Big Moments Only Adding Fuel to UK's Fire

Kentucky’s win over Louisville felt like a milestone. 

It came with a trophy and a rally with fans at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility when the Wildcats returned home.

Mark Stoops, deservedly, celebrated the night of the game, but he’s hardly had time to breathe since.

“We’re still on a high after the big victory,” Stoops said. “Our feet have really not hit the ground.”

Stoops’ life has been a whirlwind since UK reclaimed the Governor’s Cup. After allowing himself a fleeting moment of celebration last Saturday night, it was on the road for him the following morning to recruit. He returned to Lexington last Friday, but only for a big weekend of recruiting visits that included being honored on the court at Rupp Arena on Saturday.

“It was really good,” Stoops said. “We had a big weekend, as you know. We had about 16 kids in and really just wrapped up with one of them just now. So it was a really good weekend, a lot of good players, a great reception.”

He jetted back out on Sunday for more recruiting before returning to Lexington on Monday for that final meeting with a recruit, a press conference at noon and a team meeting at 2 p.m. Then it’s back on the road.

“It gives us a few weeks to really concentrate on recruiting,” Stoops said. “We have to. We only have two weeks to get in front of kids in December, so we’ll do that and we’ll be recruiting for the most part these two weeks and then when we get back this weekend, we’ll start our bowl preparation. We’ll start our bowl practices this weekend.”

Those bowl practices will be centered on two things. One, preparing the Wildcats (7-5) for a TaxSlayer Bowl matchup with Georgia Tech (8-4). Two, fundamentally improving a program that hasn’t had the benefit of 15 or so extra bowl practices since the 2010 season.

“We’ll work on ourselves for a good dose of the bowl and just getting better playing football,” Stoops said, “and then we’ll, obviously, put a lot of time in on Georgia Tech, because it will be extremely important to try to get that victory.”

The game is important for a number of reasons, namely to sustain the momentum UK built over the last 10 games of the season and because of the national audience a bowl as prominent as the TaxSlayer Bowl will bring. UK will also be looking to send off a group of seniors who have meant a great deal to the program the right way.

For Jojo Kemp – a native of DeLand, Florida – the simple fact that UK is bound for Jacksonville, Florida is a good start.

“It’s really sweet, and I’d like to thank the TaxSlayer Bowl for giving us an invite. They probably were thinking of me,” Kemp said, laughing. “It’s an awesome feeling to be back in my home state, the Sunshine State.”

Kemp and his teammates have had time away from practice over the last week-plus, a deviation from Stoops’ original plan. At first, Stoops thought the Cats would go right back to the field. Upon further review, he decided some recovery time would benefit them.

“Originally I was going to come back and practice this past weekend,” Stoops said. “I looked at several other coaches’ schedules and I thought it was not in our best interest to do that. They needed some time to heal up, to mentally and physically get away from it for a minute. We are hitting it hard in the weight room and running, and that’s good for them.”

Since the milestones that were beating Louisville and reaching a bowl like the TaxSlayer Bowl, UK hasn’t changed its approach one bit. Complacency is no issue. 

“I think it’s just the opposite,” Stoops said. “Our team realizes that we can be a good football team, and we’ve shown flashes. We’ve done some good things. We’re working hard to become a more consistent team, but I think it gives a team a lot of confidence and a lot of energy as we focus. And you’ve heard me in here every week, and I say the same things and they hear the same things about going to work and getting better and embracing the work during the week, and they’ve done that and will continue to do that. That will be the message as we prepare for this bowl game.”