HOOVER, Ala. — Mark Stoops will admit it. He’s not an easy coach to please.  “I don’t just throw out a bunch of compliments all the time to our players,” Stoops said. “They have to earn that.”Bud Dupree certainly has.”He’s a great player,” Stoops said. “He’s so versatile. He’s improved in so many ways. But he’s everything you want. He’s a great young man, he’s a great leader. He’s really taken on that leadership role, to help elevate his teammates. And that’s what true leaders do.”Dupree, representing Kentucky at Southeastern Conference Media Days on Thursday, has drawn plenty of attention of late for his eye-popping numbers in athletic testing drills. The 6-foot-4, 267 pounder has a 40.5-inch vertical jump and has been clocked running 21.6 miles per hour in full pads, Erik Korem told the Louisville Courier-Journal, which surely has something to do with the fact he was a preseason Second Team All-SEC choice.Though he’s improved in UK’s High Performance program, Dupree has always been physically gifted. The real transformation has come in the senior’s leadership. Learning from UK’s Impact Leadership Program, headed by Jason Cummins, Dupree has established himself as a key vocal presence entering the 2014 season.”(Cummins) gave me the key role to get outside of my shell and not only benefit myself but benefit the team,” Dupree said. “Sometimes I may be a little too involved in my team than I should be because I will go out the way to do everything I need for my team to be successful.”With six weeks to go before the Wildcats’ Aug. 30 season opener, Dupree can see his work paying off as he looks to help fill the void left by Avery Williamson.”I used to tell all the younger guys, like (Ryan Timmons) and Jeff (Badet) and Blake McClain, I would walk up to them every day and tell them, ‘You ain’t trying to be great,’ ” Dupree said. “Now they look at me before I even say something to them, like, ‘Are you working today? Are you doing extra? I’m finna do extra.’ … And they’re bringing along people with them.”It makes me feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to do and touching others.”For one of Dupree’s companions on the trip through the media gauntlet in Hoover, Ala., leadership has come more naturally.”Personally, I feel like I have the leadership role on the offense and I try and get the guys going on our side of the ball and try and get the young guys coming along. I try to do what I can do,” junior offensive tackle Jordan Swindle said. “I feel like it’s definitely an innate ability of mine because I’ve just grown up with a great father figure and family that’s just instilled in me character values.”Stoops called Swindle the “unquestioned” leader of the offense, but that didn’t happen overnight. Swindle, now a junior, needed a time to establish himself as a player and figure out exactly what UK’s coaching staff, now in its second season, was looking for.”I’m just extremely impressed at the way he goes about his business,” Stoops said. “He worked extremely hard in the offseason. And you know, that first year, a lot of it is setting the tone and putting the staples in your program in place, and your core values. Then seeing where you’re at, then going into the off-season and improving on them. Jordan was the first one, when we put him in a leadership role and did that, to take charge and do an excellent job of developing team chemistry and leadership.”

Put in those terms, his task is a tall one. Swindle, however, sees his charge much more clearly.”It’s kind of my goal to make our team better every single day,” Swindle said. “If I catch a guy that’s not working as hard as he could be or he’s not practicing as hard as he could be or he’s slipping up in class, I need to go get that guy and confront and tell him he shouldn’t be doing that, he needs to get back on track.”It’s no coincidence that both Swindle and Dupree view leadership so simply. It all starts with their coach.”I think he brought that mentality (of improving every day) with him,” Swindle said. “It was there before, but it almost became something of a standard. Before, it was kind of like if you did that it was above and beyond. Now it’s become something that is if it’s not that, it’s not right.”On the strength of that approach and the infusion of more incoming talent, Stoops believes he has a different team than a year ago, though the Wildcats were picked to finish last in the SEC East on Thursday by league media.”We’re not worried about that,” Stoops said. “You know that. You’ve heard me say it over and over again: We’re worried about getting better. We’re worried about putting our head down and going to work. I’m excited. I’m excited about this team and the work they’ve put in. We’re just ready to go to work and get better.”You needn’t look any further than UK’s Media Days representatives to tell that will start in the trenches. Dupree and Za’Darius Smith are UK’s bookends on the defensive line, poised to wreak even more havoc than a season ago when they combined for 13 sacks and 16 tackles for loss.”I think that they’re an awesome combination,” said Swindle, who lines up opposite Dupree in practice. “I feel like Bud is a really, really good pass rusher. He’s overall amazing and then Z is overall amazing as well. He’s a better run stopper. So when you have those two to balance each other out, it’s almost unstoppable.”Swindle, meanwhile, will look to anchor an offensive line that doesn’t yet know which quarterback it will be blocking for. Stoops said the battle between Patrick Towles, Reese Phillips, Drew Barker and Maxwell Smith.”You would love somebody just to take the job and run with it and play great,” Stoops said. “But I’ve also told you that I’m not going to be forced into that decision. I don’t want to be sitting here and saying, ‘He can’t make a decision.’ I need somebody to take charge and win that job. We’ll see. We feel good about the way spring wrapped up. There is some clarity there. But there’s also a lot of competition to go.”When that competition resolves itself — likely early in fall camp — the Cats believe questions at other positions will be answered as well.”The skill players will come,” Dupree said. “Once the quarterback situation gets settled in, the skill players will come.”