Kentucky Football Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Ole Miss
Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
Oct. 3, 2020
Head Coach Mark Stoops
MARK STOOPS: Very difficult way to lose a football game. It’s been a crazy year, and this season is going to be different. It’s going to be difficult playing a ten-game SEC schedule, and games are going to be close.
We have to make those plays in critical moments to win us football games. I was proud of the way — the game was a struggle. We knew it was going to be. We went through some patches where we overcame some adversity, got the game into overtime, and then to lose it that way is difficult.
As I mentioned, it’s just we have to find ways to execute better in critical moments. We did that for a large portion of the night. Any time you rush the ball for 400 yards, you usually feel pretty good that you’re going to have a good opportunity to win. This offense was extremely explosive, extremely fast. They get you off kilter. This week and next week’s going to be like that where it’s a different style of offense.
You have to get stops in critical moments. We did not play very good defense tonight. That’s on us. We have to get them in position and play better. Offensively, I thought we did some good things at times, certainly controlled the game and ran the ball very well.
Terry (Wilson) was efficient, 14 of 18. But we just — we’ve got to make plays in critical moments and play better as a team to get these victories.
Q. Mark, where do you go with the kicking situation from here? Obviously, PATs have been an issue the last two years. Just kind of where things are at with that.
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, we’ll continue to work both guys. We’ll continue to work Matt (Ruffalo). We’ll work Chance (Poore). If we feel like Chance gives us a better opportunity, then we’ll go with him.
Q. Mark, could you talk about what impact it has when A.J. (Rose) makes a mental mistake and then a physical mistake so early like that in the game, you go ahead and go back to him. What does that kind of say? Does that send a bad message when you’ve got a guy like that that does that?
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, it definitely doesn’t help. We’ve been a very unselfish football team through the years, and that’s a mistake that you can’t have. A.J. means well. He’s a great young man. I’m not going to give up on him for one mistake. We will certainly point out and show him, and he understands that, that it’s not acceptable. That’s not how we do things. That’s not how we’re going to do it.
Fortunately, we got the ball back in great field position and went back and scored, but it definitely has an impact. It’s definitely not the right message. It’s not OK, but I’m also not going to give up on him for one mistake.
Q. Mark, especially the second half, was there anything in particular that Ole Miss was doing that was giving you the most trouble?
MARK STOOPS: They were doing what they wanted to do, to be honest with you. They really had us off balance. They spread you out. They go extremely fast. We’ve got to play better. We got it to a two touchdown lead, and then from there, we really played poor on defense, and they scored so quick that momentum can shift.
You’re going to go through stretches in these games this season, again, with the margin for error is small. You have to do things right, and you definitely knew that going into the game that a team like that could put the foot on the gas and go extremely fast. Again, it will be very similar this next week.
Q. Hey, Coach, obviously last week Terry had the high number of pass attempts. Coming into tonight, it seems like he had really great rushing. Was that something you guys wanted to bring into the game plan coming in, or was that something that just started working at the end of the game and just wanted to keep with it?
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I think just like you said at the second part of the question. It was working. We had to stay ahead of the chains. Certainly, every possession, as you know, in a game like this, possessing the ball, getting yards and scoring points, they’re all important. With the way we were rushing the ball and creating explosive plays in the run game, it gave us the best opportunity, and it certainly added to that when we played such poor defense.
It kind of puts pressure on myself and on the offense to where every possession was so important. Possessing the clock, but also scoring points is important. There comes a time when you get off balance like we were, you have to play as a team. I thought our offense responded several times tonight. Obviously, there’s things they could do better, but there were times they responded really well, where they had long drives and gave the defense an opportunity to kind of get over there and do some adjustments and try to get their feet up underneath them and play better.
We just didn’t play very good in the second half. We’re holding them to 14 in the first half. We felt like we were just ago at this point.
Q. Mark, you’ve already said to us that the team that wins the rushing yards is in pretty good shape, and almost all the SEC games over the years. You’ve done that two weeks in a row in a pretty dominant fashion. Do you feel like this is kind of an anomaly, or is something changing in the dynamics?
MARK STOOPS: Both. I think both. Certainly, with this style of offense and next week — next week it won’t matter as well. Time of possession won’t matter in the — obviously, you want to possess the ball, but you need to score points, and we need to be explosive.
When we were stopped tonight, if you really look at it, it’s hard for me to be exact here right now. A lot of things are running through my head. But there are times we shot ourselves in the foot, whether it be a penalty or one or two drives way backed up.
