen in attempt to upset Arkansas on Saturday
Tuesday is coordinator day at UK football practice, meaning defensive coordinator Rick Minter held his weekly meeting with the media. He talked about trouble stopping the run, what Mississippi State does well, another position shift for one senior and more. You can see a full transcript of his comments below:
What problems does Mississippi State present?
About 185 yards worth of running, about 215 yards-per-game passing. They're 4-0. They're a good football team. They're well-coached. They pride themselves on the physical toughness of the play because of the style of play that they run, kind of a gap-blocking, zone-blocking team. Big guys up front, good solid passing game, so we've got our hands full. We're looking forward to the challenge on Saturday -- at noon finally.
Other than the Auburn game, how much can you glean from their previous opponents?
These other guys got at them pretty darn good. South Alabama even in this last ball game for a good while hung with them, disrupted them and did the things that you like. Troy is always a challenge to anybody in the SEC for a good while on their game film. The other one was what, Jacksonville State? They all played them pretty good, but they're a good football team. They're a complete team. I know on our side, we're trying to attack. They've got a veteran quarterback who is perhaps throwing the ball better than he did this time a year ago. Mix that with a good solid, tough-nosed approach of the coach and the way they like to play, they'll bring it.
What did South Alabama do to disrupt them?
Their guys just came off the ball and disrupted their basic runs. Played similar fronts. They're a four-down team. Got after their front offensive five a little bit, caused them some concern for awhile until they figured it out, kind of got in a groove and put them away pretty good in the second half. For a good while they hung in there well.
You said Saturday South Carolina decided at the half to run it at your defense. How much were you hurt by Mister Cobble not playing?
You know what? If we had to say who probably played the best of all of our d-linemen the other night, it was probably Tristain Johnson. The guy played like a champion. He really wasn't the issues.
I think we're young at linebacker. It's always somebody on almost every play that's a little bit different. It's not just one guy, not just one area in this run-game business that we're into right now. If I'm them, that's what I would have said -- 26 yards rushing at the half, what's wrong with that picture? They kind of abandoned what they had worked on for weeks and kind of just got back into old-fashioned, Steve Spurrier rock-em, sock-em (football). It worked.
Tristian Johnson said this week he became more serious about his job and work ethic. Have you seen that?
You'd have to take his word for what he says. I'm not at liberty to tell you what I think.
So he's still a joker?
Nah, he's doing a good job. He's kind of the jester. He's the court jester. He brings a sense of urgency, really a sense of energy, passion to play, runs around. He's kind of our Luke McDermott guy. It's kind of the same role, but yet he's been thrust into a starting role and he's really embraced that pretty darn good. He's really filled in quite well.
Did Mister Cobble practice today?
Yes. He participated. He's still a little bit day-to-day, but we'll be looking forward to getting his big tail back in there.
On Saturday you talked about problems on third down, but how much of that goes back to big gains on first down?
I'd tell you what: we had six first downs that we did not stop them in that we're all under third-down-and-one-or-two. You're not going to win many of those. We did happen to stop them a time or two in that, but you're not going to win many third-and-ones, third-and-twos. I don't care who you are. What we can't allow people to do is make the convertible third downs. Third-and-six, we should have been off the field around the 40-yard line. We had a busted coverage, let a guy run for 20 yards. That put them down on the goal line. We ended up stopping them on the goal line, but third-and-14-15, down at Florida. If we just win the ones that we're in the driver seat of, we'll work backward and try to get better on first and second down to not bring up all third and ones. When you're playing a running team that's pretty good at running the ball, you're going to come up with some short yardage. For them to come up with six plays, all third-and-two or less -- in fact five of them were one and one was two -- I don't think we stopped them but maybe one of those. We got to get better, but it's hard to get better at that far. The thing to get better at is -- like you say -- one first and second down we're averaging five yards a run.
With Dakotah Tyler out, is Martavius Neloms going to play more safety than cornerback now?
I would say right now that Neloms is headed toward staying at safety for a good while, if not maybe all the time. What's allowed us to do that -- we were going to do this anyway, put him back where he really is a veteran -- because the evolution of the corner play. Cartier Rice is back and healthy, and we've got the other three kids coming, so that's allowed us then the flexibility. Now it's out of necessity that we almost have to do it. (Ashely) Lowery's injury, he's kind of day-to-day. You hope to have him back. Te' is really comfortable at safety. He's now helped himself in all kinds of ways here and down the road just to become more versatile.
