Forget that Morgan Newton’s two-touchdown performance in UK’s 37-12 win over Eastern Kentucky on Saturday earned him Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week honors. Forget that UK head coach Rich Brooks even admits Newton’s play is “light years” away from where it was in his debut at Auburn.
Brooks announced after Saturday’s game that junior quarterback Mike Hartline would start for UK this week at Vanderbilt if he shows in practice he has returned from a knee injury suffered against South Carolina.
Junior quaterback Mike Hartline, seen here playing against Alabama on Oct. 3, has sat out with a knee injury for the past four games. If healthy, Hartline will return on Saturday. Photo by Adam Wolffbrandt | Staff
“We’ll just have to judge and see (if he’s ready),” Brooks said. “I certainly am not going to put Mike Hartline out there if he can’t get out of his own way, let alone pull the ball down and run with it if he needs to.”
Hartline made a few passes in practice last week and ran in practice on Sunday. He reported some pain after Sunday’s practice, but is expected to try and go through a full practice on Tuesday. The coaching staff will continue to evaluate the situation after that. If Hartline is able to roll out, hand off and throw without injuring himself or favoring his injured knee, he’ll be expected to start.
Brooks did say Newton will take about 40 percent of the snaps with the first team offense in practice this week, and they’ll expect him to prepare as though he’ll be the starter for the fifth consecutive game.
Even if Newton doesn’t start against the Commodores, Brooks is excited about the future of the highly-touted prospect from Carmel, Ind.
“He has the potential to be as good as he wants to be or can be,” Brooks said. “But he still has a long way to go.”
Newton’s progress has given the coaching staff plenty of confidence in him. Asked if possibly being benched could impact Newton’s confidence, Brooks said the star freshman can’t afford to think that he won’t be the starter.
“We never know whether Hartline will be able to get through the week in practice,” Brooks said. “And the other thing we don’t know is if he gets hit, it could be one hit and he could be out. So Morgan has to be preparing as though he’s the guy.”
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Hopefully, Coach Brooks is playing a game with the media as he did before the Auburn contest so Vandy will not know for whom to prepare.
Otherwise, I think my favorite coach since—I cannot remember when—Bear Bryant maybe, has become senile.
I am a 1968 Alumni and member of the Alumni Association. However, I have lived in the Los Angeles area for 40 years. I can see all the way from here that Mike Hartline’s place–good man that he is–is on the bench.
The only way we are going to build for the future is to let Newton and next year, Mossakowski get in there and fight the fight for SEC experience. Hartline has had his SEC experience. Check the record.
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