University of Kentucky Football Media Conference
Saturday, September 23 2017
Mark Stoops
MARK STOOPS: “As you can imagine, very heartbreaking loss for us and our team. I love our team’s commitment and work ethic and desire. They played unbelievably hard tonight — and played winning football. And I really appreciate them and the way they put themselves in a position all week to win the football game. And there’s quite a few plays in games and you never know which ones are going to decide the football game. And there’s probably one of 12 plays in there that changed the game. And it’s very disappointing that we didn’t come up with those plays. The breakdown in communication defensively on the two plays are really a sore spot because they stick out and it takes away from the great passion and energy that the team, that our team played with. We played winning football. We have to get those things fixed and I accept responsibility for those and we’ll get those plays fixed and do a better job. So, again, I thank the fans. The atmosphere was phenomenal. Greatly appreciate their support and energy, and I know our players did as well. I’ll open it up for questions.”
Q. The receiver was standing on your sideline and nobody near him. What went on there?
MARK STOOPS: “There should have been a guy there and I should have called it (a timeout) and, quite honestly, we were looking at the unbalanced formation. I was looking at the set and I was fixed on our fits because we were having some issues obviously with that set. And we were looking at exactly the formation in there, the bunch set, and by the time we realized that there was nobody on him, I tried to call a timeout and it was too late. I was fractions off of getting the timeout. So Derrick (Baity) said that he did not see the player out there.”
Q. The one at the end?
MARK STOOPS: “We subbed and Jordan (Griffin) came out when the other corner came out. We were getting into a big goal-line set and both corners came out and we left them uncovered. That’s our fault. We tried to change personnel groups too late. We should have lived with the call that we had and tried to sub for bigger people – and that can’t happen in that situation. Our players can’t hear. It’s loud and they can’t hear and the communication is very – as you guys know – with the crowd noise with offense and I know it’s like that on defense, it’s the defense at home. And we have got to communicate much better. We have got to do a better job of coaching them.”
Q. Did you see the holding call on that last drive? What are your thoughts on that?
MARK STOOPS: “I didn’t. Did you? No. I didn’t see it. I mean, that’s obviously a heartbreaking penalty at that point.”
Q. Does it hurt even more because Benny (Snell) was 10 yards down the field when the flag was thrown?
MARK STOOPS: “Is that right? I didn’t know. I had no idea. We ran the ball there because we were in field-goal range and they were playing split safeties with two high and we felt like we can get a good five, six yards and be in comfortable range for Austin (MacGinnis) and we broke it for whatever, 10 or 15, and it’s a heartbreaking call.”
Q. Did you think that the defense wore down on those last couple drives?
MARK STOOPS: “We did. We gotta do a better job. Yeah, we probably need to look at that again. And I know when you’re playing these games at home and that energy – and the guys are excited and we talked about that all week, starting Monday, about keeping your energy, because it was going to be 60 minutes. And this one went down to the last seconds, and we knew that. There’s probably a few guys in there that we have to do a better job of spelling them.”
Q. What’s the status of Derrick Baity?
MARK STOOPS: “I’m not sure. I mean, he had a head injury.”
Q. Could you sense in the atmosphere tonight sort of the hopefulness of this fan base?
MARK STOOPS: “Of course. Of course I did. I appreciate the support, I really do. It was a great atmosphere and I would like to see it like that every week, and I realize it’s up to us. I imagine if we play like that and the players leave it on the field and play with that kind of energy and desire and passion then we’ll have a great fan base like that every week. I know it’s up to us to play like that, and as I told these players, that one’s going to hurt because of what we have invested. These players have worked to put them self in a position to play like that and sometimes you’re going to come up on the wrong end. That definitely hurts when you invest what we have invested.”
Q. Did it feel tonight, aside from the mistakes and the end result, could you feel some of the progress you made as a program that you didn’t do a bunch of gimmicky stuff? There was no desperation. You guys lined up and had a lead against Florida.
MARK STOOPS: “Yeah — yes, I definitely know when you’re out there just playing football, playing our base stuff and there’s certainly things we have to do better and I have to do better, but it is nice to know that you have a team built that can play with Florida, because that’s still a very talented football team and our players laid it on the line.”
Q. What do you tell them after something like this, what do you say to them?
MARK STOOPS: “I tell them just, a lot what I just told you guys, in that it hurts like that because of what they have done, what they have put into it. Those guys, you could have heard a pin drop in there because they’re deflated because of the amount of work and how hard they wanted, how much they wanted to win that game. The amount of work that these guys have done since last December to put yourself in a position to win that game, and really quite honestly, years, years and years of hard work to put yourself in a position to win those games. That’s what hurts. Some of those players have been grinding for five years, four years, three years, and I told them that we’re going to win together and we’re going to lose together. And they played well enough to win the game and I appreciate their effort and I got to do a better job in certain areas to put us in a position to win.”
Q. Is there anything with the snapping? It was an issue again tonight on the one drive.
MARK STOOPS: “I mean, what — we snapped, I don’t know, I could count the reps, but I mean hundreds and hundreds a day, so we’ll continue to snap as many as we can. I think some of it gets the moisture, the sweat and that on his hands.”
