Mark Stoops Monday Press Conference
2017 Mark Stoops News Conference
Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
Sept. 11, 2017
Mark Stoops
“Well, it was good to go on the road week one and get the win. We all know this atmosphere will be quite different. I was really pretty amazed the first time I ever played down there. The atmosphere was fantastic. Really great venue. It’ll be a real challenge, but we have to embrace that. We’re going to have to play much better football in a lot of areas. They played very well with two quality wins. They’ve been very sound. They’ve played very clean football. They’re just like us. They’re plus-four in turnovers. They’ve played solid on offense and on defense, and they’ve gotten the two big kickoff returns that have sparked them also. They’ve played really solid football. They’re well coached. It’ll be a real challenge, but it is quite and atmosphere and our players just got to concentrate on us and embrace what we do. That’s what makes it fun. To go into hostile environments like this, and we’ve got to be up for the challenge.”
On his first time at South Carolina …
“I had never played there before, and it was quite an atmosphere. It was good. It was cool. It’s a neat place, and so as we make our way through most of the Southeastern Conference, I’ve been to most. I haven’t been to all of them yet, with the schedule the way that it is, but we’ve had the opportunity to be here a few times, so at least we know what we’re getting into.”
On what specific areas he wants the team to work on …
“You’ve already heard me say after in the post-game press conference, and when you look at it, they’re the things that I thought. If you look at us offensively, the most common one to look at is the snaps. There’s two snaps in the game, there’s several snaps in a game, but there was two that stopped drives. So we only have 11 drives, six of them go for points of missed fields goal, five of them don’t and two of them are because of snaps only. And then, you look at the other three, and two of those, the opening play of the drive start with penalties. Those need to get cleaned up. And the other one we did not convert or score on was a 3rd and three that was late in the game and we decided to run the ball and come up a half-yard short. Things aren’t, the sky’s not falling, but we have to get those things cleaned up. The snaps we will continue to work on that. We’ll get those corrected. Nick (Haynes) and Bunchy (Stallings) are very conscientious young men. They work extremely hard. They take pride in their craft. I know they’ll work on that and get that fixed. We’ve got to get the penalties fixed, and we’ve got to be a little more disciplined in certain areas. Defensively, there was position on the football. Our coverages weren’t as precise as they need to be. We need to contest more passes and we need to tackle better. Also, with the special teams we took a step back there in kick-off coverage. Goes back to some issues before. All of a sudden, you don’t get a great kick, you have a guy miss, and there’s big returns. We have to get that corrected by this week. We know what we’re getting into this week with their kick-off returner with Deebo (Samuel) back there. He’s a real, real weapon, so we have to get those areas cleaned up. Those are some areas specifically. “
On South Carolina’s Deebo Samuel …
“He’s electric. He’s a playmaker. He’s got great vision. Like any greater returner, you’ve got to have top-end speed. He obviously has top-end speed, and can make people miss but it also has vision. That’s where you know you have a very good football player. He does a lot of things. They want the ball in his hands. He’s got quite a few touches. He’ll get things on reverses, and little fly sweeps. Kick returns. In many different ways. Obviously they’ll isolate him and try to get you one-on-one with him in the pass game.”
On Kentucky’s Drake Jackson …
“He just needs some more work. He’s going to be fine. We just need to keep on plugging away. If we felt like he was part of the best five, then he would be in there. And again, I keep on going back to it, that’s development. He’s going to be just fine. He’s developing and getting better. That was the same way last year. We didn’t have nine players at the beginning of the year last year, by the end of the year we did.”
On South Carolina’s Jake Bentley …
“He’s just a good quarterback. Good strong arm. He knows where to go with the ball. He’s getting some playmakers around him, and they’re getting good balance in what they do. He’s a good player.”
On what was said in the locker room to encourage the team …
“I think the whole attitude was that no one’s going to make us apologize for being 2-0. We know there’s work to be done. Those players know that. They’re conscientious. They care, but there’s absolutely no reason to hit the panic button, but you have to have some urgency. We have to get some things cleaned up. That’s just the little things. That’s discipline. We’re going to really beat that on them this week. We have to be more disciplined and more consistent. There’s things we have to get cleaned up because the margin for error starts to shrink as we get into conference play.”
On the players having a balance with being 2-0 and having conference play coming up…
“We have to get some things cleaned up and again, I think the big word is just discipline. We have to be disciplined in all aspects of it and we have to execute. They want to be better. They know they can be better and we are going to work hard to do it. So, you know, I am encouraged by that.
