By LARRY VAUGHT
Former Kentucky offensive coordinator Tony Franklin believes that Kentucky players are going to love new offensive line coach Zach Yenser.
“He is a really good human being that is a good dude. He is a really loyal friend and he is a brilliant brain. Zach is a really good technician on the field and the players will really respond to him,” said Franklin.
But here is the best praise that Franklin can give UK’s most recent hire.
“I think (former UK offensive line coach) John (Schlarman) would be thrilled to know Zach is there because there is not a better coach to treat young men the way they need to be treated than Zac and he is a really good coach, too. I am tickled for him and his wife and family.”
Yenser has been the assistant offensive line coach with the San Francisco 49ers the last three years but the Kentucky native got his coaching start at Troy University when Franklin was the offensive coordinator. Yenser transferred to Troy after playing at East Tennessee State and became a starting lineman on a conference championship team in 2006 when Schlarman was the offensive line coach. The next season he worked as a graduate assistant at Troy with Franklin, Schlarman and Neal Brown, another former UK offensive coordinator who is now the head coach at West Virginia.
“Zach was just a normal player and I loved him. I eventually found out that for two years I called him Jake before I got his name right. He said he was afraid to tell me that was not his name,” Franklin said. “But loved him. He transported my daughters to places and helped them move. That’s just the type person he is.”
Franklin reached out to help Yenser start his coaching career first at Henderson State University and then at Colquitt County High School.
In 2010, Yenser joined Sonny Dykes’ coaching staff at Louisiana Tech where Franklin was the offensive coordinator.
“Our line coach there was old school but Zach did a great job as his assistant,” Franklin said. “Zach was so smart and was a great combination with the line coach at Louisiana Tech. Zach was so smart at figuring out defensive fronts and how to call things.
“Zach actually helped my career tremendously. People started using zone blitzes to make us keep a (running) back in to block on pass plays. That irritated me. I told Zach to figure out a way to fix that so we did not have to leave a back in. Every week he would come in on Monday and say he had it figured out for the team we were going to play.
“He could just see a defensive front and pick up tendencies to where we could pick up the blitz without having to keep a back in.”
When Franklin went to Auburn, he brought Yenser with him to train the offensive line coach. He did the same thing when he later got a job at Middle Tennessee.
Dykes got the head job at California in 2013 and Franklin was the offensive coordinator. He fought to get Yenser a full-time position but Dykes offered the job to someone else who said yes but then changed his mind. Dykes then hired Yenser.
Yenser was there two years before leaving for Kansas, a move Franklin tried to talk him out of making.
“We had a top 10 offense in 2014 and had (quarterback) Jared Goff (the top pick in the 2016 NFL draft) coming back,” Franklin said.
Yenser spent three years at Kansas before Dykes, another former UK assistant coach, hired him as offensive quality control coach at Southern Methodist before joining the 49ers a year later.
“The 49ers have been doing the same thing (UK coach Mark) Stoops likes to do and that is heavy, run-tough football,” Franklin said.
The 49ers had the NFL’s seventh best rushing offense with 2,166 yards last season.
Franklin said Yenser is a different type of coach than Schlarman, one of UK’s most beloved coaches before his death during the 2020 season after a two-year bout with cancer. Eric Wolford was UK’s line coach last year but has left to coach at Alabama.
“John was a great technician and an incredible human,” Franklin said. “The players knew John by other people telling them John Schlarman stories. He might get down in a stance, butt somebody in the head and need eight stitches. Zach is not that way.
“I have had a lot of offensive line coaches and Zach is as good as any of them. I think Kentucky players are lucky to have him and will absolutely love him.”
Former Kentucky teammates Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns were reunited at last weekend’s NBA All-Star Game. The last time they played together was the Final Four loss to Wisconsin to end UK’s 38-0 season in 2014-15.
Booker now plays for Phoenix while Towns is with Minnesota.
“It’s great, man. Just listening to him, that’s what I’ve been doing since we met, listening to him talk. No, it’s fun, man. We’re just having fun with it,” Booker said before the game. “Our lockers are right next to each other.
“ I know when KD (Kevin Durant) picked us both on the same team that the Kentucky memories started to flash back. It’s fun to be out here with him.”
Booker has been having a lot of fun the last two years. Phoenix made the NBA Finals last year and the Suns were leading the NBA Western Division with a 48-10 record at the all-star break and Booker is averaging 25.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
“I think that expectation regardless of our record or not is going to be there after falling short last year, going through what we went through last year,” Booker said. “I’d be lying to you if I said that wasn’t our goal from the beginning of the season, but I think we do a good job at celebrating these moments and celebrating the streaks that we’ve been on, at the same time understanding what the mission is and what we’re ultimately trying to do.
“We learned a lot through the season last year that benefited us later on in the playoffs, Coach stressing little details that you think isn’t a big deal at the time but can cost you a game in the playoffs, and you’re never going to want that.”
Booker had to deal with big expectations in his one season at UK when the Cats almost completed a perfect season. He knows what it takes to have a special team and special season.
