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WILDCATS

Kentucky's J.D. Harmon to sit 1st half for block

Kyle Tucker

LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops stopped playing coy Wednesday and revealed the player who'll be suspended for the first half of Saturday's game at LSU: sophomore cornerback J.D. Harmon.

Stoops said the punishment came after he spoke to Southeastern Conference officials about a block by Harmon that was "close to being an illegal hit – or being an illegal hit that wasn't called" in last week's win over Louisiana-Monroe. The violent, above-the-shoulders shot by Harmon came on a 21-yard punt return by Demarco Robinson to the ULM 30, which set up a UK touchdown midway through the third quarter.

"After consulting with the league about the situation, we just felt like it was the right thing for me to do to suspend him for half a game," Stoops said.

Harmon has not started a game at corner this season, but he's a valuable reserve defender and the Wildcats top special teams point-producer, according to the coaches' scoring system. He has 22 tackles, two for loss, three quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles and a pair of kickoff returns for 53 yards.

"He's been tremendous," special teams coach Craig Naivar said. "He's been a spark on those units, as far as coverage teams, return team, all those. So we're going to miss him the first half and be glad when he comes back."

Kentucky (5-1, 2-1) has been penalized 37 times for 354 yards in six games – an average of 6.2 flags for 59 yards per game, which is tied for worst in the SEC. Stoops is trying to help his team walk a fine line.

"We can be more disciplined with penalties," he said. "Hey, when you have an aggressive team, there's going to be some penalties, too. We will work on that and continue to work on discipline, but we do want an aggressive team."

Thursday night showdown

The big news that came out of Kentucky releasing its 2015 football schedule Tuesday: the Cats' Oct. 15 home game against Auburn will be the first Thursday night game ever at Commonwealth Stadium.

"I'm very happy and looking forward to having a home Thursday night game," Stoops said. "I appreciate (UK president Eli) Capilouto and Mitch Barnhart and all the people that have made that happen. I think it'll be a great stage for us to be a home game on a Thursday night and (on) national TV and have a chance to really show everybody a lot about our community and about our school and about our team. So that'll be a lot of fun."

Stoops also said the game will be "big" for recruiting because it means "a lot of exposure."

For him. It'll be a bit of a logistical nightmare for school administrators, who will have to solve a parking problem between now and next fall. Students typically park around Commonwealth Stadium during the week. Eric Monday, UK's executive vice president for finance and administration, announced the school has formed a "working group" to address the issue.

"This is a tremendous honor and opportunity for Lexington and the University of Kentucky," Monday said in a news release. "But while maximizing the opportunities associated with the game, we also want to ensure that the event goes as smoothly as possible for everyone – both on our campus and in the community."

Full-week effort

When Kentucky fell behind 14-3 in the first quarter against ULM, it wasn't merely the product of coming out flat on game day.

"It's not just emotion," Stoops said Monday. "You don't just turn emotion on, on Saturday. It's about the week. They've gotta walk in our building today with a great attitude about them and a strong mindset to have a great week of preparation to put ourselves in position to win a game."

So far, so good. Through Wednesday, the Cats' coaches were pleased with the effort. Coordinator Neal Brown called Tuesday "a really good practice" for the offense.

"Had a lot of energy, a lot of focus," he said. "We were a little lackluster last week in practice, got away from some details. Some of our negative plays last week in the Monroe game were due to some fundamental errors, not paying attention to details. We got back to that (Tuesday)."

— Kyle Tucker