“I want to say the same thing about Drew (Barker) when he went in there. I was very happy that we inserted him in the game in the situation we did under some pressure. You have to get those quality reps and again his play, I have to defend him like I have to defend Stephen (Johnson). There are a lot of people around him. You don’t need to go in there and get a penalty on a screen pass and get a holding play, a holding penalty on the first one and then some protection issues, giving some options on third downs. There are not many quarterbacks that are very effective on third and long when you are not getting great, great protection. There is not some kind of big play and you know, we got them in third and long on the first series. Next series, we have another penalty that starts first and 15. We have a run. Benny (Snell Jr.) is banged up. We have a guy that hasn’t played college football yet and has a run that couldn’t possibly be set up any better and we miss it. We bounce outside instead of hitting up inside for a huge gain. We get in third and long again and the same back, that’s going to be fine, hasn’t played yet, gets completely blown up on a blitz. You know, (Drew is) getting no time to throw the ball. So, you know what happened the next series after that? The same thing, third and 10. Guess what happens with Stephen (Johnson)? No protection. No throw. We get sacked. Bailed out by a facemask. Everybody forgets that.”
On the offensive line and trying to get more players ready …
“We have rotated seven guys. We need to get to eight or nine guys and find that rotation. We are working with it. When injuries go down, we have two guys right now at center that we feel like can play. If one of them goes down, then we have different options at guard. So, we have got to continue to bring a few guys along. We will.”
On Jordan Jones wearing a sling after the game…
“It happened. I didn’t even know about it when I was in here talking to you. He got a little issue with his shoulder so we will see how he goes throughout the week. He is not ruled out at this point.”
On improvement in the defense…
“It always starts with great team defense. Like I have said a hundred times, it’s a technique game. You have to be very sound, technically up front, for the defensive line to be successful. We are still really pushing on that. There were plays Saturday that we can do better. We are constantly looking at issues and ways to improve them. It takes some pressure off them but if there is all 11 guys are in the right spot then generally you will have some success and this past Saturday even there were some issues that we have to get ironed out. There were some communication issues structurally. If we do it the way we did, there is no success. You are not going to have any success. We just have to all be on the same page. So, we have to continue to harp on those things and get better. “
On his relationship with Coach Will Muschamp…
“I’ve known Will for a long time. I have great respect for Will. We’re both defensive guys, we both like football and talking ball and he’s a good coach so, expect a very good game. I like Will personally. I think he’s a good guy and does things the right way.”
On the offensive line’s recent performance…
“I think they’ve all had moments. The problem is, and you know, just like I described, with five possessions that didn’t go for points or ended drives, there’s always one thing or another, but you know, that’s why all 11 guys have to be doing what they’re supposed to do at all times. Unless you have somebody really special that will make some people miss, which we do once in a while. But, you can’t always count on that against quality people, so you have to execute and when you don’t, bad things are going to happen. These games our possessions are lower than some with the way both teams were just running it and being methodical and going about their business and not super high-paced. You only have about 11 possessions. That’s what we had last week and I expect probably about the same this week? So, you have to be efficient in those drives. That’s why in NFL games a lot of times you don’t see a lot of super high-scoring games. They don’t have as many possessions either, so, you know, we can’t miss our opportunities.”
On Kentucky’s Landon Young and Kyle Meadows…
“Landon’s playing well. He and Kyle both have given up some pressure that we have to iron out so whether it be a running back or an offensive lineman, we have to sure up the protection. I think, again, if you look at that, that’s not uncommon with a lot of people? So, in predictable paths our guys will get some pressure as well. That’s why you try to stay out of those situations a lot. Your third-down efficiency will be much more efficient on third and medium.”
On the message to running backs and receivers concerning blowing blitzes….
“You have to be good. People underestimate that running back is not only physically blocking well, but also assignment-wise being sharp with directions and everything. So it’s a lot more to it.”
On Kentucky senior Blake Bone’s play…
“Blake has been more consistent. He’s been better across the board this year. He’s been more consistent at camp, he’s been working harder, he’s been earning our trust and he went out there and made some plays. We need guys to step up and make plays. You have to have playmakers on the field. There’s going to be contestant passes across the board. When we get into league play there’s going to be people on you. You have to make tough catches. Tavin Richardson made a nice competitive catch the other day. He was well covered and Stephen made a great throw and Tavin made a really great play. If I’m not mistaken, that was after a penalty so we may have been backed up some and he made a big catch.”
