Liberty Bowl

Kentucky linebacker Micah Johnson had to be restrained from East Carolina's players prior to Kentucky's 25-19 win over the Pirates on Friday at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.

With eight Southeastern Conference teams already bowl eligible and South Carolina needing only one more win to also make itself bowl eligible, it's impossible to know where Kentucky may land in the final bowl picture. However, one bowl that is making no secret of its desire to have Kentucky for its Dec. 29 game is the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. "Kentucky is a team we have been targeting since fall practice started," said Harold Graeter, associate executive director of the Liberty Bowl.

LEXINGTON - Jeremy Jarmon can't hide his excitement about having Kentucky playing in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. "I am still really excited and I think a lot of people know that and can obviously tell how excited I am," said the junior defensive end. Jarmon is obviously happy to be back playing after missing the Wildcats' final regular season game, a loss at Tennessee, because of a knee injury. "I am working hard to get myself back into shape and ready for the game," he said.

Kentucky will be without yet another offensive player Friday when it plays East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl after coach Rich Brooks revealed Monday that sophomore running back Moncel Allen was academically ineligible. Allen, who ran for 202 yards and one touchdown and caught five passes for 39 yards and another score, did not accompany the team to Memphis, Tenn. "We have other guys that are eligible to play," Brooks said Monday at a Liberty Bowl press conference. "I won't have to worry quite as much about the rotations.

LEXINGTON - Even though East Carolina doesn't have a marquee offensive player, Kentucky defensive coordinator Steve Brown says that makes for a unique star system for the Pirates. "They do have stars in the sense that they all have the ability to make plays," said Brown as he prepares to face East Carolina on Jan. 2 in Memphis, Tenn., in the Liberty Bowl. "You think you can shut down this running back, then another one comes in and pops a big run. "Against several opponents this year, they had different guys all play equal roles as far as production.

MEMPHIS - Apparently there was plenty of reason to worry about Kentucky not showing up at the Liberty Bowl. It's just that the worry was misplaced. The low turnout of Kentucky fans for Friday's game with East Carolina that been projected for weeks turned out to be wrong as 25,000 or more Big Blue fans were here. The problem was the Kentucky football didn't show up to prove it was better than it looked finishing the season against Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Or at least the Wildcats did not show up until the second half after they fell behind 16-3.

MEMPHIS -- Quarterback Mike Hartline made Joker Phillips worry more than he did in any other game this year. No, it wasn't Hartline's play in Kentucky's 25-19 victory over East Carolina here Friday in the Liberty Bowl that troubled UK's offensive coordinator. Instead, it was the flu bug the quarterback had that forced him to make frequent trips to the UK dressing room during the game for what coach Rich Brooks called "emergency situations. " Phillips nearly panicked in the fourth quarter when UK forced a turnover and Hartline was still in the dressing room.

MEMPHIS ? Kentucky looked like a team feeling sorry for itself in its third consecutive postseason appearance in the first half of the Liberty Bowl on Friday. Facing a 13-point deficit, the outlook looked as gloomy as the team's disappointing finish to end in the regular season nearly a month ago. However, the Wildcats left town feeling good about the state of the program after completing one of the biggest comebacks in school history. It was a rally that gave the Wildcats their third straight bowl victory for the first time in school history as Kentucky scored 22 points in the second half for an exciting 25-19 triumph over East Carolina Friday night.

Kentucky football coach Joker Phillips isn't looking ahead to next season. Despite failing to become bowl eligible for the first time in six years following last week's 19-10 loss at Georgia, Phillips wants to finish the season on a strong note in Saturday's home finale against Tennessee. A week ago, the Cats were still in contention for a sixth straight bowl bid. This time, the Cats are treating the contest against the Volunteers as a postseason contest. “Our goal is to win our last game,” Phillips said Monday.

