Acceptance of bowl bid …

Mitch Barnhart: “David (Boree, TaxSlayer Bowl Chairman), we thank you so much for the invitation to play in the TaxSlayer Bowl (and also Bowl President), Rick Catlett and his staff.  We’re so much looking forward to participating.  With great honor I accept the invitation for the University of Kentucky, President Eli Capilouto, our head football coach Mark Stoops and all of our players and our fan base, which is so excited to participate and come to Jacksonville.  So, yes, thank you very much and we’ve excited to be there.”

Coach Stoops: “Thank you.  It’s an honor and a privilege for myself and our team to accept this bid. We are excited for this opportunity and great challenge facing Coach (Paul) Johnson and Georgia Tech.   Thank you to all of you and we are excited to get down there and participate, appreciate you.”

Kentucky’s first time to play in the TaxSlayer Bowl, meaning everyone in the Southeastern Conference will have played in the event …

Coach Stoops: “It’s kind of been our mantra all year, to be honest with you, knocking down doors and this is another one. We’re just trying to knock down doors one at a time and again it’s an honor and a privilege to be there and play in the TaxSlayer Bowl with its great history, and facing Coach Johnson and Georgia Tech.  It will be a real challenge for us but we’re excited about it.  Again like I’ve commented many times about the history, I really can’t control what’s gone on here for a long time except what’s gone on here the last four years and we’re excited.  I think we’re a team that’s been improving each and every week.  Again, we’re excited about the extra bowl practices and getting to Jacksonville and participating in this bowl.” 

What did it mean to get that Louisville win in order to improve the program moving forward …

Coach Stoops: “It was big for us.  I think each and every win was big for us as we were competing to reach bowl eligibility.  We didn’t get off to the start we wanted to but it’s about how you finish.  I think it was good for us to get that sixth victory before we played Louisville to take a little pressure off our team and let us play go in there and play with a lot of confidence and play loose. We really played a good football game. I think our best football is ahead of us and hopefully we can continue to improve through these bowl practices because we’ll need it. But it was big. I think it was big to get the Governor’s Cup, first and foremost, and to beat Louisville. We’ve been close the past couple of years, and again, it‘s another one of those doors we’re trying to knock down, so we’re tired of being close, we wanted to finish, and so we’re excited about playing in this bowl.”

Mitch Barnhart: “I think Mark hit it on the head. We started off 0-2 and we won seven of our last 10 games, so it was clear the team took steps along the way.  The step we took to get to bowl eligibility was something we haven’t done in six years.  We had been close a couple of times so that was a little bit of a monkey off our back, the next-to-last game of the season against Austin Peay.  And then, had an opportunity to go to Louisville and play for the bragging rights in our state and that was a big deal for our program but it also elevated our thought process of what we wanted to aspire to.  Obviously, for your young people, you want to put them in the best position you can for postseason play and have an opportunity to get to the TaxSlayer in Jacksonville, with the great history of this bowl, it resonates with our kids.  When we had a team meeting last week, it was fun to watch the expressions on their faces when we talked about the possibility of being in Jacksonville.  They got excited and at the end of the day, that’s what we’re all in this for, is to help fulfill some dreams and hopes for them.”

If UK senses same feeling among fans in 2006 when Wildcats went to the Music City Bowl …

Mitch Barnhart:  “Obviously a little further away from us in terms of distance.  We have an incredible fan base in Atlanta.  We all know that we have a lot of folks who come down there for the SEC Tournament and we call it ‘Catlanta’ when we come that way for basketball. Clearly, we have a large Georgia alumni base, we got a large group of folks from Kentucky who go to Florida for the winter.  They’ve already been reaching out, talking about coming up the highway to Jacksonville and we got a lot of folks here that were waiting for an opportunity to find out where we were going to go and are very excited about heading that way.   I would say that there will be a significant, significant following of Kentucky blue and white down the highway, up the highway and the airways.  Our fan base is phenomenal and we’re so thankful for them.  They’ve been great to us and they’ve been faithful in their support of our program in general, and specifically in our football program.  They want it to be successful and we want it for them.  We’re looking forward to having them with us and encouraging people to jump on board and enjoy the journey with us.” 

Preparation for Georgia Tech …

Coach Stoops: “Of course, it’s exciting.  Like I said, it’s going to be a real challenge.  Anybody who knows anything about college football knows Coach Johnson and the success that he’s had and the difficulties that it is of defending that offense and what they do as a whole team. 

“We have some recruiting to do, our players have some final exams and we will work on ourselves a decent part of the preparation just to improve our football team and develop our young players. But then it will be on to Georgia Tech. We have a lot of film to break down and a lot to look at and a lot to prepare for, so there will be a lot to do in the next three weeks but it’s also an exciting time.”

Will each team continue to feature the strong running games they have displayed this season …

Coach Stoops: “I think certainly both teams have showed that they can run the ball but I think both teams also have shown the capability of making very big plays, both in the run game and with some play action.  Like Paul said, it could be a quick game, we’ll see how it goes.  But I’m sure with the ability to run the ball it also creates the opportunity for big plays, so I’m sure both teams will be looking to try to limit that from our opponent.”

Coach Stoops played Georgia Tech as defensive coordinator in the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. How difficult it is to prepare a team with Georgia Tech’s style …  

Coach Stoops: “It is definitely different and it is a lot of work.  Coach (Johnson) has been doing this for a long time and really has a very clear vision of what he wants to do offensively.  It is different and it does take some work.  Fortunately we do have some extra time so hopefully we will put that to good use and have a good plan.   But it was a real challenge to play them in a week’s time at Florida State.  Fortunately, we had some extremely athletic guys there and we were able to get a few stops but it’s definitely a real challenge.”

What Coach Stoops remembers from that 2012 ACC championship game, having announced that he was accepting the Kentucky job earlier in the week while preparing to coach the game …

Coach Stoops: “I don’t remember a lot.  It was a whirlwind.  It was a very hectic week.  Obviously, Mitch and I had some conversations that week, I believe we announced it Wednesday of that week prior to the game, that I was accepting the job at Kentucky. 

“I remember this – I remember it being extremely important for me to finish at Florida State the best I could.  It was a great opportunity for me.  I really respect (Coach) Jimbo Fisher and the players at Florida State.  I really wanted to do the very best I could to finish out and we knew it’s always a challenge.  Again, we were fortunate, we had some very talented players there at the time at Florida State.  Again, we were able to, as a team, come out on the winning end but it’s always a challenge and we always have great respect for Georgia Tech and the challenge that’s in front of you.”

Re: what quarterback Stephen Johnson has meant to the team …

Coach Stoops: “Stephen was thrown into a difficult situation, obviously, having to go and play in the second or third play of the game at Florida.  We took our lumps in that game and really began to grow as a team and kind of morph into the offense that we became.  Stephen was a big part of that. It starts with his poise and his leadership.  Our players really respond to him and he always found a way to put us into a position to win games.  That’s the bottom line for a quarterback.  He made good decisions. He made some timely plays, whether it be a scramble or a designed quarterback run or a throw that created some big plays.  He certainly improved as season went on.  So, we’re excited about Stephen.  We’ll need these practices to try to keep on improving.  But we like what we see out of him and it starts with his poise and his leadership.”