Nothing Keeping Stoops, Cats from Staying the Course
“To be honest, as we go through the depth chart and practice schedule and as we are going through the details the past week or so, looking at things, it’s very different to see some really good football players that you’re worried about getting them some practice reps,” Stoops said. “Where in years past, you would be wanting them to come in and start.”
Early playing time has always been a selling point since his arrival in Lexington five years ago, but no more.
“So, that’s a nice problem to have,” Stoops said.
UK returns 17 starters from a 2016 team that reached the program’s first bowl since 2010 and lost only 14 seniors plus early NFL Draft entrant Boom Williams. The Wildcat returners include quarterback Stephen Johnson, 1,000-yard rusher Benny Snell, the bulk of a bruising offensive line, and defensive standouts Jordan Jones and Mike Edwards.
“I think that our team is stronger, we’re more mature and we need to put the fine strokes on things,” Stoops said. “Last year was — last year, I don’t even want to talk about it. But this year we have some experience, we have some depth, we have some strength and we need to come out of the blocks strong, starting today with a good practice. I’m excited. I think it’s a really good group. Our team seems to have a much better focus about them.”
That focus has been accompanied by a newfound confidence built through a 2016 season that saw UK bounce back from an 0-2 start.
“We know what we did last year and the games we could have won that we didn’t,” Johnson said. “We know that we can be the best of the best and beat the best of the best. We’re just a whole lot more confident and our chemistry’s a whole lot better than it was a year ago from today.”
The improvement isn’t limited to chemistry and confidence either.
“I really like where we’re at right now compared to last year,” Stoops said. “I just feel like the ownership, the leadership is much stronger, and it should be. Again, I say it every year, I’m here when you guys ask me my expectations and all those things, we expect to be better. We should be better. We’re going into year five, we ought to be better in all areas.”
For all the internal optimism and momentum UK is carrying into a 2017 season that will kick off on Sept. 3 with a trip to Southern Miss, the Cats haven’t gotten much in the way of respect from the outside world. The most notable examples of that came at Southeastern Conference Media Days, where SEC Network analyst Greg McElroy harshly criticized Matt Elam and UK’s defensive line and league media tabbed Kentucky to finish fifth in the Eastern Division in their preseason poll.
Some players have taken to social media to say they will use the slights as motivation, but don’t expect Stoops to be delivering many rah-rah messages along those lines.
“I don’t talk about that much,” Stoops said. “I’m not going to say I never do or whatever, it depends on what mood I’m in. But whatever they need to do to motivate themselves. But it’s really about us, it’s about where we finish. Nobody predicted us last year to finish tied for second in the East either. We would like to get better than that. We’re worried about ourselves and where we finish and whatever areas or whatever ways people want to use to motivate themselves on a daily basis, I’m OK with.”
Edwards – the versatile safety unanimously mentioned as a team leader – isn’t among the group of players using the lack of respect as fuel.
“Me personally, I don’t pay attention to any of it,” Edwards said. “They’re not out here working. They don’t know what we’re doing on and off the field, but if that’s what they want to say that’s what they want to say. We’re going to prove it to them first game and throughout the season.”
That’s spoken like a player ready to get down to business at fall camp, which is exactly what Stoops wants. For all the talk of predicted finishes and expectations, it’s another kind of finish and expectations that he is worried about.
“I think that accountability within your own team is the teammates — our team’s expectations,” Stoops said. “What are they? Outside of everybody and even myself, I mean what do they expect of each other. I think that’s the big thing. And what’s acceptable and what’s not. What’s an acceptable rep, what’s an acceptable practice and what’s not. I think there’s some ownership within that team of what we want to look like and that will help us.”
UK’s fall practices will look a little bit different this year, as two-a-days are no longer allowable according to NCAA rules. That’s the reason for the earlier reporting time, but not a cause for priorities to change in the league.
“It’s a little longer camp,” Stoops said. “We got to deal with a little bit of adversity here for three days, because our kids are still in school until Thursday, actually. So we got to get up, have the very early morning practices, so it cuts into some of the meeting times. So it’s a little different here for a few days, but we wouldn’t be here a year ago either. We’re starting earlier. So, but at the end of the day, our players will have more work this camp than they did last.”
If you thought a rule change or a little bit of success was going to do anything alter Stoops’ approach, think again. It’s time for the Cats to go to work.
“To the fans and to media and to everybody that listens to my message, it gets old,” Stoops said. “So I get it. I’m not angry with anybody, it just does. But for us, it’s about what? Just doing our job. It’s continue to do what we do. And that’s build, select and develop. I mean we do that daily all day. And we’re trying our best to develop these guys in all areas of their life, we’re trying our best to recruit the very best football players we can, and we’re trying our best to have everybody have a winning attitude and a winning culture and stay the course.”