Kentucky is only 4-7 and can't have a winning season, has had its five-year streak of playing in bowl games snapped and has not defeated Tennessee since 1984. But Kentucky coach Joker Phillips, 10-14 in his two seasons as head coach, insists he feels no extra pressure going into Saturday's season-ending game with Tennessee. “No, I¿don't,” said Phillips. “We are playing for pride and pride for university. I don't feel any pressure for myself. I don't want them (the players) to feel pressure for me especially.

HOOVER, Ala. - Harold Graeter is the associate executive director of the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, a game Kentucky played in and won three years ago. He's excited the Liberty Bowl will have its more traditional New Year's Eve date at 3:30 p.m. EST - the same day UK's basketball team hosts Louisville. “We have been on ESPN so many years, but they have slid us over to ABC this year and we will be one of only four bowl games that will be on network television versus cable.

Give Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart credit for admitting the obvious — convincing Kentucky football fans to go to Birmingham, Ala., for a Jan. 8 bowl game against Pittsburgh is not an easy sell. Kentucky fans have flocked to Nashville, Tenn., for the Music City Bowl in three of the last four years and took a hefty crowd to Memphis, Tenn., for the 2008 Liberty Bowl. But Birmingham to see a 6-6 team play that lost again to Tennessee after schools are back in session and holiday breaks are over?

He went into preseason practice not even assured of being Kentucky's starting quarterback — a job he held as both a sophomore and junior. Senior Mike Hartline not only emerged as the Wildcats’ No. 1 quarterback, but he has played so well through the first eight games that he has been added to the watch list for the Manning Award, which is presented to the nation’s top quarterback. Hartline has completed 184 of 273 passes for 2,144 yards and 17 touchdowns with only four interceptions going into Saturday night’s game at Mississippi State.

Harold Graeter is the associate executive director of the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis. His bowl has courted Kentucky the last four years and the Wildcats beat East Carolina in Memphis to end the 2008 season in the 50th Liberty Bowl. Graeter recently took time to share his thoughts on new Kentucky coach Joker Phillips and the Kentucky program. Question: What do you think of Phillips and can he continue what Rich Brooks had going at Kentucky? Graeter: “We have not had a lot of interaction with Joker.

LEXINGTON ? Morgan Newton laughs when he thinks about this time last year when he would have been playing high school basketball and maybe finding time to watch a college football bowl game or two. He even only watched the second half of Kentucky's win over East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. Now he's preparing to lead the Wildcats in the Dec. 27th matchup against Clemson in the Music City Bowl in Nashville after starting the final seven regular-season games following an injury to Mike Hartline.

LEXINGTON ? Tennessee native Randall Cobb was one of the more vocal University of Kentucky players about wanting the Cats to play in a more prestigious bowl this year, especially after the win at Georgia. However, now Cobb says he's happy as he can be that the Music City Bowl picked Kentucky for the third time in four years and that the Cats will be playing Clemson Dec. 27. "The Music City is better than no bowl. It has been a tough process. We have actually beat out a couple of teams to get to go to the Music City Bowl, so that is fortunate for us. We are excited to be going there," Cobb said.

LEXINGTON ? Tennessee native Randall Cobb was one of the more vocal University of Kentucky players about wanting the Cats to play in a more prestigious bowl this year, especially after the win at Georgia. However, now Cobb says he's happy as he can be that the Music City Bowl picked Kentucky for the third time in four years and that the Cats will be playing Clemson Dec. 27. "The Music City is better than no bowl. It has been a tough process. We have actually beat out a couple of teams to get to go to the Music City Bowl, so that is fortunate for us. We are excited to be going there," Cobb, a sophomore receiver/quarterback/kick returner, said Sunday.

There's still no official word, but bowl sources continued to confirm Tuesday that Kentucky would be playing in the Music City Bowl Dec. 27 in Nashville. It will be Kentucky's third trip to the Music City Bowl in four years following last year's berth in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Sources had expected the bowl bid to be official Tuesday, but several events fueled a day of unfounded speculation that had Kentucky playing anywhere from the Outback Bowl to the Independence Bowl.