Morgan Newton has been the future of Kentucky Football for the last 2 seasons. He has been waiting in the wings to be the #1 quarterback, sitting behind Mike Hartline and beating out Ryan Massokowski who eventually transferred.
Could this be his breakout season?
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] If he follows the path of his newly hired mentor Andre Woodson it very well could be the year for him to shine.
Andre Woodson had to go through a lot of adversity in his first 2 seasons, being demoted to #2 behind Curtis Pulley, and almost fell off the face of Kentucky football forever.
But then came his junior season.
[TABLE=”class: wikitable”]
[TR]
[/TR]
[TR]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][URL=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_(college_sports)”]RS Freshman[/URL]
[/TD]
[TD]7
[/TD]
[TD]54
[/TD]
[TD]88
[/TD]
[TD]492
[/TD]
[TD]4
[/TD]
[TD]1
[/TD]
[TD]36
[/TD]
[TD]-27
[/TD]
[TD]-0.75
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]109.26
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sophomore
[/TD]
[TD]11
[/TD]
[TD]146
[/TD]
[TD]253
[/TD]
[TD]1644
[/TD]
[TD]6
[/TD]
[TD]6
[/TD]
[TD]57
[/TD]
[TD]-133
[/TD]
[TD]-2.33
[/TD]
[TD]1
[/TD]
[TD]110.16
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][B]Junior[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]13[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]295[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]452[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]3515[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]31[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]7[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]70[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]-137[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]-1.96[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]1[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]146.84[/B]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Senior
[/TD]
[TD]13
[/TD]
[TD]327
[/TD]
[TD]518
[/TD]
[TD]3709
[/TD]
[TD]40
[/TD]
[TD]11
[/TD]
[TD]69
[/TD]
[TD]-193
[/TD]
[TD]-2.70
[/TD]
[TD]3
[/TD]
[TD]144.51
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][B]TOTALS[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]44[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]822[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]1311[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]9360[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]81[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]25[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]232[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]-490[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]-2.11[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]5[/B]
[/TD]
[TD][B]134.32[/B]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Newton has went through similar trials, being a starter for half of a season with Mike Hartline being injured, and then taking over in the bowl game last season vs. Pittsburgh that didn’t turn out so well.
Can Morgan battle adversity to become the quarterback Andre Woodson became during his junior season?
The big question I have is not Newton’s ability, but does he have the talent around him that Woodson had?
Woodson had Rafael Little, Stevie Johnson, Keenan Burton, Dicky Lyons, and Jacob Tamme.
Newton has Raymond Sanders, La’Rod King, Brian Adams, Gene McCaskill, and Jordan Aumiller.
Definitely not household names for Newton, but one could argue neither were Woodson’s teammates before their junior year.
I think Morgan Newton has the talent level and the desire to be the quarterback that could lead this team to a 7-5 or even a 8-4 season, but I just don’t know if he has the talent around him to make him as successful as Woodson.
So I guess the big question is does Morgan Newton have the offensive fire power around him to put up the numbers that Andre Woodson had in his junior season and lead this Kentucky team to a bowl victory in 2011?
