Mark Stoops Press Conference
Mark Stoops News Conference
Post-Vanderbilt, Pre-Florida
October 14, 2024
Opening statement …
“Again, I’m just reiterating some of the things I said after the game, frustrating on a lot of levels. We hurt ourselves plenty, the thing that I failed to mention after the game, and I always try to remember that, is to give recognition to the team that just beat us, and Clark Lea and his group did a heck of a job. He’s done a great job all year, and for some time, I think I said it prior to last Monday, that I saw it coming, the way he was building his team for years and doing a very good job, so congratulations to them, they played better than us, deserved the win, and he’s got that team on the right track.
“As far as we go, there’s a very thin line between success and failure and we are definitely shooting ourselves in the foot. In a game like that where you have seven possessions, I think we all, myself including, during the game and certainly the last time I spoke with you, you feel the frustration, you feel so many emotions, and then you look at it and you look at that thin line that I’m talking about, it’s crazy, because you feel like offensively we’re falling short, and we are, but you look at the seven possessions, we have it in our hands with every opportunity to score on five, five of the possessions. We take the first drive, drive it down there, self-inflicted wound, get a penalty. Next drive, drive it 80 yards, great drive, touchdown. Finally get a turnover from a quarterback that hasn’t thrown one all (season), get it, drive it right down, going to be first-and-10 at the 22-yard line, fumble. The next possession, I try to be aggressive at the end of the two minute, and again I’m not trying to be defensive or argumentative or conflict or anything, you wonder why I play smart sometimes, we go three-and-out, zero time off the clock and they score. Again, I’m not trying to be a jerk but you wonder in a game like that why you be very smart and protect the football. That was a huge, that was the only real bad possession of the first half. Three plays, three incompletions, and part of that’s on us because we actually had a different call played and the quarterback thought he had press (coverage), was going to take a shot, and whatever, I mean that, it’s coaching, it’s one play, it’s something we could have executed better, let’s put it that way. That’s the only bad possession of the first half. Then the second half we get the ball drive it right down to the four-inch line, again, get zero (points). Next possession, drive it straight down, score a touchdown. Next possession, debacle, with holds and penalties, and that’s where the frustration, undisciplined, anger comes out of all of us. That’s something we have to get corrected. In a close game like that, I talked about it all week, not letting the emotions get out of control at home. It’s about execution, doing things right, I felt like we’re doing that, but again we take ourselves out of it right from the start. We get a nice drive get right back on track, get a turnover, get right back on track again, get in the red zone and put the ball on the ground. You’re not going to beat a team that possesses it like that and scores.
“Conversely, they have seven possessions, and they get four of them are converted to points, 20 points, a team a week earlier scored 40 on the number one team in the country, or a top team in the country. We feel like, again, not putting this all on the offense because I feel like defensively, and Coach (Brad) White and our staff and our players will tell you that they feel like it’s one of the worst games we’ve played all year just because of the few frustrating plays that are in there, and so, it’s across the board.
“And then with all of that, we have the ball at the plus forty-eight (VU 48-yard line), with an opportunity to go win the game if we don’t make a senseless block in the back. Again, that’s where the frustration and the undisciplined play that I agree with, that is, very frustrating, and very uncharacteristic. We’ve worked hard to get things corrected. We go into that game the least penalized team out of 16 very good football teams. We were number one, we were the least penalized team going into that game, and then we have the most we’ve had all year, in 12. So, very frustrating, no excuse for it, things we have to get corrected, and we’ve got to take a good hard look at ourselves, and why we’re doing that, not so much blaming the individuals who made the mistakes, but why? Why are we doing these things, and why do we do them in critical moments in certain games? That’s what we’ve got to get figured out. Our team has responded before, and I anticipate we’ll do the same thing.
“We have obviously a big challenge going on the road, playing in the Swamp and playing a Florida team that is getting better and better and playing extremely hard, and is always very loaded with very good players. We know it will be a great challenge, we know their team, much like ours, it’s a thin line between success and failure, and that will do everything to get a victory. It’s a very prideful program and Coach (Billy) Napier will have his team ready and I need to do the same. So, we got to regroup in a hurry and get right back at it and get back to work and find some solutions.”
On the defense keeping the score low…
“We don’t measure it by what the total is, 20 points. For us, they scored on four possessions. We had an opportunity in each of those possessions to get off the field. And so that is how we judge ourselves. We’re all in this together, and got to play complimentary football, whatever it takes.”
On evaluating the progress of the offense…
“I agree, it’s hard, it’s frustrating because you obviously need to get the ball in the end zone. That’s very frustrating. But we’re trying to get shots, and again, a lot of teams, and them in particular, they’re really trying to make us earn all of those yards. We had 23 first downs if I’m not mistaken, and that’s efficient. Just got to punch it in. We punch it in and get those scores, and it’s a different feeling sitting right here. But if ifs and buts were candy and nuts every day would be, yeah.”
