BROWN

STOOPS

TOWLES

The schedule calls for Mark Stoops to talk to the media on Mondays and Thursdays during game week, with UK’s offensive and defensive coaches available on Tuesday and Wednesday. After his weekly media luncheon on Monday, Stoops was supposed to have a two-day break. As he came off the field on Tuesday, Stoops was in a jovial mood, even stepping over to the podium for an unscheduled media opportunity. “It was good,” Stoops said of UK’s Tuesday practice. “We had a lot of work. We got a lot of work done today. We needed to. Good hot day. Felt good about the energy. Guys are starting to lock in and execute well. So overall, it was a very good practice.”With the Wildcats just five days from its season lidlifter vs. UT Martin at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday at noon on the SEC Network, Stoops and offensive coordinator Neal Brown are continuing to get the offense working at the desired tempo and excelling on first down. “We’ll be much faster week one this year than we were at any point last year,” Stoops said, referencing UK’s 2013 season opener against WKU. “Like I said before, we’ve got to get some production on first down. That’s a big key for us to move the football. We’re not good enough on any side yet to go fast and not get first downs. So we have to move the ball, and even though you’re going fast, you still have to chew up some clock by getting first downs and running plays. But I feel good. I feel like we’re improved, and they’re ready to go.”Brown echoed Stoops’ assertion that a high-tempo offensive unit needs to excel on first down in order to run the desired offense. “We did not play with very good tempo at Western,” Brown said about the tempo of 2014 camp compared to 2013. “We tried to early and we just didn’t do a very good job of it at all. We’ll pick our spots in this game. I want to make sure that we’re not playing so fast that we’re hurting ourselves, you know? But we’re in a position now, going into our second fall, that we’re able to play really fast when we need to. And there’s going to be some times in this game where we’ll play at a really quick pace – faster than we ever executed last year.”With sophomore Patrick Towles earning the starting quarterback job entering the campaign, Stoops and Brown are focused on getting the 6-foot-5, 238-pounder and the offense off to a strong start. “Yeah, I think it’s important to get Patrick and everybody (off to a fast start),” Brown said. “Y’all looked at our depth chart. We’ve got a bunch of young guys in that two-deep, especially at the skill positions. So we’ve got to be simple. It’s important to get Patrick off to a good start, but it’s also important to get Kyle Meadows off to a good start. It’s also important to get Stanley (Williams), when he gets in the game, off to a good start, all those freshmen wideouts that are going to play. So you’ve got to not only take Patrick into (account), but you’ve got to take everybody.”While Towles and the entire UK squad will be eager to get on the field and face a team not wearing blue and white, Stoops stressed the importance of keeping things as normal as possible. “(Patrick) doesn’t need to put any more undue pressure on himself,” Stoops said. “The whole team needs to play well. I expect that he will be a little bit antsy. But he’s just got to calm down and stay within himself and operate the offense. And that’s where it is important to get off on a fast start and give him some things that he can manage early until he gets settled in.”