Stein Says Cats 'Have Work to Do'
The Kentucky football team held its first scrimmage of the fall on Saturday inside Kroger Field. Following the scrimmage, head coach Will Stein met the media and talked about what he saw from his team.
“In terms of the scrimmage, I would just categorize it as sloppy,” Stein said. “There’s a lot of reasons why, so I typically let the tape tell me the story.”
One of the factors that the Cats had to deal with on Saturday was the heat. Stein said his team needed to be prepared because the season opener against Youngstown State will likely be played in similar conditions.
“I’m not going to let weather or heat play a factor into why it might look a certain way, because ultimately, this is going to be the temperature for the first game,” Stein said. “We’re on turf. It’s going to be hot. It’s the first game of September.”
Stein knows that there’s still three weeks until the season kicks off, and that his team is still working through some of the installation of offense and defense.
“I’m slow to really judge where we’re at because I know there’s still installation that’s going on,” Stein said. “There’s schemes. There’s trying to perfect those. And when you’re trying to think on the football field, you usually slow down and play slower because you’re trying to think. And then other elements are out there, and you’re down some bodies in certain spots.”
Stein did emphasize that the Cats still have time to get better before the season starts.
“But to me, I always look at what’s good, and the opportunity is that we’re still 21 days out,” Stein said. “We’re not playing today or tomorrow, so we got time, but time’s ticking. So, we’ve got to get the train moving. We have some work to do, but hey, that’s what you sign up for, and that’s why you practice.”
The UK head coach knows things can turn around quickly because he has seen it happen before.
“I remember my first fall camp scrimmage out at Oregon with Bo Nix and, like, seven NFL players,” Stein said. “And I don’t think we scored a touchdown, and we ended up leading the country in scoring.”
Stein was not pleased with some aspects of his team’s performance on Saturday, but he knows there is time to get the issues fixed before Sept. 5.
Notes
Stein had announcements regarding the eligibility of two players, Antonio O’Berry and Alex Afari.
“I want to make sure everybody understands this and knows this, but the NCAA has notified us that Antonio O’Berry has exhausted his college eligibility, so we pursued every single option that we could for him,” Stein said. “He’s a great person, great player, and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
The news on Afari was better.
“On a positive, Alex Afari has been cleared to practice with our team based on the guidance from our compliance staff and the SEC,” Stein said. “So, his competition eligibility remains under review, like most of these cases. We’re awaiting further clarification before he will be permitted to play in games with us this season. But obviously, he cares a lot about UK, this place as a whole, and we would love for him to have the opportunity to come back and represent us and the University of Kentucky moving forward. I think he could help our team immediately, and we’ll continue to support him.
