April 2, 2013
LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops and the UK football team hit the Nutter Field House practice field Monday morning for the eighth practice of spring football and had a solid day of work, the coach said after practice.
“Good practice today,” said Stoops, who is in his first season with the Wildcats. “We worked some situations and two-minute before half and two-minute end of the game (drills). We got some good work in and guys were focused. Thought it was a good day.”
The Wildcats are in their third week of practice after four practices in week one and three practices last week. UK had its first spring scrimmage last Friday with Stoops, offensive coordinator Neal Brown and defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot all pleased with how the first scrimmage went. Stoops said Monday that after reviewing the scrimmage film over the weekend, he thought things looked better than he had thought after the scrimmage was over.
“There were some better things than I initially thought after walking off the field,” Stoops said about the scrimmage. “Things that we can get corrected fairly easily. There were still plenty of mistakes, don’t get me wrong, and we still need to get better in a lot of ways. But there were some positive things.”
Brown agreed with Stoops’ assessment after watching the scrimmage film, adding that now that the UK players know what to expect of the new coaching staff in practice, they are getting a lot more done in practice. Brown said practices the rest of spring will be similar to the previous two weeks, although more situational drills will start to take place.
“Not much other than start working some more situations,” Brown said on what might change in practice now that the team is deeper into spring. “Again, we worked some good two-minute situations today. We have to continue to work on some third downs. We will work on some third down and goal line situations. We were functioning a lot better today. This third week compared to the first week we got a lot more done today because our operation was much better.”
The Wildcats will return to the practice fields on Wednesday for the ninth practice of spring football. UK will practice again Friday before its second scrimmage on Saturday.
