Cats Expecting Better Week after ‘Average’ Scrimmage
If you’re looking for a coach to be the conductor of Kentucky’s preseason hype train regardless of the circumstances, Mark Stoops is not your man.
UK’s sixth-year head coach is going to tell it like it is, even when the reality isn’t especially rosy.
After the Wildcats’ first scrimmage of the ball – one that Stoops said was simply “not good enough” – that’s exactly what he did.
“I expected more out of these guys across the board,” Stoops said. “I felt like we were just sloppy. We had some pre-snap penalties that hurt some drives offensively. We had some drops. Late in the scrimmage we put the ball on the ground. Defensively, just average. Felt like it was just average across the board. I didn’t really see exceptional play from either side. I just felt like it was good enough to be average today. Really not what we’re looking for.”
In other words, Stoops knows he has a team capable of more, even when star running back Benny Snell Jr. is sitting with a minor calf injury.
A few years ago, UK was working just to get to average. Now, after back-to-back bowl trips and with a core of talented returning veterans, the Cats have a lot more than average on their minds.
“It was average, at best,” junior linebacker Kash Daniel said. “From looking at both sides of the ball, there were some good spurts on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, but overall it was average. If we want to get to where we want to be, today’s not acceptable.”
The good news for Kentucky – other than the fact that the potential is there – is that the Cats still have three weeks before the season opener. Though Stoops might have expected a better effort, UK was never going to be a finished product in its first scrimmage.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but that’s why we’re here,” Stoops said. “We’re in the middle of camp. I expect this group to bounce back. Get a little bit of rest this weekend and get back at it next week because we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Everyone, from Stoops to UK’s senior leaders, expects this team to do exactly that.
“We didn’t compete as well as we wanted to,” senior linebacker Josh Allen said. “We had a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball and we just have to work to eliminate those mistakes and come out with a better week next week.”
UK’s directive will be to turn in that better week one day at a time and eventually a solid scrimmage when the Cats step between the lines at Kroger Field again in a week.
“Today we just had our first chance to put everything together,” senior offensive lineman Bunchy Stallings said. “Guys are excited. Guys are antsy. So this next scrimmage is going to be a real test. … Today was average, but it can be better. That’s how we gotta continue the week, just try to get better during this upcoming week and Saturday come out and play like it’s September 1.”