We came up a half yard short early in the first half. There’s more plays and yards out there. It’s important, but it’s not the end all, be all. We know that. When you’re playing Ole Miss who can go as fast as they can and they’re so explosive. But they’re very balanced. They’re a team that they rushed for 139 tonight. That will be low for them. They’ll rush for — they’re generally going to be a team that rushes for around 200 and throw for around 300. That’s what they’ve been averaging.
If you look at their coordinator, where he was at UCF, and what they want to do, they put pressure on you in that run game, but they also can throw it and get explosive plays outside.
I think that was still a good recipe for us. You rush for 400 yards, it’s going to give us an opportunity to win the game. However, we have to play better defense than that, or you’re not going to win. So we had our opportunities and got to make some stops.
Q. The television cameras at the end of the game showed you chipping back at officials. Was that just an accumulation of officials or something that happened in that instance?
MARK STOOPS: I just wanted to talk to one of them about a specific play, but no.
Q. Kelvin’s (Joseph) a guy that you guys have obviously had high hopes for, and you still do. It seems like in these first couple seasons he’s done a fair amount of chattering and has had some struggles when it comes to the actual plays, especially in the end zone. What have you said to him about that? I know you want corners to be confident and that swagger is part of what makes them good, but just the balance that you’re looking for with him.
MARK STOOPS: You were cutting in and out, but I think I got the gist of your question. He, like a lot of our players, we need to play better and more consistent. I thought he did good things a week ago. Tonight just watching it out there, they were so extremely fast. I know there were some plays that stand out in my mind right now that he needs to do a better job of.
I agree with you as far as that goes, really across our whole team. We don’t have time to get into it with chattering. These opponents, especially with teams that go so fast, you’ve got to focus in on your job and taking care of your business, and I’ve got to do a better job of coaching our team on that.
Q. Mark, obviously, 0-2 is not the start you wanted. How do you feel about the leadership on this team? Do you feel like you’ve got good leaders that can pick guys up and get them ready for next week?
MARK STOOPS: I do, John. I said just that in the locker room. I expect our leaders to step up. We knew it was going to be a challenge. Our players knew it was going to be a challenge. It’s going to be a challenging year. I’m going to lean on them, and we have to get back at it and get to work on Monday.
We play at home next week again. It will be good to be back home, and it will be another challenge, as it will each and every week. But that’s also what makes it exciting. Every week is a big game, and you really, truly got to look at it — and I also told the team this. If it went the other way, and we’re in there celebrating and dancing and having a good time and everything, you’ve still got to go right back to work on Monday.
It’s going to be a long, challenging year, and you’d better have your feet up underneath you and be focused and come to work each and every week. We’ll get our team back and get them ready to play again next week.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Kentucky Football Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Ole Miss
Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
Oct. 3, 2020
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#3, Terry Wilson, Sr., QB
On finally being healthy and back …
“You know, going into this game, I knew I had to perform better than last week and that was just really my mindset. On just focusing on what I can control and focus what I do best and trying to get better, so that was just my mindset going into this game, knowing that I wanted to be a better Terry Wilson than I was before.”
On first home game back …
“There was no better feeling, it was great to be back in Kroger Field. Something I was looking forward to since being injured. It’s tough we didn’t get the win, but it really was a pleasure to be back at home and be around the fans. So, it felt great.
On how frustrating losing this game is …
“It’s definitely frustrating, it’s something you don’t want to happen. As offense, you know we worked really hard though out this week. Knowing that our mindset was to come out for 60 minutes, and I felt like we did that. I felt like we laid everything on the field, and it hurts falling short to a game like that, but we have to move on and forget about it and focus on the new week.”
On the message for the team moving forward …
“Just having that mindset that this is an older team and we can control what we can control. We can control our mindset, mentality and how we want to come out to practice and just not mop around. It sucks, but we have to get better as a team and that should be everyone’s mindset right now. Coming off this loss is tough, but I’m ready to forget about it and move on to this week coming up. So, we just have to make sure we have that mindset and be ready to be locked in on Monday and get back at it.”
On his decision making improving …
“I definitely feel more comfortable. Going through the injury, I feel like as a quarter back I progressed on the mental side of the game. Just knowing where I need to go with the ball and just trusting myself. So, I definitely feel more comfortable. But the sack on, it was a free blitzer and it happened so fast. I could’ve through the ball away, but it was just something you don’t want to happen. I think it was 4&1, but yeah, it’s just something you don’t want to happen.”
On building confidence to run the ball …
“Most definitely. Throughout camp and the rehab process, once I was able to get back on the field and run some plays and just trusting that my leg was fine, and just trusting my speed. I had the confidence, but it’s different when you get on the field and getting hit for the first time in over a year. You know that first game was getting there but now I feel like I’m getting back to how I should be running the football every time.”
