Dicky Lyons

LEXINGTON -- Kentucky has made sure future football players know exactly who will be coaching the Wildcats. Coach Rich Brooks received a contract extension through the 2011 season and will receive a pay raise to $1.6 million annually while offensive coordinator Joker Phillips also had his contract extended through 2011 and has been designated as UK's future head coach. Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart said Friday it was important when the changing landscape of college football to make sure players as well as future players knew there would be continuity in the UK program.

LEXINGTON ? No one had to tell junior college transfer DeQuin Evans that his Kentucky debut was not exactly what UK fans were expecting after the way coaches and teammates had talked about his preseason play. Instead of dazzling fans with big plays, Evans had only one tackle in UK's 42-0 win over Miami. He views Saturday's game with Louisville as a chance for redemption. "I do have something to prove. The fans and everybody wants to know what DeQuin Evans can do. Mainly I just want to do what my coaches ask of me and that is playing assignment football.

LEXINGTON - Offensive coordinator Joker Phillips won't downplay the expectations for Kentucky's offense going into the 2007 season. Instead, he's expecting UK to be even better than it was last year when the Wildcats won eight games, including the Music City Bowl over Clemson. "The one thing we got last year was that the ball bounced our way a lot. We created a lot of turnovers and we didn't turn it over a lot. If we can continue to do that and learn how to run the football better, I think we will be as good as anybody in this league (Southeastern Conference)

LEXINGTON - Finally it is OK to use the "L" word around the Kentucky football team. That's "L" for Louisville, a team Kentucky coach Rich Brooks insisted he didn't want to think about or talk about last week when his team was preparing to play Kent State. Apparently, his players let their minds wander a bit more - or at least Brooks better hope that is what happened in the first half after his Wildcats struggled to beat Kent State 56-20 on Saturday night. Reluctantly, Brooks had to admit after the game that maybe his team had indeed been looking ahead to this week's game here with Louisville.

LEXINGTON - Junior receiver Dicky Lyons says Kentucky's 6-1 start and climb into the top 10 in the national rankings has been extra special because of the team attitude. "Everybody is so humble and nobody is getting the big heads. We can see that we can really do something special," Lyons said. "Everybody wants to make plays, but nobody is getting mad. "People asked after I had my two touchdown game if I was mad that I wasn't getting balls the next few games. But we were winning.

LEXINGTON -- If Randall Cobb had written his own script for his collegiate quarterback debut, it could not have been any better than what happened here. With Kentucky's lethargic offense needing an infusion of excitement, UK coach Rich Brooks turned to Cobb, a true freshman from Knoxville, on Kentucky's third series. First play, Cobb turns a quarterback draw into a 16-yard run, UK's longest run of the season. Third play, Cobb rolls left, uses a block by Zipp Duncan to get loose and scores on an 18-yard run, UK's longest run of the season.

LEXINGTON - Freshman Aaron Boyd was expected to be Kentucky's big-play freshman receiver this year. Instead, he missed preseason practice because of mononucleosis, has struggled with his conditioning and has only four catches in the three games he's played. However, there's one thing Boyd has done that has impressed coach Rich Brooks. "The one thing he has done is when the ball has come to him, he has caught it and that is a real advantage right now in our receiving corps," said Brooks.

LEXINGTON - Linebacker Micah Johnson understands what losing receiver Dicky Lyons to a season-ending knee surgery does to the University of Kentucky offense. "Dicky was the most consistent thing probably we had going on offense, the most consistent receiver we've had up to this point," Johnson said. "You realize if you get the ball in his vicinity, he'll catch it. Somebody else is going to have to step up. " Lyons' collegiate career is over after a MRI revealed he had torn the posterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee in last weekend's loss to South Carolina.

Kentucky's players might not like being picked to finish fifth in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division, but at least two of them - defensive end Jeremy Jarmon and senior receiver Dicky Lyons Jr. - are realistic enough to understand why. "It could be upsetting to some teams to be picked only fifth in the division, but you have to also take the view of who is picked ahead of you," Lyons said. Fair point. "There is Florida, the national champion two years ago that has the Heisman Trophy winner (Tim Tebow)

LEXINGTON - Dicky Lyons' collegiate football career is over. Tests revealed that the University of Kentucky senior receiver tore knee ligaments late in the first half of last Saturday's loss to South Carolina and will need surgery next week when the swelling in the knee subsides. Kentucky coach Rich Brooks didn't pull any punches Monday when describing how Lyons took the news. He is devastated. You know how much this all meant to him. It is a tough thing," said the Kentucky coach.