2009 Pigskin Preview: Hartline improves game, attitude

On many days at practice, Mike Hartline’s cleats are the last ones off the practice field. As what looks like the entire UK football team trots     off the field the moment the practice is over, the quarterback is conspicuously absent.

Sophomore quarterback Mike Hartline scrambles to his left to make a throw during the second quarter against South Carolina. Staff file photo.

Randall Cobb, Will Fidler and Morgan Newton jog off the field in the procession of red, white and blue jerseys, but UK’s junior starter at quarterback isn’t among them. On a practice field off in the distance, after all his teammates have shed their pads and are rehydrating, junior quarterback Mike Hartline is still perfecting his passes.

There wasn’t a coach who challenged Hartline to be one of the hardest workers on the team. No teammate asked him to take the initiative and take those extra snaps. Hartline made this decision on his own.

“I feel like I’m at the point now in my career where I shouldn’t be asking the coaches what I need to do to get better,” Hartline said. “I should know what I need to do to get better. I’m over that young stage of my career. I’m not a young guy anymore, I’m a veteran.”

That’s good news for those counting on Hartline to eclipse his numbers from a disappointing sophomore campaign when he passed for 1,666 yards with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Those numbers were especially disappointing after coaches and fans became accustomed to the high-powered offenses led by Andre Woodson and Co.

“We thought we would go backwards a little bit because you can’t compare much to 2006 and 2007,” said Joker Phillips, UK’s head coach of the offense. “But we didn’t expect to go back that far.”

Hartline lost his job after eight games and was the target of plenty of criticism from fans, coaches and analysts alike. But when Cobb was injured, Hartline helped the team to a win in the Liberty Bowl and entered fall camp as the clear starter.

The gap between Hartline and any of his challengers has since grown considerably. The coaching staff is adamant the job is Hartline’s to lose, even with a pair of talented freshmen and a backup behind him who has plenty of time in the program.

Mike Hartline threw nine touchdown and eight interceptions last year. Staff file photo.

“I know, I listen, I hear, I read, but Mike Hartline is our guy,” UK head coach Rich Brooks said.

To help his teammates and himself, Hartline put a large dry erase board in his apartment this summer. He invited teammates over so they could work on plays and get a better feel for each other and the offense.

“I knew everybody was going to be here so there’s no excuse why they couldn’t come and meet,” Hartline said. “That was just one thing we did to get everybody together and get everybody working toward the same goal.”

By stepping up as a leader, Hartline showed he was ready to work on all aspects of his game. He threw his teammates under the bus when he was benched last year, but he’s been getting rave reviews all through practice.

Everyone — from receivers, to coaches, to defensive players matching up against Hartline in practice — has said Hartline is among the most-improved players in fall camp.

Hartline’s fluttery deep balls were much-maligned last year, but teammates said much of that came from a lack of confidence in his receivers. This year, the wideouts are catching the ball with more consistency and Hartline appears to have improved his long throws.

“He’s throwing the ball more accurately, he’s throwing it deep accurately,” Brooks said. “He’s giving receivers a chance to make plays on the ball, and amazingly we’ve got receivers making some plays on the ball.”

Brooks and Phillips have both repeatedly said that the receivers, led by Cobb and junior Chris Matthews, are much-improved. Other receivers who had smaller roles last year, like sophomores Eric Adeyemi and Gene McCaskill, came on strong down the stretch and are expected to be more consistent this year.

“His attitude is a lot better,” Phillips said. “Sometimes when we didn’t have success (last season), Mike wouldn’t carry himself the right way. Whenever we sent in a play that he wasn’t really excited about, I think you could see it. You could see it in his body language.”

Phillips said that attitude and body language were two things the coaching staff also had to work on with Woodson at the same age. Hartline said that everything that is so different about him now — his attitude, his work ethic — is all a byproduct of his tumultuous sophomore campaign.

“You take care of your business more and grow up,” Hartline said. “I think after that first year, realizing what I had to go through, what I went through and what it takes to go through a year like that and stay positive, it definitely changed parts of my life.”

Hartline may have also felt the pressure when freshmen quarterbacks Newton and Ryan Mossakowski arrived on campus. He welcomed the competition at the position, but the buzz surrounding the duo may have been extra motivation for Hartline.

Many believed Newton and Mossakowski could push Hartline for playing time this season. But both have struggled to digest the playbook and have looked lost at times in practice. Brooks has repeatedly said that the freshmen “are playing like freshmen.”

Even though Mossakowski insists his shoulder is almost back to 100 percent and he was quoted earlier in the year saying he would be reluctant to redshirt, he seemed to be more receptive to sitting out the year when talking to reporters at media day.

“It’s whatever they want to do with me,” Mossakowski said.

When the team depth chart was released on Monday, Mossakowski and Newton were still battling for the third-string quarterback job behind Hartline and Fidler, respectively.

To improve on last year’s record and be where they want to be this season, Phillips said “there’s no question” there has to be improved production at the quarterback position.

Watching Hartline work on those deep throws after practice is one thing, but Brooks said those extra reps won’t matter unless Hartline can reproduce those results down the stretch in close games.

“I think the only way you judge that level of improvement is you play games,” Brooks said. “On the practice field there’s no question we’ve seen a tremendous improvement from Mike Hartline. Now we have to see whether that translates to games, completions, touchdowns, lack of interceptions, those kinds of things.”