“I’d say the chemistry. We can just start there, just the culture, the environment we’re in, from coaching staff to training staff all the way down to the players. Everybody is locked in and everybody works extremely hard,” he said.
“It’s just a whole chemistry and aura about the team that we’re still trying to build on for later in the season, but so far, so good.”
Kentucky signee Cassidy Rowe has had a banner season for Shelby Valley.
Going into this week’s 59th District Tournament she is averaging 17 points, seven assists, four rebounds and 3.5 steals per game while shooting 39 percent from 3-point range, 45 percent overall from the field and 77 percent at the foul line.
Even more impressive, she had taken 42 charges in 29 games.
“She gets chased or face guarded almost every night and is always the focus of the opposing defense,” Shelby Valley coach Lonnie Rowe, Cassidy’s father, said. “She is now the all-time assists leader at Shelby Valley.”
Cassidy Rowe has the school record for most assists in a season, most assists in a game (15) and most steals in a game (12). She also had a career-high 36 points against Rockcastle County.
“She has got much more consistent with her jump shot this season,” Lonnie Rowe said. “If she gets her shoulders squared, she is going to knock down the shot.
“She also keeps per composure very well. She never gets frustrated. If the defense overloads on her, she just finds teammates and gets them shots.
Rowe was named 15th Region player of the year and is one those eligible for Miss Basketball honors in voting being conducted this week along with Anderson County’s Amiya Jenkins, another UK signee.
After Kentucky beat Tennessee 107-7 in Lexington earlier this season, Kentucky coach John Calipari revealed that sometimes he calls Tennessee coach Rick Barnes for advice. Remember that Calipari was one of the biggest supporters of Barnes when he was fired in 2015 after Texas failed to make the Sweet 16 for the seventh straight year. However, he won 402 games, made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances and got Texas to its first Final Four in 50 years in 2003.
“He and I talk throughout the year, he’s a great coach. He’s got those kids playing,” Calipari said.
Barnes has had great success against Calipari since coming to Tennessee. He may not have “owned” the Cats but he is 9-7 against Calipari’s Cats. He’s also now 10-9 overall against Kentucky and that puts him in an elite group of coaches who have at least 10 wins over UK.
Former LSU coach Dale Brown leads the way with 18 with former Florida coach Billy Donovan next with 17. Bobby Knight (Indiana) and Ray Mears (Tennessee) have 15 and Roy Skinner (Vanderbilt) 14. Dean Smith (North Carolina) had 13 but the most surprising name on the lists could be Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt) with 12.
Other coaches with at least 10 wins against UK are Don Defoe (Tennessee) and Wimp Sanderson (Alabama) with 11 while C.M. Newton (Alabama, Vanderbilt), Roy Williams (Kansas, North Carolina) and Bruce Pearl (Tennessee, Auburn) have 10 wins like Barnes.
Senior Riley Gaines had another memorable week at the SEC Championships in Knoxville.
She was named the SEC Women’s Swimming & Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She has a 3.876 grade point average in health sciences — she plans to be a dentist and scored in the top two percent nationally on the Dental Admissions Test.
Gaines won the 200-meter freestyle for the second year in a row. This year she was almost a second in front with a school record time of 1:42.62, the fourth fastest time in the nation and and an automatic qualifying standard.
“Last year, I won this event and it’s something I’ve been able to visualize this past year. It’s something I’ve thought about, something I’ve worked with,” Gaines said. “I don’t want to say I was expecting it, it’s not like I just immediately knew I was going to win, but it’s something I’ve worked for and fought for, so I knew what it would take.”
She was even better in the 200 butterfly with a winning time of 1:51.51, the fastest time in the country and another NCAA qualifying time. It also broke both the conference and meet record of 1:52.04 set by Georgia’s Dakota Luther in 2021 and broke the UK record of 1:52.08 set by Christina Bechtel in 2015.
Gaines also helped the 800 relay team finish second and meet the NCAA qualifying standard. She was also part of the 200 and 400 medley relay teams that placed third to to give her five medals in the meet.
Quote of the Week: “At Tulsa, Georgia, UK, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Memphis and High Point, he did it with class. Never sold his soul and always stayed true to who he was as a coach and as a person. That’s the greatest compliment that can be paid to anyone,” Kentucky coach John Calipari on Tubby Smith after he announced his retirement as High Point coach.
Quote 2: “In my experience in college, this was probably one of the most rewarding wins I’ve ever been a part of just knowing what we were up against. Alabama just beat Arkansas, who just beat Auburn, so that was a huge win for them. We were down a couple guys. I’m really proud of our team,” Kellan Grady after scoring 25 points to help UK beat Alabama.
Quote 3: “Three things he loved in life: Family, football, golf. A special special coach to many but also a very special father and grandfather to all 29 great- and grandkids. Thankfully I was able to see the side of him that not a lot of people got to witness. We miss him,” Ellise Jaggers on the passing of her grandfather, Joe Jaggers, the 12th all-time winningest high school football coach in Kentucky.