Mark Stoops Press Conference
MARK STOOPS PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
MARCH 2, 2020
“It’s been a really good winter. Really pleased with our players, appreciate the effort of our strength and conditioning coaches. The guys have worked extremely hard. They’re bigger, they’re stronger, faster, mentally more mature. So, really excited to get back and get going starting tomorrow. We’ve got a good group; we’ve got a full group. We have 111 players here, and that’s the most we’ve had in the spring by far, so, excited to get going.”
On the players who are out…
“Terry Wilson limited. He won’t go through the spring. He is doing some throwing, getting his leg stronger, the rehab and all of those things. Nik Scalzo, he will be out. Davonte (Robinson) will be limited, Abule (Abadi-Fitzgerald) will be out, Isaiah Epps will be out, Naasir (Watkins) will be out, Taj Dodson will be out, D’Eryk Jackson will be out, so those are the guys that will be out or limited in some way. Davonte won’t be participating but again, he’s going through some drills and he has done some of the winter conditioning we have been going through now. He is getting better. A lot of these guys are getting closer. As you can see it’s a pretty extensive list. It’s a pretty long and grueling season and some of these guys had to get some surgeries in the offseason.”
On the open assistant coaching position…
“I’ve been working through that position. As you know, it has taken some time, but I have taken my time with it, to be honest with you. I tried to hire my brother Mike and get him on staff, and that’s not going to work out by his choice. Mike chose to stay, he likes what he’s doing, he likes the learning he’s doing and the work he’s doing there with Nick at Alabama. Mike’s a big picture guy, so the timing of this position and the capacity that it is, he decided to stay there and continue to recalibrate himself and be ready to come back as a coordinator, so he decided to stay. I’m working through that, shouldn’t be long.”
On moving coaches around to fill the space in the meantime…
“What I’m allowed to do. I think we’re going to, I’m allowed to move Frank Buffano in that position for tomorrow, so we will move Frank from football operations to work with the safeties and help Coach Clink (Steve Clinkscale).”
On working out reps with so many QBs…
“I think that will be the big question because they won’t get team reps. Nik and Terry will not get team reps with the team or 7 on 7. So, these guys are going to be able to get a lot of work with Sawyer (Smith), Amani (Gilmore), Beau (Allen), and Joey (Gatewood). The good thing is, you know we’re pretty deep there. But with the two guys injured, that’ll give some good quality reps for the four that are participating.”
On Terry Wilson being back by the fall…
“Yes, definitely.”
On Josh Paschal…
“We’re going to move him back in. Just with our depth at outside linebacker and his ability to play inside and be an impact player inside (on the defensive line). The great thing about Josh is he’s been very versatile but so unselfish. He knew a year ago, really going back two years ago, that we had depth inside and not as much outside and he wanted to help the team. Now he realizes there’s some depth outside and we need some impact players inside. And he is versatile and really, it’s about him and his body and what it just naturally does. He is just a big human, he’s a big person and I think right now is the best he’s been about being big but comfortable. He doesn’t have to worry about putting on weight. He can still be very quick twitch like he is and be an impact guy inside, so we’re really excited about that. This is the best he’s been in a few years, because of the injury and because of the cancer and the surgeries on his foot and all of those things. This is the best he’s looked; he’s had a great winter and is feeling good and moving around really good and really comfortable so I’m excited for him, and naturally he’ll help us.”
On whether or not to move Luke Fortner from right guard to left guard …
“No, we’ll leave Fortner right now where he’s at and give that first shot to (Kenneth) Horsey and see what he can do. There’s options, you look at the top five and if Naasir (Watkins) was completely healthy and you move (Darian) Kinnard inside, you want to talk about being big. We would be very big and very good. However, we have confidence in some of these other guys and Naasir’s out right now, Darian is playing so good at tackle, you hate to mess with that because he’s playing such good football. He’s bright enough to do it, athletic enough to do it, and versatile enough to play either/or, and I’m not saying we’re going to do that but there’s options. Right now, Darian’s playing too good, just leave him alone and continue to develop these other guys. Those are good issues, we really feel like there are some guys that could step up and Austin Dotson was hurt a bit last year during camp and came back and hasn’t been completely healthy. I’d like to see him go through a complete spring and see what he can do and see what Kenneth can do in there as well. “
On Quintin Wilson …
“Quintin is at center and we love him there because he’s athletic and has been very solid behind Drake (Jackson), but he is versatile enough to play as well.”
