Cats battling injuries at wide receiver

He runs the Air Raid, so offensive coordinator Neal Brown wants to show the Air Raid in Saturday's Spring Game.

But his ability to do that is hindered with at least four receivers -- sophomores Ryan Timmons, Jeff Badet and Joey Herrick, and freshman Thaddeus Snodgrass -- "banged up" from spring practices.

None of the injuries are "major" that will "keep anybody out for a significant amount of time," coach Mark Stoops said, but none of them is guaranteed to play Saturday, and it's uncertain how wide-open the offense can be given the injury situation.

"Tell them we're going to throw it," Brown said. "We need people here, man. Big recruiting day Saturday. Fans need to show up."

With two wide receivers (senior Javess Blue and sophomore Alex Montgomery) recovering from injuries that shelved them throughout spring practice, the additional injuries stretched the depth chart so thin Brown said he would be on the two-deep if he was eligible to play, and wide receivers coach Tommy Mainord had to jump in practice to run some routes.

"That's definitely not good," Brown said.

But those who are able to play don't want to tone anything down.

"We want to throw it," freshman T.V. Williams said. "We don't care if we're gassed at the end and can't move. We're going to throw it."

Still, it doesn't help that the receivers that lost time on the field needed as much of it as possible. All the players expected to be major contributors need as many practice repetitions as possible.

"We have time to get guys back," Stoops said, "but you're trying to find that balance where you're getting good work in and competing as hard as we can with staying healthy just so we can have good practices."

The lack of available, healthy wideouts also makes evaluating the quarterback race "a lot more difficult," Brown said.

It's required him to catch their passes in extra pre- and post-practice sessions "to make sure they're getting enough reps of the stuff we're going to run," Brown said.

Brown said he and Stoops will meet to discuss their hope of "narrowing down" the quarterback race after Saturday's game, which will weigh more heavily than normal practices and scrimmages, Brown said.

While no one has "jumped up" and seized control of the position battle, which Brown said he wants to settle at least by the "early stages" of fall camp, he does have "an idea (of) who's looked the best in some pressure situations."

Another pressure situation will come on Saturday -- provided, of course, they have enough bodies to throw to.

"You want to get out there and put a good product on the field and have some fun," Stoops said. "But we need to see where we're at."