Will the controversy and public debate surrounding linebacker Kash Daniels' alleged and apparent ankle-twist of UF quarterback Kyle Trask be a distraction for Kentucky, or will it be something that causes the team to look inward and rally around a captain?
Has Kentucky handled the situation the right way?
The Cats Illustrated staff discusses the situation in roundtable format.
What's your take on the Kash Daniel situation, on Kentucky's handling of it, and whether it was dealt with properly?
Jeff Drummond: This is not the kind of distraction that you want to be dealing with as the team prepares for its first SEC road trip of the season coming of a tough loss in the league opener. In hindsight, UK probably should not have brought Kash Daniel out to deliver what now appears to be a flimsy defense of his actions after Wednesday's practice. I think that denial, as it often does in society, only made matters worse. I don't think he was trying to "injure" Kyle Trask, as many have accused him of doing, but the act was unnecessary, unsportsmanlike, and potentially dangerous. If it happened in reverse, UK fans would be furious, and you could not blame them. Look, it happens a lot in those pile-ups. Football can be a nasty game at times. That's not to excuse his actions, but a sincere apology to Trask in a phone call to Florida and perhaps a short suspension would have likely made the situation go away in a matter of hours. Now, it's going to linger a bit longer, and you've got the potential for people looking at Daniel and the UK program like they did with Grayson Allen and Duke if anything else happens in the future. It's just a bad look for the program.
Travis Graf: I definitely think the Kash Daniel situation is a bad look for him and the Kentucky football program. The situation wouldn’t have been near as bad if he hadn’t blatantly lied about it. Did he make a big mistake? Yes. Does that make him a bad person? Not this situation alone, no. You have to man up and own your actions, however. I’ve been at the bottom of a pile plenty of times, in high school football, things happened. So it really does happen all of the time, as people have said all day on social media. Saying that, it doesn’t condone what Kash did or what anyone else making a dirty play has done. As far as Stoops’ stance, it’s hard to tell by his short quote to the media. We’ll see if there’s been any self-imposed disciplinary actions come Saturday, but if the SEC and Stoops already had talks and said he’s good to go, I doubt he misses any time.
Justin Rowland: I generally don't have a strong opinion when it comes to suspensions or disciplinary action and I don't here. While I believe that certain actions are always wrong, I don't believe there are usually blanket solutions that "have" to be applied. And while coaches have surely sometimes overlooked glaring mistakes and neglected punishment because of their own will to win, we have to accept that Stoops genuinely doesn't believe a suspension is warranted. It's a good thing that he was in touch with the league about the incident. Stoops handled Jordan Jones without a lot of public punitive action and I didn't have a problem with that either, so long as there is a clear message being communicated behind the scenes. What I will say is that since Daniel was allowed to make public comments that were apparently contradicted by the later release of a subsequent angle, there should be another clarification. This kind of thing has gotten enough energy that it could theoretically place UK players in a situation where opponents target them. The one take I don't really accept has been the frequent, "It happens all the time." Trask wasn't injured, but he could have been, and you don't see players getting hurt in piles. Grabbing, clawing, spitting, cursing - it might be unseemly, but what the video shows shouldn't be explained by whataboutism.