On getting big plays…
“Big plays, I don’t know. You could look at a lot of different things. You could look at defended well, you could look at making us earn their yards because we’re having a hard time in the endzone, you could look at protection and having enough time to get it a fraction off here and there. There’s a variety of reasons.”
On considering making Baron Brown the full-time punt returner…
“It’s always a part of it. It’s a part of it, I think it’s also a part of what he can handle. He does a lot, and he gets really amped up. He’s got to come out on certain plays because he’s exhausted, too. And what we’re putting on his plate and his comfort level with catching it and all the things that go into it. Yeah, it’s always a possibility.”
On Jamarion Wilcox getting on the field more…
“Well, here’s a simple thing: tie your shoes. Like, you know, right? Tie your shoes. He doesn’t tie his shoes, so he runs it but his shoes fall off, so he’s got to come out. That would help.”
On conversations with the senior leaders on the team…
“Yeah, of course. That’s why I was a little late, I apologize I was five, six minutes late right here because I was just sitting in my office visiting with somebody right there. Yeah, we’ll keep things moving.”
On benching players after mistakes but the difficulty of balancing benching some of your best players…
“That’s a great question. Like today, we’re going through every play that could’ve changed the game. There’s many more. I always tell the players this, and I’ve told you this many times, you don’t know exactly what play is going to change it. But there’s 15 that pop out at me that are eye-popping, that everybody’s going to go through. And that is a fine line because I’m going through there, and I don’t want to call out certain players because one of the players that made a couple mistakes has been the most consistent player on our team, on the field and off the field. So, I’m not putting that just on him. I recognize the good in some of these guys, and one in particular that made a couple mistakes, that has been the most consistent player on our team. Again, on the field, off the field, off-season, you name it, tries to do everything right. So again, to me, it’s not like always who, it’s why. Why are we doing these things? That’s obviously my issue. And how can we get it corrected? How can we be the least penalized team, how can we be very disciplined, and then look so undisciplined at times? Well, because it’s magnified, because we had these drives, get the ball to the six-inch line, don’t get it, lose the game, everything gets magnified. And I told you last Monday that it was going to be a short game; seven possessions is a short game.”
On the thin margin for error and contemplating ways to enlarge that, maybe quickening things like the last touchdown drive…
“I don’t know if that’s always the answer, I’m not saying it’s not. Again, you can see we’re working for that so you have to be methodical, you know what I mean? If you go back to one of the best drives we’ve had of the year, 12 plays 80 yards, six minutes, is pretty methodical, pretty detailed, pretty much that playcaller’s right on the money the whole time, it’s not easy to do. There’s a fine line there. I’m not saying what’s right and what’s wrong, it’s just what we feel like we have to do to win. If you punch it in … they play that way, right? They control the ball, have a lot of different variety in their offense, work the ball down the field, their drives usually take a long time, so the difference is they capitalized, they scored.”
On Florida quarterback Graham Mertz being out for the year…
“First of all, want to recognize Graham Mertz and my sympathy is with him because I got to know him through recruiting and I thought he’s played some really good football. I know they’ve had some ups and downs, like a lot of people in this league, but I thought he was really playing good football and is a really good player and just a great young man. So, our prayers are with him, that’s a terrible injury, you hate seeing that, especially on non-contact, it looked like a non-contact injury, what I know, what I saw. For them they’ve been playing both quarterbacks anyways when Mertz got hurt earlier, they’ve been playing DJ (Lagway) as well so I think they’ve been playing both quarterbacks, seem to be very similar in their style. Obviously, Graham had a lot more experience, but DJ is a talent. I think that throw alone that you saw, the talent that he has is going to give him a lot of confidence to put that game in overtime. And the way he not only has great athletic ability, big strong guy, but the throw that he made to tie that game is quite impressive and so we knew going into the game we have to be ready for both anyway and now it’s on him.”
On keeping the morale and energy high…
“There’s a lot of things that we’ll get into. There will be quite a bit that I don’t need to share with you right now but I put a lot of time and thought into it and consult with a lot of people, there will be a good meeting today.”
On finding success on the road…
“I don’t know, I hope so. We played before and made some mistakes and responded in a positive way and hopefully with this game, it’s one game. It’s a very tough league this year, it’s a very balanced league this year, it’s brutally tough. And there’s going to be two teams playing Saturday that desperately want to win. So it’ll be a great challenge, it’ll be a great game.”
On snaps going wrong on back-to-back kicks and keeping it from getting in their heads…
“Yeah, agreed. It’s something that Coach (Jay) Boulware and I talked during the game because we have alternatives that we could flip to and I asked him that very question during the game because you felt like one rolled into two. I think they were different, I think the second one was a little harder snap to handle but again, normally that’s something that’s done, and again I’m not trying to be a smart ass but when I talked about that a few weeks ago, because the routine has been looking routine right? And then nobody talks about it because we do that literally thousands of times a week and I mean it has been routine. Our kicker has been one of the most efficient guys in the country and all of the sudden it shows up. I don’t know how to explain that either. And then we do literally thousands (of practice repetitions). One thing our special teams coaches do is those guys work literally all practice long. It used to be like, you know, do their thing, take a break. They literally work for the entire practice on every little detail. So, I can promise you it’s not for lack of effort.”