#4 Josh Paschal, R-Sr., LB/DE
On how the team bounces back …
“Leadership is important right now to just get the team going and not let one turn into two. As far as the defense goes, it goes back to practice on Monday. We have to be locked in and focus on attention to detail and things like that. We have to train hard in practice and translate practice to the game. And it all starts with the work you put in during the week.”
On Ole Miss’ tempo giving them trouble …
“I wouldn’t say it was the tempo. Of course, I have not seen the film yet but I think we handled the tempo well as far as the conditioning side of that. But, I just feel like the coaches put us in good spots and we have to execute as a defense and that is something we are going to have to stress this week. We are going to have to execute the play calls that the coaches give us. The coaches put us in good positions, so we just have to hold ourselves accountable and make some plays.”
On the mindset of the team and defense going up two touchdowns …
“As a defense and a team, we were just thinking to keep our foot on their neck and not let up. Of course, that is not how things played out. They ended up executing on the offensive side, as far as Ole Miss goes. We really just need to start making an emphasis on finishing in the second half. And we need to put an emphasis as far as defense goes to be that dominate force and take over that second half.”
On the mood in overtime after the missed point after …
“The mood was to just not let everything be on Ruffalo. You know, he missed the extra point, but it is a team sport. He missed the extra point, but as a defense we have to back him up. Unfortunately, the game at the end didn’t go our way and we didn’t execute how we should have. We can’t blame it on Ruffalo because at the end of the day there are 100,000 different plays you could blame somebody on. As far as that goes, our mindset was to back Ruffalo up. He missed the extra point but we said we were going to get out there and stop them and support our brother.”
On the defense not forcing turnovers …
“We just have to execute, like I said and have an emphasis on turnover. It is hard to go a couple games without a turnover. That is a big momentum swing when defense can help offense out. The offense played great today. I saw they rushed for 400 yards. As a defense, we have to match their intensity. They were playing well and playing great but at the end of the day we let up more points than they put up. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and hold ourselves accountable and learn from this and bounce back on Monday.”
On how you keep the season from snowballing …
“Once we got the SEC schedule and the announcement a couple months ago, we knew it was going to be hard. We just have to bounce back, you know. There are going to be momentum swings throughout the season and adversity and we are facing it right now. Really your judged how good of a team you are when you face adversity. We are going through adversity right now and it matters how we bounce back and prepare for this week against Mississippi State and finish the season.”
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
FOOTBALL
OLE MISS-UK
OCT. 3, 2020
KROGER FIELD – LEXINGTON, KY.
Ole Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin
Opening Statement …
“Obviously awesome win for our fans, for our kids, you know crazy game to be down like that and for them to come back, go to overtime, just really a crazy game, it was just really great to see our guys battle back. We didn’t play great in a lot of areas and we stuttered on offense for a little while, we obviously didn’t stop the run but at the end of the day you just have to score more than they do. We said it all week that we have to get to 1-1 and whether it is two to nothing or 42-41, find a way to win and we did and send a Christmas present to their kicker.”
On what he takes away from their play today and the rushing yard total for Kentucky…
“408 actually. So obviously you aren’t going to win many games like that, but we did make some stops against a great running team, but we obviously got to play better than that. Like you said we made some stops there in the second half, gave us a chance to win.”
On the defensive stops in the second half and the adjustments made…
“We just talked at halftime, it wasn’t really a scheme thing, guys were there and they were just missing tackles, weren’t playing physical up front. I thought we were getting knocked around on both sides of the ball, I don’t think we ran the ball well at all on offense. Luckily, we got some great skill players that bailed us out in the passing game, you know, because in this conference I don’t you think you can be finesse and win a lot, so we got to become more physical.”
On Jonathan Mingo’s performance today…
“I thought Jonathan did great, he’s had a great camp, the ball just didn’t go to him last week, you know with so many balls to Elijah in the coverages, like I said people are going to figure it out, so Elijah didn’t have as big of a day. He still had 10 catches, but only 92 yards. So, Jonathan stepped up with 128 yards and you know, a couple touchdowns.”
On their rushing performance and if he plans to make adjustments going forward…
“Well obviously you want to run the ball well, we gotta also do what they are giving us, this was a cover three team, so the box is loaded all the time, so it is hard to run, look at Auburn even they struggled at times. They force you to throw the ball by what they do, 24 or 29 (for Kentucky) is pretty effective at that, but we do have to run the ball better.”