Regarding Jeremy Flax…
“He was supposed to come in early. There was a situation he just came up a bit short. He should be here in the spring.”
On potential new NCAA transfer rule and possibility of Joey Gatewood being eligible …
“I’d rather not comment on my general feelings about that just because there are so many opinions out there. There’s a lot of intelligent people that are working through those choices. Again, you’ve heard me say it before but it’s true, it’s above my pay grade. There are people who will look through that and weigh the options, the good and the bad with it. There’s a lot of things to consider, and a lot of good arguments both ways. I’ll keep my opinions to myself. As far as him getting reps, he was going to get some anyway because of where we’re at with the guys being injured. So, for him, it’s a good break in that we have two quarterbacks that can go through spring. He’ll get more opportunity with that.”
Regarding the outside linebackers and Xavier Peters …
“I’m really excited about that group. You asked me about the group. Boogie (Watson) coming back, I believe he leads the most experienced (players) as far as coming back in sacks in the SEC with six and a half. We have high expectation for Boogie. He did some very good things a year ago. I think a year ago, maybe, there was some frustration with him early. He kind of just settled in and listened to Coach (Brad) White, put his head down, went back to fundamentals and playing the game and enjoying it I think he was putting a little pressure on himself early. Boogie is a guy that has a lot of experience, played a lot of football for us, he’s one of our leaders. We’re really excited about having him back for his senior year. Jordan Wright is another guy you’ve heard me talk about making a big jump a year ago. We need to continue to do that, he’s growing into his body. J.J. Weaver is a guy we’re very excited about. He has the frame you’re looking for. He is a big guy, has the length you’re looking for, putting on good weight, one of those guys that does everything you ask him to do, he’s getting better and better. Same with K.D. (McDaniel), the same I talked about with J.J. His length, has athletic ability, has good size. Sam Anaele, the guy who came in here at mid-year. Great big guy, going to take some time with him. But that’s why he’s here early and working hard. Xavier, that’s up to him, as I mentioned before, I don’t want to get into specifics or try to throw him under the bus, but we have expectations here. We’re going to do things a certain way, we’re going to do things right. That goes for him or anybody else. When you reach those expectations and play to our standard and do the things to our standard, as far as going to school and tutors and workouts and you can handle your business, then you’ll have an opportunity to do it on the field. Until then, there won’t be any. Again, I’m talking in general. You can read between the lines or however you want to do it. He’s doing some good things, he’s doing better.”
On his thoughts about the new transfer rule…
“Again, I’m going to hold that to myself just strictly because there’s so many people working on that right now. I mentioned that earlier, that there’s good arguments both ways and there’s a lot of intelligent people working through that and trying to make those decisions, so I really don’t feel like getting caught one way or the other making a comment on that.”
On expectations with a lot of players returning…
“I feel good about the overall depth. We have a 111 guys here going through spring. We’ve never had that and that goes to last year, what did we have – what did end up playing, seniors maybe nine, nine guys and we brought in 11 at mid-year so our team is full, which is good. We still have 10 guys coming in, so we have great depth in the spring. That excites me because sometimes in the spring things get watered down and it’s hard to really compete physically how you want to all the time but we have a lot of good bodies in there and got a lot of guys from experience and as you mentioned, some inexperienced, but that’s every year. Let’s go back one year with this press conference and that was quite different because all we were talking about replacing guys and how were we going to replace guys and the sky was falling in. Everybody was panicked and that wasn’t the case as I mentioned, when you continue to do things right, work hard, build depth and develop your program, there’s going to be guys step up. Who they are, we’ll talk about it as we go through spring and you’ll see it, you guys will be in there watching some. We’ll see how it goes, but I hope some guys elevate.”
On Kelvin Joseph…
“He’s a difference-maker. He’s physical. First thing that pops out to you is he’s a big kid. He’s like some of the corners we’ve been used to having and he’s got good size and he’s instinctual. He was on scout team and it’s a lot easier to show flashes out there when there’s very little risk involved in giving up a big play, but you could see his athletic ability. You saw it on tape when he was coming from LSU and the amount of plays he played as a true freshman. so we’re excited.”
On if Kelvin Joseph is going to begin spring playing corner…
“Yes, I’m going to start him at corner.”
