Sunlight, they say, is the best disinfectant. As it turns out, it’s pretty good for a football team too.Under Mark Stoops, the UK program has established an open floor for communication. When there’s a mistake, it’s corrected. When a player makes a bad decision, he hears about it.Stoops has a simple explanation for how that’s been accomplished.”Well, there’s no place to hide,” Stoops said at his weekly press conference on Monday.Bad habits, with Stoops in charge, are exposed, and it’s not just the coaches doing the correcting. Players — from senior leaders to first-year freshmen — have become empowered in policing themselves and the result is a culture of accountability that’s been a driving force behind UK’s 5-1 start entering a trip to LSU this weekend.”The players gotta understand they can’t be naive, and that’s what helps with some of the things we’re doing, whether it be peer evaluations and different things,” Stoops said. “We don’t want to create a culture where they can hide anywhere.”As much as Stanley “Boom” Williams may have wanted to climb into a hole and hide last week, that culture wouldn’t let him. Along with three teammates, Williams was suspended for the South Carolina game following an on-campus incident. After the suspension was handed down, Williams had to face his teammates in a formal setting and own up to his actions.”We did some things amongst the team that holds that accountability at a pretty high level where they had to address the team and talk to the team and not just, ‘hey, I’m sorry,’ or any of that,” Stoops said. “They came into a team meeting and sat and addressed it with their teammates”Williams returned to the field against ULM, setting up a field goal with a 75-yard return of the opening kickoff and rushing for 104 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. He was happy about his performance and getting to play again, but Williams remained contrite nearly two weeks after the original incident.”I learned a lot,” Williams said on Saturday. “You just gotta be real careful with your decisions and the things that you do, knowing that you’re a valuable player to your team. I just wanted to come out and play hard. I owed it to the team, the fans and the coaches, so I just wanted to come out and show those guys that I do want to be part of the team.”That accountability applies on the field as well.As an example, Stoops said on Monday that an unnamed player will be suspended for the first half of the LSU game following what he called a “foolish penalty” against ULM. Stoops doesn’t want to extinguish the fire that often leads to those kinds of in-game mistakes, but there’s balancing to be done.”We just need to constantly preach being unselfish, and you know, I want aggressiveness,” Stoops said. “I want them enjoying it. We’re always (toeing) that fine line of, you know, letting the guys be who they are.”Stoops, Peveto to reuniteThis offseason, former UK special teams coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto took the same position at LSU. It marked a return to Louisiana for Peveto, who spent the previous eight years in the state at LSU and Northwestern State. Even though they no longer coach together, Stoops and Peveto have remained close.”He always sends texts, and we communicate back and forth throughout the year,” Stoops said, “Bradley Dale has been a close friend of mine for a long time, and we’ll continue to be.”As luck would have it, Stoops and Peveto will reunite in their first year apart when UK travels to Baton Rouge, La., for a game at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. Stoops says UK has a different set of signals this year, so Peveto being on the other sideline isn’t a concern in preparation. However, he doesn’t expect to do much communicating with his friend this week.”I don’t think we’ll talk much this week,” Stoops said. “Maybe he’ll send me over some crawfish to the hotel or something.”UK-Mississippi State to air on CBSFor the first time since 2007, UK will host the Southeastern Conference’s marquee television game.On Monday, CBS selected Kentucky-Mississippi State for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Oct. 25.”You know, that’s great,” Stoops said. “Obviously I’m not going to get ahead of myself. But every time you win in this league, you’re going to put yourself in position for a bigger game.”The two teams are among the biggest surprises in college football this season, with MSU ascending to No. 1 after a third straight win over a top-10 team on Saturday over Auburn and UK sitting at 5-1. As exciting as the matchup between the two may be, Stoops won’t spend much time thinking about it this week.”So I think it’s a compliment to our team what we’ve done to this point, and I know, you know, every game gets bigger and we have a huge one at LSU this week, and that’s what’s on our mind,” Stoops said.Stamps, Miller expected to be available at LSUSafety A.J. Stamps and left tackle Darrian Miller each played sparingly in the second half against ULM, but Stoops said on Monday they were held out for precautionary reasons. Both are expected to play this weekend.

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