If Towles can practice, he will play

Those were the words that came out of Joker Phillips’ mouth in his most recent press conference with the media. Freshman QB Patrick Towles twisted his ankle in only his third series as the ‘Cats signal caller against Mississippi State. Towles’ injury was diagnosed as a high ankle sprain, and we haven’t seen him on the field since. After a hefty dose of Jalen Whitlow and Morgan Newton, Joker says that if Towles is able to perform in practice he will play against Missouri.

I personally don’t believe that this is a great decision. Shocked? Come on now, you have to know me better than that. Here’s my argument, with a significantly different offensive mindset being implemented since the loss of Maxwell Smith, why is it a good idea to try a two quarterback system? In the Georgia game, the coaching staff stuck with Jalen Whitlow throughout the game until the 3rd quarter when he began to suffer the effects of a migraine. I personally believe that the ‘Cats would have made the Georgia game even closer if Whitlow could have played the full game without any complications. With senior QB Morgan Newton, there was little offensive flow. For some reason, the coaching staff and/or Newton loves to run the football. Rarely have I seen a Morgan Newton run be a significant advantage for Kentucky. He’s not that fast, and I don’t understand the concept. If Newton takes off and gets the first down, everyone is happy the drive is continued. However, if he can’t play quarterback well enough to move the chains with his signal calling, doesn’t that make him one-dimensional? Bottom-line, I’d rather have Whitlow as the starter, Towles as the backup and Newton holding the clipboard.

If anyone remembers the newspaper report of Patrick Towles’ father saying he and Patrick would re-evaluate his status as a Kentucky Wildcat at the end of the season, maybe there is a method to Joker’s madness. In case he does come back as Kentucky’s head coach next year, he would probably want Patrick Towles as one of his quarterbacks. From what we have seen of Towles, he looks very promising. If his recruiting hype lives up, he could win the Heisman. Don’t laugh, he could be really, really good. Joker wants to make Towles relevant to this year’s team to keep him for next year. Just my opinion, but it makes sense. The move to play Towles at QB is only a smart move if he is going to be the starter and be the only quarterback to play the game unless he becomes injured. I don’t think this team can use both Whitlow and Towles effectively and win a football game. They could win against Kent State, but not Missouri.

Speaking of those Missouri Tigers, they may have a little problem of their own with their starting quarterback James Franklin. Franklin suffered a sprained left knee during the Tigers game against Vanderbilt on October 6th and hasn’t seen the playing field since. With Franklin out, the ‘Cats may catch a significant break and keep the Tigers from getting their first SEC win. Alabama already welcomed Berkstresser to the SEC by picking him off twice and only allowing him to complete a little less than half of his passes in the Tigers last matchup. Missouri is in the midst of some serious growing pains adjusting to the SEC, and now they lose their starting quarterback. I hope that the Kentucky defense can pounce on this opportunity and make things difficult enough for the freshman to falter once again.