On Kenneth Horsey’s medical history…
“Well, it is something because his health and safety is first and foremost. Our people do a wonderful job and work extremely hard. Sometimes for us as we go through evaluations and all that we have to take that into consideration, too, because he had his chest cracked open not long ago and is getting back to full strength and able to train like he’s training now and move around, so first I would say we’re just grateful he has the opportunity to be out there and his doctors back home and our people have done a wonderful job. Iit’s exciting to see him and he’ll have a great opportunity this spring.”
On Horsey mentioning UK not giving up on him…
“We’re never going to do that. We’re going to give kids every opportunity and that’s what we’re here for, to continue to help them in all areas of their life.”
On retaining some of the expanded wildcat offense that was used last season…
“You never know. A year ago people were ready to put a bullet in me for the wildcat (laughter). You never know. Adapt and overcome, that’s what we constantly do, adapt and overcome. We had to adapt to that situation and we were able to overcome it to some extent and we’ll continue to do that. I mean that seriously, just do the best you can. We always have wrinkles and we have some guys that are dual threat, so there’s always some good things you can carry.”
On his idea of how the scholarship situation might play out…
“We’ll see, it’ll be a good opportunity for us to be at full strength. It’s hard, people ask questions about transfers and all those things. And why I don’t want to comment on it is, because again they’re truthfully good arguments both ways. That’s the truth, that’s just the honest to god truth. There are issues with roster management and things of that nature as well. There’s a lot of things that we all go through, as programs, as head coaches that we have to do what’s best for our program. I think for us, we will be one of the few schools that will be at 85 scholarships next year. We should be right at it, but we will see how things go.”
On conservations with players regarding the decision to transfer…
“Life happens, guys are going to go through issues, and we understand that completely. All situations are different, and every individual conversation is different. There are different reasons, there are very good reasons with family and things that come up. You would be very wrong to not support those things. Where the conflict comes in is, sometimes it’s our job to hold people accountable, hold their feet to the fire and help them grow up. Unless all of you are perfect and have all the answers, that’s difficult. I know it is with my own children and I know it’s difficult with 111 guys. But I think that’s where the arguments on both sides come in. It’s all different, you know there’s very good reasons to have people transfer. We’ve taken in some really good and successful transfers. Courtney Love is one of my all-time favorite guys, he has a position that he is in right now that I probably would never hire someone that young. But he was prepared for it and he was a transfer, so I feel like that worked out good. We just took Joey (Gatewood), we take in good transfers and there’s good reasons for some of our players to leave, so it’s a complex issue.”
On what was going through his mind during Coach Vince Marrow’s period of deciding to stay or leave the program…
“Well (pause … laughter), first of all, it played out too much in the media more than I would’ve liked to see. Those are things that we need to handle. I have so much appreciation and gratitude to our administration, first and foremost, giving me the ability (to retain him). I’ve said that all along. It takes great resources, when you have good things in place. Whether it’s from facilities and the investment that we’ve made there, whether it’s in people and retaining people. I have to start with just thanking our President (Eli Capilouto) and Mitch (Barnhart). Marc Hill has done a great amount of work behind the scenes. That’s my liaison to the administration and they do a lot of work behind the scenes. They made a lot of things happen and were very helpful. Vince, his attachment to this place, to our fanbase, to our community, played a lot into it. I think our relationship had a lot to do with it, but it starts with our administration stepping up and helping because that was very real. Those things are going to happen when you have good people. I’ll say this, there’s probably five or six other guys on our staff that I went through the same thing with, that are getting pulled and I appreciate the continuity that we have right now. We have some guys, some new guys and I want to talk about Anwar (Stewart), bringing back another Wildcat. I know Anwar; I had the opportunity to work with him as a student assistant and he had great experience through the CFL. But I loved his passion and his energy, so when we had that position come open that didn’t take me long because I had really high feelings for Anwar and the ability, the job he can do. It was good to bring him back. We have good continuity, great support from our administration and I feel really good about our staff. The Big Dawg and I ultimately came down over a drink and I had to break his arm (laughter). Then we had a deal and he changed the deal on me the next day.”
On getting calls from NFL teams expressing interest about Lynn Bowden…
“I don’t think there’s any doubt those guys representing us the right way. I just saw Logan (Stenberg) and spent a lot of time with him this morning. I haven’t seen Lynn yet; I think he’s back, I saw his car. He usually parks in my spot (laughter). I have to catch up with Lynn but there’s a lot of interest in those guys and many of our other players. I’m proud of them and they’re doing a great job. I’m looking forward to our Pro Day here, I would imagine there will be a great turn out for our Pro Day here. The fact that Lynn didn’t go through a lot of workouts there, will help bring back a lot of other guys as well.”
