Cats Forgetting Florida, Preparing for Mizzou

Kentucky, two days removed from a 14-9 loss to Florida, gathered on Monday and Mark Stoops knew he had a disappointed football team on his hands.

The Wildcats, however, didn’t spent a lot of time licking their wounds following their first defeat of the season.

“They went out Monday and had a good practice and really picked it back up Tuesday and just had a normal week,” Stoops said.

UK put the finishing touches on that normal week Thursday.

“It’s been a good week of practice, good Thursday,” Stoops said. “Looking forward to getting back out there. We’ll need to play a little better as I mentioned earlier in the week. Feel like it’s been a good week of preparation like I said, so we’ll see come Saturday.”

Missouri, the two-time defending Southeastern Conference Eastern Division champion, will be standing in Kentucky’s way sporting a 3-0 record and a No. 23 Coaches’ Poll ranking. The game, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network, is a chance for the Cats to regain momentum lost last weekend.

“Our guys know there’s a ton of football left,” Stoops said.

More importantly, it’s a chance for UK to continue its progress as a program.

“Win or lose, we’re back to work on Monday and that’s what I look for, whether we had the right preparation,” Stoops said. “You could always second-guess play-calling, you could always second-guess personnel, I understand that. But if I feel we have a good plan on both sides of the ball and work the right things and schematically had the right plan, then I’m all right with the results. It takes a couple of days but that’s the way it is. I just want to make sure we’re doing the right things and moving forward as a program.”