Kentucky-Tennessee Postgame Quotes
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE
October 25, 2025
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Mark Stoops
Press Conference
Kentucky – 34 , Tennessee – 56
Q The last UK quarterback to throw for five touchdowns was Andre Woodson against Tennessee in 2007.
MARK STOOPS: Thanks, Tony. Very difficult loss, very tough loss. They really took it to us. We had not a lot of answers. Tough matchup for us right now and giving them credit. They are extremely explosive. Very, very talented. Not a strength of ours right now with the injuries and position we are in. But, no excuses, they are very good and they took it to us and we didn’t have answers. It’s tough. They put you in binds. They can run the ball, they can throw it. The way they spread you out, they put you in one-on-one situations and you have to be able to cover them and we simply did not cover them today. And I was pleased with the offense. Obviously, we cannot turn the ball over and give them 14 points to a team that already scores at a high rate and as explosive as they are, we cannot have the turnovers. I was very, again, pleased with the way Cutter played and with the way he’s playing is making the receivers better. I saw the freshmen emerge again today with DJ, that was good to see. Guys fought and couldn’t keep up and give them credit.
Q Mark, you acknowledged last week a couple of times the pressure on you from some fans outside. What is your pitches of why it might not seem as bleak as it seems in the moment right now?
MARK STOOPS: I understand, it’s a results business. The results have not been there. For me, I can’t get caught up and worried about all of that. I get frustrated. I hurt for our team, I hurt for our fans. There’s a lot of people that invest a lot. Including all of us. I understand that. But the fans, and anybody else has every right to be frustrated, mad, whatever it is. But for myself, I hurt for the team and we’ve invested a lot. I think we are getting better in certain areas. It was a tough matchup for us tonight and again, I give them a lot of credit. They are very explosive offensively. You know, we didn’t play good enough and they had a lot to do with that.
Q Mark, other than Cutter, are there things you see that it can get better? Do you fear this is the point of no return?
MARK STOOPS: I mean, yeah. Again, for us it’s been a long time. Again, back to back games, 25, 26 first downs or whatever, close to 500 yards, 5 touchdowns. I mean, we haven’t seen that for a while. Yeah, that makes me very optimistic. Defensively, you know, I can’t make any excuses. I don’t want to million darts at me. I understand it’s not acceptable. It’s a tough matchup for us right now, we will just leave it at that.
Q Mark, what do you feel like you can count on from this team. The defense was obviously really good last week. Not as strong, when do you think that you end all you are going to get?
MARK STOOPS: That’s exactly what I just told the team. Again, last week we show up offensively and defensively and special-teams have some errors. And again, they had something to do with that. The players that were playing have something to do with that. Tonight, defensively it was tough, they have something to do with that. They are very good and we were not up to the challenge. I know our guys are fighting and playing hard and we are making improvements in an area that’s been a while offensively where we are making some serious improvement with a quarterback and that’s encouraging.
Q Talk about DJ Miller. You did have some young guys stepping up.
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, it was really good to see DJ. 5 targets, 5 catches. 120 yards and 2 touchdowns. That’s encouraging. Because again, the quarterback receiver explosive guy, it’s been a while, so that’s good to see that.
Q Game time, how close was Seth being able to go today?
MARK STOOPS: He tried like heck. He’s just so tough and wants it so bad. He went out there and took some hits and he was trying to, he just didn’t feel comfortable with securing the ball.
Q Mark, Willie and Hardley both got injured down the stretch. Are you concerned that those are significant injuries?
MARK STOOPS: I don’t know, I think Willie, both re-aggravated injuries they had?
Q Mark, in preseason you talk about the secondary being the strength of the unit. How does it go from that to this?
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I did, I said it had a chance to be the strength of the team. We had to stay healthy and we haven’t stayed healthy. Again, I can’t make excuses. I got a guy out there, Terhyon is playing through injury and the kids out there against some elite guys not at full strength and he has to go and I appreciate him. It hasn’t been good enough. They could score and make a lot of people look that way and we weren’t up to the challenge.
Q Obviously it didn’t matter in the end, why did you go for 2 in the one touchdown?
MARK STOOPS: That it was stupid too. Quite honestly. But that’s what the analytics said. When I had time to reevaluate afterwards I said, yeah, that’s a stupid ball. That’s what it said.
Q Mark, what was your feeling watching the play with the multiple fumbles?
MARK STOOPS: Disbelief.
Q To your point about Cutter improving. What could the ceiling be now that he seems to have a lot and each week it’s getting better and better?