Talking about the depth especially the DBs…
“A lot of guys back there.”
On having a lot of DBs…
“Yeah I like that. I like the versatility. You know that. I like guys that can play multiple positions. I want to get the best four on there, then the best five, then the best six. You need to play a lot of guys in that position. If you can have 10 guys that are game ready, that’s what it takes. We rotate D-line as you know constantly, outside backers, inside backers. It’s a physical game, same with the DBs, it’s a high paced game and you need that depth. That really helped us two years ago with the rotation that we had and the depth we had. This past year wasn’t quite as deep but I anticipate us getting back to that, having six, seven, eight, nine guys that can play and play at a high level so there is good depth there. I was noticing that during our winter conditioning and just seeing the guys we have there. I’m getting excited about it.”
If spring break will affect spring practice…
“It really won’t. It won’t. Our guys really don’t get out of shape, they train all year around, we’ve had a good winter. It’s tough. Coach Mark Hill, Corey Edmond, Deonte Mack, those guys. They bust them down there, they work hard and they do a great job of training them the right way. We get out there, we have our winter conditioning, we have our change of direction stuff to get them back a little bit in football shape. We’ll go two weeks and have a week off and get them acclimated again because of the days we have to have, whether it just be in helmets or shells/uppers, we have a way to work them back into it. We only practice three days a week in here in the spring. It will be a bit of a transition but take a couple days and just get right back into it.”
The importance of getting Phil Hoskins back…
“It was important to get Phil back and that’s going to be a lot of help for us really. Then you know you move Josh back inside you feel like you’re right back to where you were, we greatly appreciate those guys (T.J. Carter and Calvin Taylor) and we’re going to miss them. Heck of a players for us, played a lot of football for us, but it was good to get Phil back. He’s a different type of inside guy as I’ve mentioned before. He’s got some size but he’s also kind of a loose player, he’s twitchy, he’s different and Calvin was so big and TJ so big. Talking with guys in the offseason and looking at our defense, they were asking me a lot of questions about our size and how intentional we are to be like we are. We got to get back and make sure this next recruiting cycle, we are so excited about the defensive players we’ve recruited, but I want to go back and make sure we get some size with this group as well, length.”
On if the culture has changed…
“I don’t think there’s any question. It’s always a work in progress and we’re constantly trying to evolve and do better things, do the best we can. I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s just like the recruiting process. These guys got to go back. The guys we’re recruiting are juniors in high school right now, and sophomores, and freshmen. They don’t know anything about Kentucky other than going to the bowl games and winning the last two and playing exciting football, so that helps us. As I’ve mentioned before you know climate is easy to change, culture is different. Culture is in our community that goes back 100 years but I don’t want to hear any of that any more. We’re going forward and we want to continue to push forward and just say I do appreciate the support. I want to see it go to another level. I really do. I ask the fans to continue to support us, to continue to buy season tickets, to make that investment. When I say it takes all of us, please don’t take it as a BS cliché. It’s true, it takes a great investment by a lot of people to be consistently successful in the SEC and that’s what we want to do. We need the fans, we need the people in the upper decks, we need the stadiums full and we’ll continue to take it to another level. I promise our coaches and our players are working that way and we’re proud of the work we’ve done. We know that there’s a lot more to do and we’re excited about that challenge but I also challenge other people to continue to invest in it because we need it. You want to continue to hold people like Vince Morrow, and the great coaches we have and Brad White, Eddie Gran, and all these guys. It takes a great investment. I appreciate what you do already and ask for more.”
On the wide receiver position…
“I don’t think there’s any doubt. We need to continue to grow there and get better. I’m going to tell you this, you go back and you watch; we had to do our cut-ups (postseason film evaluation) essentially through camp and the first two games, maybe three games, and then after that we’re a different team. You go back and look at that and what we were doing, it’s exciting. When I was talking about that through last summer, through lead-up of the season, through the beginning part of the year, Terry was looking really good and our receivers were looking really good. We were getting better and we had to change, we had to adapt and overcome. We changed and we had to but we were making good progress. You go back and look at that, who we want to be and that’s exciting but we definitely need that group to work extremely hard and step and they are. I’m excited about it.”