On the improvement of 50/50 balls from the secondary…
“There were no big (passing) plays in this past game. There was one of 24 yards if I’m not mistaken. So one thing we always look at is explosive plays. There weren’t a lot of explosive plays. They were smart in the way they did things. They got in pinched set to get us off and create some space. There were some things in our coverage that we have to be more precise on that. So we have to push our coverage more and get a little bit more consistent in that. So, a lot of the nickel and dime stuff just on the secondary. When you have that many passes completed, you’re not really happy. Yardage was down and explosive plays were down. We’ve got to do some things better as a unit.”
On Kentucky’s Courtney Love’s growth and development….
“Courtney’s just a mature young man, he always has been. He’s like that here. He’s very solid. You just have to respect him in the way that he’s about his business, the way he lives his life, and we’re truly blessed to have him in this program. He’s doing very well.”
On former Kentucky players and how they could have made an impact this season…
“We’re always rooting for all of those guys. We would be a different team with them. You always wish you had some guys like them. If we have Jeff Badet, if we have Boom (Williams), Cole Mosier, Dorian Baker, do you think we’d be making a few more plays? I always talk about recruiting and developing and there are four examples of that right there. You get them developed and you get them more mature and unfortunately you don’t have them with you so that’s why you get a whole bunch of them, because if you need to, you can just plug in the next guy. We’re getting much better, but it’s hard to replace those four. They all could be playing for us right now, but they’re not here so it’s up to the next guys to step up.”
On the reaction of his brother, Bob Stoops, during the Oklahoma/Ohio State game…
“I was going nuts, too. I was locked in as well so I saw him keeping his composer the whole game up until that play which was the touchdown that put them up by a pretty good bit. It was a really good game because you always know those games are going to go back and forth and always can, but we’re all excited at that point.
On RB Benny Snell’s bruised ribs…
“Yes, I’m expecting him to be fine. I hope so. It’s one of those injuries that are very painful. You’ve heard of guys that have had those and played with them in the NFL and different things, but there will be some pain there and we’ll see how it goes. I have no idea how it’ll go this week. I think Jordan (Jones) is similar. There’s a pain tolerance issue that we’ll see how it goes and we’ll see if he can handle it or not.”
On running the Wildcat…
“We have to do whatever we have to do to win games. I say that a lot, but it’s so true. Look at South Carolina; they’re a good example of that. They’ve been very efficient and have two quality wins. They just played solid football. They’ve done what they had to do to win. They’re plus four in turnovers, have two kickoff returns for touchdowns, and they’re playing solid in all areas.”
On how important the South Carolina game is to the rest of the season…
“It’s super important because it is the next game. We never look beyond that so how it affects the rest of the year doesn’t even enter our mind, to be honest with you. It’s be ready to go to work, prepare the best we can to go play a quality team on the road in the SEC. We don’t need any more motivation than that.”
On how beneficial it is to have already play a road game…
“I think it helps, I really do. I think it helps and this will be quite different but I think it does help us. Just the routine and some of those guys haven’t been through it before.”
On the play of the defensive line vs. EKU…
“Again solid, not as good not as sharp and that is no knock on them. I think that is just how we were across the board. (There were) not as many opportunities to defend the run but we weren’t as sharp as we could be.”
On being 2-0 and seemingly being more jolly…
“Let’s just see if you say that next Monday. I don’t know jolly. I’ve never heard that word with me. I just feel like this team, they are fun to coach. They want to get better. Believe me, they are going to get coached up this week. I’m not real pleased, they are a lot of things we have to do better and we will. But I know this group will take it. I guess that’s the only thing that is different is you know you are not going to go in there and just talk and talk and talk without them listening, taking it in and wanting to get better. Wanting to improve, you always like that as a coach. That is why you coach. We still have quite a few challenges and there are things that aggravate the heck out of you that we have to have cleaned up. And we are going to start doing that today. I guess that’s why I am so jolly because I’m ready to go rip somebody’s butt.”
On if a specific leader has stepped up on the team…
“I don’t know if it is any specific person, I just think the overall attitude is more consistent, and that comes from the leadership and our standards. You know it’s our standards versus expectations. That is what we (stressed) last week and that wasn’t always the case, but it’s not for the lack of trying, we just need to be more disciplined. We need to do things more precise and that’s what we are going to work on today.”
On Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr. …
“Well, I’m sure he is frustrated after the last (game) here but his time will come. And it’s about continuing to have great practices. He had a better week last week, I think he was ready to go. We sure wanted to see him. Sooner or later he is going to get those opportunities and you got to make the most of it.”
On if Bowden’s ejection had an impact on the team…
“I don’t think it had a big impact on the team. No I don’t. Like I said afterwards that I think it was unfortunate. You know it was a bad break. There are things we can learn off of that and coach off that. But it was nothing malicious, there was nothing with bad intent. It was not a selfish play. I think everyone understood that and just move on.”