On how Gavin Wimsatt has been playing…
“I think Gavin brings an element that is very useful. He’s a very good player. I think Coach (Bush) Hamdan’s done a really nice job of utilizing him, throwing the deep shot in there was a really good pass and have a great opportunity to make an explosive play there, keep people honest because he can throw it. And there’s a balance there, as you know some of these games, it’s all nip and tuck, the games go so close, every play is so important. But, I thought we did a nice job of utilizing him.”
On Brock Vandagriff taking hits…
“I think that’s one of the reasons why going into that game and the game plan was to try and unload some of that off of him. And Gavin brings a different element, he is a very big, strong, young man, and he can throw the ball. So, I thought it was a good plan and was efficient. It was efficient. Again, we’ve got to make those explosives like that. We were inches off there.”
When the field gets tight, getting comfortable with “If we can get it to this guy, good things are going to happen,” have you found that one thing you can lean on…
“I think there’s a fine line there because we have playmakers that we have confidence in on the outside. And there’s a fine line, you get it down there where you’re gutting them a little bit, getting some good runs, some efficient runs, keeping them off-balance, and we just got to capitalize. There’s a fine line of when to, if you take the shot and miss it, you’re like, ‘Why did I get behind the chains?’ I just grinded it all the way down here, and I take this shot, and now I put us behind the chains, you know what I mean? When there’s that thin line that we’re talking about, there’s always going to be a little bit of second-guessing yourself there, even with us. You know what I mean, I’ll take the shot here but not here. At the end of the first half, I want to be aggressive, I want to go score. What’s it do? Lead to seven points for them.”
On Malachi Wood at tight end…
“We worked it all week. We had many more (plays), we had several plays where we wanted to put him in there, and just get more physical on the backside there in possible protections and different things.”
On Demie Sumo-Karngbaye possibly running the ball more…
“Yeah, and so can Jamarion (Wilcox), yes. I saw some really good runs the other day, one in particular, where we cut a guy loose and he made him miss right at the line of scrimmage and still gained 10 (yards). Those are the kind of people we play against every week. That was a really good run and I see a guy that’s gaining more confidence, he’s getting better and he’s been very reliable for us so we’re going to keep him that way.”
On Dane Key…
“He’s playing at a very high level, he really is. He’s very conscientious and he works really hard. I said that the other day and it’s showing up on the field and he will continue to make plays for us.”
On D’Eryk Jackson developing as a pass defender…
“Yeah, he has (developed as a pass defender) and he made a really nice open-field tackle with a play that was on the perimeter, really showed a flash of speed as well. I think D-Jack will do that; he’ll show up on film and really kind of pop-out at you once and a while. And a couple run plays were the same way and that pass play was one heck of a play. I thought at first when I saw it live it was going be a completion, and then I thought it was just going to be a tip, and then he pulled it in and he’s done that several times. It showed a really nice, athletic play and a guy with a lot of experience, we needed that in that moment. It gave us the opportunity to get ahead which was key in this game.”
On the fan turnout…
“I believe I mentioned that postgame but I said what a great atmosphere, you know, at night and we still need them. I understand the frustration, believe me, we feel it too. But we also feel your energy and appreciate your energy and love coming into that stadium and seeing it like that. It gives us an opportunity and our players feel it and appreciate it. Again, I understand the frustration. Like when they booed when we missed the field goal, I solely take that, that’s not on our players, that’s solely on me and I take it. That was deserved after a frustrating game like that. Not our players, but I did. That 2,000 snaps a week we do, we’re going to do three (thousand) this week.”
On UK becoming on par with other SEC road game atmospheres…
“I hope so, I’m not on the opposing sideline, I have my headsets on, you know what I mean? But I want us to play well at home for our fans. I want to deliver those games and it hurts us when we don’t.”
On not going for points at the end of the first half after getting the ball on the 35-yard line with 13 seconds left…
“Did you see the possession before? I think we had one timeout at that point and the last thing I needed to do was give up more points. In dropback pass, in predictable – completely predictable pass – isn’t a very safe place for us to live right now. We’re still in the game, a one-possession game, and unfortunately we gave up a long drive with three (points) to start the second half, which made it feel a lot worse. So that’s what made it so important to go into the half at worse (with a one-score margin).”
On how unrealistic it is for college players to get up for every single game and have the same performance every game. Is that harder in this era of NIL and the transfer portal…
“I think it’s harder in this era, I do. I think there’s a lot of roster turnover, and we work really hard still. We used to work really hard on building that culture for years and years and years. And now we have to build that culture really fast. And I think it is different, I definitely think it’s different.”