On if he is impressed at how well his defense has responded to adversity the past two games…
“No, they’ve done a good job, feel like they actually played better from behind, you know start fast and then we hit a lull and then we’re ahead, tied and were better from behind. You know it was good, we screwed up the speed option down on the goal line, by cracking the receivers so the corner came off, in a nut, I thought that was maybe going to haunt us, be the reason we lost, cause we should have walked in there and left the ball down on the one. Really good to fight back from that, that’s hard to overcome.”
On if he thought about going for the two fourth downs at the end of each half …
“I did not. They were both in our own territory. You cannot do that. The way they were running the ball, you have to make them run the length of the field.”
On Mingo being physical after the catch …
“It is a great attitude. I wish we could have that attitude all over. I have really been impressed with him the whole time, he just didn’t get the ball a whole lot last week. He made the most of his plays today.”
On Sanogo’s sack …
“That was huge. I felt the whole energy on the sidelines. It was just a huge play.”
On Matt Corral’s day …
“I thought he played better today than last week. Last week, guys were wide open. He had to make a lot of really tough plays today against a rush that was hitting him a lot. We wanted to protect him today. The kid came in and took a shot in the fourth quarter and he went into the locker room and came back out and played. Good to see.”
#2, Matt Corral, So., QB
On his performance…
“I felt like our offense played well. There is a lot of stuff that we still need to work on. We got a tough game coming up next and just build off of what we did today.”
On turning average plays into big plays…
“I’m just doing my job. I’m just getting to the back when I don’t like things down the field. Staying within the system is very big for me. The hours we put in, not even just me, but the quarterback group as a whole. We do a good job of holding each other accountable. We are making sure that we’re doing everything right.”
On his response to the missed extra point by Kentucky…
“Offensively, we wouldn’t have it any other way. The game is in our hands right now. We score, get the extra point, and we win. We did exactly that.”
#46, Momo Sanogo, Jr., LB
On your fourth-down sack …
“It was a great call from coach, and I just knew this week I had to get there. Last week I didn’t get there fast enough. I needed to push a little harder this time, and I got there.”
On how you feel after being back from injury …
“Not fast enough. I’m just not playing to my personal standard right now. I’m going to get there, but I have to keep pushing.”
On Ole Miss’ defense this season …
“(Lane) Kiffin definitely has the offense ready to do that, but that’s not the type of season I want to have. I want to have the type of season where we’re dominating on defense, letting the offense work, and getting them the ball back early and often.”
On what Ole Miss can do to improve errors …
“It’s all about how we come out. We have to come out a lot harder than we did. The first half was pitiful from the defensive side. We let too much slip by us. We came out hard with some answers in the second half, made some good adjustments, but still not to our standard. Give props to their offensive line. In my opinion, best offensive line in the SEC, we knew that coming into the game, but we definitely have to step it up on our side of the ball.”
On what was said to you in the locker room at halftime …
“They (coaches) have been preaching all week, both offensively and defensively, saying, ‘Physical, physical, physical, physical.’ When we came out, we thought we were playing physical, and then the first half went how it went, and we came back in the locker room, and they just looked at us in the eyes and said, ‘Is that what we meant by physical?’ And, we just got a different edge about us, and we started answering.”
On how you can improve in practice this week …
“Oh yeah, just going through those fits over and over again. Getting reps, not looking for the easy way out, and just attacking practice with the mindset of we need to go out there and dominate and give our offense the position to go out there and score and win.”
#1, Jonathan Mingo, So. WR
On how you have felt in the first couple of games …
“We took the off season more seriously. We all got closer. We got a new offense, so everybody was kind of excited about the new offense, so every day we push each other. If somebody isn’t doing good, we get on their behind and tell them to pick it up, so we just push each other. We all love each other, and we go out there and compete every day.”
On if you expected the offense to be this affective this quick …
“yes sir. Because based off the plays we were calling during fall camp, we knew it was going to be kind of explosive, so I wasn’t really this surprised the offense got to clicking this fast.”
On Ole Miss playing from behind …
“When you get behind, we know we shouldn’t be behind. The first couple of series, we were just a couple of plays, and we were doing what we were supposed to do, so like, we knew we had to pick it up, and we played from behind and we knew what was at stake, we knew we were the better team, we knew we couldn’t let the game get away from us. So, like last week, we let the game get away, we should’ve won that. So, this week, he really emphasized just making our plays. If we’re behind, just keep pushing and keep punching.”
On what coaches said to you after Kentucky missed kick in overtime …
“It’s game time. Everybody block and make plays. Be ready when your number is called. There wasn’t a specific person he was asking to be ready, he was just like, the whole offense be ready for when your number will be called.”
