UK Shifts Full Concentration to Bowl Prep

VIDEO INTERVIEWS: MARK STOOPS | STEPHEN JOHNSON II

Through the first half of December, Kentucky had to split its focus.

The Wildcats had academics to think about, needing to finish the semester strong and study for final exams. The coaches, meanwhile, were on the road recruiting more often than not.

Now, with finals over and the onset of a recruiting dead period, the Cats are single-minded.

“It changes to where we can concentrate 100 percent on what we’re doing,” Stoops said. “And that’s getting ready for Tech, both the players and the coaches.”

UK’s TaxSlayer Bowl matchup with Georgia Tech is now 15 days away. The Cats will practice every day until Wednesday when they break for Christmas before reconvening for a final week of practice down in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Stoops reports the team’s attitude has been good to this point, but he’s not about to petition to move the game up from New Year’s Eve, not with the opponent UK is preparing for.

“We’ve had some good work,” Stoops said. “We’ve got a long way to go, so I’m glad we don’t play for a bit and we have a lot of work to do. Especially on the defensive side defending Tech’s offense.”

The Yellow Jackets and Paul Johnson are well known for their triple-option attack. With the evolution of the game, nearly every team in America uses some option concepts.

Georgia Tech is not every team in America.

“It is very different,” Stoops said. “It is different. It’s nothing like a zone-read option or anything like that or any option we’ve seen this year. It’s totally different. … I think it’s very important that we have some extra time. It takes a while just to get your scout team to be able to get you a decent look.”

Much like he did in imitating Lamar Jackson leading up to the upset win that propelled UK to the TaxSlayer Bowl, freshman running back Asim Rose is playing quarterback for the scout team in Georgia Tech prep.

And just as Rose is accustomed to that role, so too are Stoops and defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot familiar with game-planning for Georgia Tech. The two faced the Yellow Jackets when they were at Florida State, including in their final game there – a 21-15 win in the ACC Championship Game. 

“We definitely lean on our experience and what we’ve done and a big part of that will be what we did at Florida State and how we defended them,” Stoops said. “And then how they change or ways to evolve or ways to improve from there, but the base principles we had some success with at Florida State and we’ll stay with that.”