Glass half-empty

No muddy hike for me in this weather, so I amused myself this morning by reading the ranting comments on the kentuckysportsradio blog.

One optimist posted a link to the recruiting.scout.com site, which ranks Kentucky's incoming class at #25. Big news, since I can't remember the last time UK had a top 25 class.

Unfortunately, there are nine SEC schools in the top 24. Kentucky's class is ranked ahead of only Ole Miss (50) and Vanderbilt (64).

I would say it's time to start a petition to join the Big East Conference, but if the Cats played on Thursdays I'd have to miss Earl and The Office.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Two roughing the kicker penalties, roughing the passer (supposedly) to nullify an interception, and an offense that only walks on the field long enough to either go three-and-out or throw an interception. Nice.
Punter Opie Taylor is the best running back, and picks up the only Wildcat first down in the entire first half. Great.
A third roughing the kicker luckily negated by a Vandy penalty. Brilliant. Way to learn from your mistakes, guys.
If Kentucky plays any worse they'll probably be invited to the Orange Bowl.
What a great sports weekend. And it's nice to have the Tuesday night thrashing from North Carolina to look forward to.

UK basketball and football

I told Brian Kentucky would easily handle the VMI Keydets.

Down 20 just seven minutes in, I still thought Kentucky would own the rest of the game.

But they never stopped playing stupidly. Not yet, anyway. They are down 16 with 11 minutes to go. To me, it seems to be entirely a product of playing precisely the way VMI wants them to; reckless and undisciplined.

They should learn a lot from this. And they still might win tonight. It doesn't seem entirely unlikely.
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UK vs Vandy football on national television. No wonder it's supposed to snow, since Hell's freezing over. In honor of the big event, I'm trying out a new prediction method. Here goes:

The most points I can realistically see Kentucky scoring tomorrow is 38.
The fewest is 7. Mid-point prediction = 23.
The most I can see Vandy scoring is 34.
The fewest is 0. Mid-point prediction is 17.

So 23-17 Kentucky. Completely scientific, in a Bible-belt kind of way.

Pakulak'd!

I just checked Kentuckysportsradio's blog and read about Glen Pakulak's Saints' debut. I'll never understand how he couldn't make a roster the last 5 years.

At UK he absolutely boomed his punts, and though he's built like, well, a punter, he loved making tackles. I believe he secretly prayed for the return man to break loose so that he could make the hit himself.

Unsurprisingly, his debut was solid. Here are some comments on a Saints' fan forum. The thread was titled "Pakulak is a beast!"

"How ya like dem apples?! A 56 yard punt, and the punter makes the tackle too!"
"Thats good that he kicked 56 yards, but its bad if hes going to have to make tackles for us, real bad. But Razor is right, it looks like our coverage team was very unprepared for that kind of punt"

According to the kysportsradio posters, the return man was Harry Douglass. Nice bonus that he tackled a former Card. And one of them said his line was probably "You just got Pakulak'd!"
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And on a completely different topic: I made some delicious soup tonight.
Last night I stopped at Paul's for an onion, which was the only ingredient I forgot at the grocery. Since that was all I bought, I slipped it into my jacket pocket on the way home. Then I forgot it was there until this morning when I got to work.

I got a funny stare and a couple of comments from colleagues when I arrived at my desk and pulled an onion out of my pocket.

Today's Hike

I took a walkabout through Iroquois Park.

It was a lot of fun, by crikey! I was attempting to photograph the elusive North American Pothead (cannabis doofus). No bloody luck, but I enjoyed myself anyway.



I didn't manage to encounter much wildlife- only birds and squirrels, until near the end of the hike. That's when I came across this beautiful and dainjeruus snake. It's venom is known to render a grown man incoherent, unable even to drive a car. Cobras were nearly extinct in these parts at one time, but the combined efforts of the Sierra Club, the EPA, and local liquor stores have really helped them recover.

Isn't she a beaut? This one's fairly small, but still packs a wallop. I've seen some that have grown to as much as 40 ounces.

I caught a pothead's scent here. But it got spooked and vanished into the brush (actually, a 1991 Dodge Charger) before I could photograph it.

It happens every autumn

Nice try, Cats. That was the second-most entertaining game I've seen all year, behind only the Texas Tech vs. Texas game last week.

Kentucky's football team has improved greatly, but they still manage 1 absolute heartbreaker every season.

Last year it was the 52-50 overtime Tennessee loss.
'06 was Tennessee, too. 17-12. Nice delay of game, Cats. I'm still bitter.
'05, 31-24 to Louisville. Fumble at the goal line.
'04, 37-31, yet again to Tennessee.
'03, 71-63 to Arkansas. At least I think that's a final score. They might still be playing.
'02, the Wildcats learned they should keep the Gatorade in the bucket until the final horn.
And on and on.
Today's loss definitely qualifies for the list.


My guess is Kentucky will end up playing New Year's Eve in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Or maybe there will be another tornado and they'll play in a New Year's Day bowl after all, after the game is delayed a day and moved to Lakeside High School's field. (By the way, not every blogger cares enough about quality to look up the name of an actual Atlanta school.)


10:45 addition- I only went back as far as that disgusting 2002 LSU game when I originally posted this. After a while I became curious, so I decided to check a few more years to see if there continued to be one really gut-wrenching loss each year. I decided to check 5 more seasons:
2001- Tennessee 38-35. Kentucky led 21-0.
2000- Georgia 34-30. Kentucky led 20-10 in the 3rd quarter.
1999- Syracuse 20-13, Music City Bowl. Kentucky led 13-7 in the 4th quarter.
1998- Georgia 28-26. Potential game-winning field goal blocked in the closing seconds.
1997- Hey, I found a year without one. They lost fairly close games to Mississippi State and South Carolina, but neither really qualifies.

Um, nice start, Sir.

Well, it could have been worse, I guess. At least he didn't say anything really dumb in his first post-election press conference.

I mean, it's not like he ridiculed the wife of one of the most popular (for some reason I've yet to figure out) presidents in American history. That would have been bad. It would have been even worse if she'd been frail, in poor health, and recently in the news after suffering a debilitating and sympathy-invoking injury, such as a fractured pelvis.

A joke about someone like that would have been pretty bad. It's a good thing he didn't say something like that.

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Moving on to the important stuff.

I feel pretty good about the UK-Georgia game tomorrow.

Sure, Georgia could win by 40. But I think I have a few good reasons for feeling optimistic:
*Georgia may be looking to take out some frustration after their loss last week. But I think it's more likely that they're a little down after seeing their title hopes dashed.
*Kentucky's now-healthy (for the most part) front seven on defense can definitely hang with Georgia's offense.
*Teams generally show their greatest improvement between the first and second games of the year. Though it's mid-season, it is also Cobb's 2nd start at QB. I think this means the offense might show improvement. I won't predict that for certain, of course, because that would be incredibly dumb.