MARK STOOPS: I mean, who knows what his ceiling is, right? He’s only a redshirt freshman. Is it his third start for us? Pretty impressive against some very good defenses. And so, very happy with that and as you can see when he’s playing at that level it makes everybody better. The tight ends are catching the ball, the receivers are making very nice catches and explosive plays. Just trying to see the exact stats but the number of plays goes up again 73. Getting touches and getting first downs, moving the ball, creating some explosives tonight was great to see.
Q -at the end of the half struggles at the end?
MARK STOOPS: That was very frustrating. Very discouraging. You know, we are trying to protect guys at times, as you can see, when you didn’t they run right by us sometimes. With that protection opens up some other things and it hurt us on that play through the middle. That is certainly one, that whole sequence we could have played better. And they made plays.
Q We saw a late scratch from Steven Soles, are you nervous about the injury thing, what is going on there?
MARK STOOPS: I will update that next week, yes, it is related to his health.
KENTUCKY FOOTBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. TENNESSEE
KROGER FIELD – LEXINGTON, KY.
OCTOBER 25, 2025
Kentucky Players
#7, Daveren Rayner, LB
On individual matchups…
“Yeah, we had some important people out today, but even with that you know we have a lot of faith in the guys that we have on our defense. I think that they did a great job bringing in the people they needed to bring in.”
On handling the negativity outside the locker room…
“I would be lying if I said we listen to it, you know, anything you do you’re going to face some type of criticism, it’s part of it. So, we don’t pay attention to it at all. We just keep being better and focus on the things that we need to focus on. Monday we are going to go back to work and handle the things that we need to handle.”
On what was the locker room like going into halftime…
“It was still a ball game; we knew that they were a good football team. We knew they were exposed to offenses, but we never wavered, and we never went into halftime or any other parts of the game feeling like this wasn’t a game that we could win.”
#1, Kendrick Law, WR
On getting the offense going tonight…
“Yeah, I think that’s the main thing is putting it all together. I don’t think it’s a defense or offensive thing, but I mean we had turnovers on offense so if you don’t think that plays a part it does. I mean we just need to play as a team, the defense has held us in a lot of games, in this game too. I just feel like we need to go out there and keep practicing and keep playing every day.”
On how much Cutter Coley has impressed this season…
“When Cutter goes out there, he does what he does every day. It’s just fluent, so you gotta keep going for a lot more.”
On what was working on offense tonight…
“I don’t want to say popped a big play. The plays are there; it’s just playmakers make plays. That’s all it is.”
On having a big game and showing what you’re capable of…
“It’s like we’ve unlocked something, or we’ve seen things on film that we know what we can do. We’re just starting. I hate to say it but at this point, since we are just starting to just get going, these weeks have been kind of progressing but now we’ve hit the nail on the head and we’re just gonna keep on going up.”
Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel
Opening Statement…
“Really pleased with the performance, offense, both units. There are things that we can certainly clean up as well, through conference play. You look at the turnovers early defensively, it changed the way the game was played. Some of the explosive plays in the pass game certainly did that as well.”
On what has allowed Aguilar to be so effective this year…
“He’s calm. He does have a really good touch. He trusts his wide receivers, pass protections have been really good too, throughout the course of it. Tonight, he made a really good job of sliding the pocket on one and delivering it. So, it’s a combination of his fundamentals. He has a strong arm but it’s a catchable ball too.”
On how to be a better tackling team…
“Well, it comes down to fundamentals. It’s body positions, that is the tackling, and some of its pulling your pin too. There were a couple of times tonight where you don’t do that, big screen, perimeter screen off a run. That’s a big play early for a touchdown. We just got it wrong and got two guys in the gap essentially. So, it is correctable. It is correctable at this point, but it comes down to fundamentals.”
On the response from the defense in the second half…
“I don’t know if my tone was that way or not, I’m going to be honest. I just felt that offensively, and defensively in the first half that there were things we could control. We can play cleaner. Its alignment assessment, fundamentals, technique, execution, and so defense has two big turnovers that change the way the game is played. The two explosives inside versus man, we can match that out. We had bad fundamentals and technique. They had 21 at half, and on one real drive we gave up two explosive plays that didn’t need to take place.”
On getting the team back on track and taking control of the game…
“This group is competitive. They compete the same way no matter what the scoreboard is. I do love and appreciate that about them. Got thirty more minutes of ball, let’s go play the way that we’re capable of. Need to start fast and change the way the game is played.”