In his weekly meeting with the media, UK defensive coordinator Rick Minter touched on a number of topics Tuesday, including how his defensive line performed without Mister Cobble against Florida, his freshmen cornerbacks, South Carolina's offense and more. You can read all his comments in the transcript below:
When you went back and looked at the film how did the guys that filled in for Mister Cobble do?
Oh, they held their own. They’re not 315 or 320. That’s part of the issue playing in the SEC. They got knocked down a little bit. They battled hard and they played hard – that was (Tristian) Johnson and (Christian) Coleman kind of filling in. If we had them filling in together, they might be about as big as (Cobble).
We’re not going to invent any new bodies and we can’t put any weight on these guys in three days, so it’s the same guys. They’ll get better. They’ll play with more confidence. One guy’s adversity is another guy’s opportunity. So hopefully Tristian Johnson and Coleman will play better, more confident, more relaxed, that sort of thing.
What did you see from freshman cornerback Cody Quinn, and given how well he played why didn't we see him sooner?
I don’t know. I guess he just started playing good. They’re all three good young freshmen. They’re all three good takes. Fred (Tiller) and J.D. (Harmon) and Cody (Quinn) are all good takes. We got Cody in that previous ball game, and we saw what he could do. We practiced him all week with Cartier’s (Rice) situation, and we felt like of all the kids he’s really going to have the most grace under fire. He’s got calm, cool confidence. He’s out of Ohio. They play great football in Ohio. He played for a good friend of mine. So he’s in there -- not necessarily to stay --but he’s in there to play as we’re going to play all three of those freshmen in there at corner. So he makes us better because he gives Martavius (Neloms) and Cartier a blow. They’re highly involved on special teams, so it gives us an opportunity to play those guys.”
How did your squad improve to make the stops against Florida, especially the back-to-back three-and-outs to start the game?
You know, we kind of got better but we didn’t. Until the end result changes, until we get better on third down, 12 out of 17, until we get better at stopping the run, 200 yards, the result’s not going to change. It comes in spurts. If you get off to a good start, it gives your team a chance. We held them. That 94-3 stat I read that over like the last five years. We helped that a bit because we held them to three. We’re a young team and we’re trying to build on something. So we did build on those three-and-outs early, but once again, our worst drive of the game was the one answering the second half.
That’s two weeks in a row where the worst drive of our game was the second half. So we’ve got to address all the little things, whether it be adjustments, whether it be demeanor, whether it be recovery, whether it be they’re in there chilling now, drinking Gatorade and all that stuff. Do we not answer the bell? You know, we’ve been a slow starting team -- whether it be on offense, defensively or special teams – in a lot of areas timing wise. And we’ve been slow out of the gate in the second half. We’ve got to get that corrected.
How much does does last year's South Carolina game where they were still throwing the ball late in a blowout with backups in stick with you?
They haven’t changed. They’ve done that the first four games. I expect that to be the norm if they have that opportunity. (Steve) Spurrier’s not changing. That’s who he is: a quarterback at heart who loves to throw the ball. They’ve got a great offense, they really do, and they’ve been playing well as a team. It’s put them in position. Even the last play of the game, they don’t take knees. They just keep getting reps to the next unit. That’s kind of their attitude about it: keep firing away, keep doing their offense. It’s our job to stop them, not their job to take the air out of the ball. It’s going to be our job to make sure they can’t do that.
How tough is it to defense Connor Shaw with his running ability as well as passing ability?
You saw what we did last year. Last year, remember, the star was born on our day. A lot of new things that hit our fan last year at this time because of the uncertainty. They’d benched Garcia, and they transitioned. You’ve really got to give Spurrier credit for that last year. They really transitioned their entire offense coming into our ball game in terms of what they really like to do, who they found out they could do it with and that was Shaw and he’s pretty much been on point since and he had a great day on Saturday. He’s been banged up, in and out of games starting with the first one, but we expect a full-speed Connor Shaw and unfortunately (Marcus) Lattimore and all the other cast of characters.
They’re big up front; they’re not real complicated. They run a lot of solid plays, where you know, they try to get a hat on a hat and let Lattimore go. Then they Connor Shaw pull the ball every now and then, and if you don’t cover him, he can beat you much like the kid from Florida could. It’s a good offensive ball club. It’s kind of a 12th-man syndrome when you can have a running quarterback like that, you’ve got to defend the extra, added advantage for them. But we’ve got to find a way.