Kentucky Football Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Florida
Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
Sept. 23, 2017
UK Student-Athletes
#87, C.J. Conrad, TE
On the locker room postgame …
“As you can expect, it was very difficult just because you put your heart and soul into a game and to fall short like that isn’t a good feeling, especially considering all of the work we put in. There’s no doubt about it that we’re upset, but we’re going to get better from this.”
On penalty at the end of the game …
“It was tough. It wasn’t good. We obviously weren’t going to give up but we knew. That’s one thing that probably couldn’t have happened during that play, but it did and it was unfortunate. But I got Nick’s (Haynes) back and he put his heart out tonight and it wasn’t his fault at all. He played unbelievably well and no one looked at him any sort of way or like it was his fault at all because he played his heart out tonight and it was just an unfortunate call.”
On what was said in the locker room postgame …
“All of the leaders said something. Stephen (Johnson) stepped up and Courtney (Love) stepped up. Obviously we’re not going to hang our heads, but this hurts. It was emotional. We put a lot into this game and to fall short like this is not a good feeling.”
#68, Nick Haynes, G
On penalty at the end of the game …
“I was surprised. I didn’t think it was a hold but I guess he thought something else. That’s all I can say about that really.”
On who stepped up in locker room after game …
“It was really all of us. That was a hard one to lose. But we have a bunch of seniors and leaders here and we’ll be ready to go as quick as tomorrow. We’re a hungry team and we’ll be back better than ever.”
#41, Josh Allen, LB
On the team’s emotions after the game …
“We really wanted it, so when we didn’t win, it hurt. We put everything we had into the game.”
On if the defense got tired late in the game …
“I don’t think so. It was communication issues, people not being in the right spot, people not signaling the calls and stuff. We are going to have to get better next week.”
On if the communication problems were because the defense was shorthanded due to injury …
“We need everyone in the game and when some guys are out its tough, but we have to keep playing. We have to keep talking. We are going to have to keep fighting.”
#15, Stephen Johnson, QB
On if he could tell from the start that Kentucky was physical enough to play with Florida …
“Absolutely. Everything we had game planned was going the right way. We had a few mistakes, especially on my part. A few throws I shouldn’t have made. But we just have to get all of that fixed on Monday.”
On what positive the team can take from this …
“Our guys were fighting the whole 60 minutes. I am extremely proud of the team for what we did during the game. And getting that close while still being underdogs. I’m really proud of our team and how we held ourselves through that whole game.”
#99, Austin MacGinnis, PK
On the potential game-winning kick …
“Well, I was hoping I had enough, but it just came up short. But I’ve got to do better, make the first one. Maybe we’re not in that situation.”
On if 57 yards is in his range …
“Yes, definitely. You have to hit a crisp ball. There was some wind, so conditions weren’t the most favorable. At the end of the day, the team sends you out there, you got to make the kick.”
#26, Benny Snell Jr., RB
On if he thought he was putting MacGinnis in position to kick the winning field goal …
“Yes sir, that was the plan. When Coach (Eddie) Gran called it, that’s exactly what we did.”
On if they believed they were the better team …
“Right. We were the better team. There’s not a question. We did our thing on special teams, the defense and offense, so I felt like we were the better team. Whether it was just the mistake of the guy being open or the flag, we beat ourselves. That’s just that. We’re better than that team, period.”
#32, Eli Brown, LB
On how frustrating it was to leave guys open on two different plays …
“It’s communication. You get so riled up and you feel like you have the game in your hand and just something just slips up. Like I said, it’s communication. It was all closed in. We didn’t even see the other man move out. I guess they were breaking a huddle and moved somebody real quick where we didn’t see it, so they kept getting us with that. Every touchdown they had was a miss assignment. They didn’t earn one touchdown they had. One guy was wide open; the other guy was wide open. The long run, the guy jumped the gap and busted open something. They didn’t deserve anything. None of those touchdowns they had. It’s upsetting, but like I said, we got to go back and practice and fix our mistakes.”
On what steps they have to take to improve the communication …
“More hand signals. Looking at each other, when the place is rocking, you want to win the game so bad and you give it your all and then it just slips right past. It takes the air out of us. It sucks real bad. Like I said, we just have to come back and be ready.”
#88, Charles Walker, WR
On how long it will take to get over something like this …
“With football you have to have a quick memory. Just like in a game, you drop a ball, they are going to come right back to you and you have to catch it. It’s different every time. We’ll see. Definitely a tough loss. We’ll use this as motivation. Watch the film, get better, get corrected, forget about it and play the next game.”
On if he thought they were going to win after his fourth-down catch …
“Yeah, absolutely. Even before that. They gave us 50 seconds or 47 seconds to go. We work to a minute weekly. You have got to think you’re going to win. You have to think when the offense has the ball and we need a play, we’re going to make it. Definitely that whole drive I thought we were going to win.”
Florida Head Coach Jim McElwain
Opening statement …
“Well, that was fun. Just can’t tell you how much I really like our football team, our guys. They keep hanging in there and figuring out a way to play the game. They keep hanging in there and figuring out a way to play the game and don’t listen to stuff. Just go out and play and, you know, that was fun. It was a heck of an atmosphere. They did a good job of hyping the game up and all that. You could fill it on the sideline that there was – they just didn’t have a quit in them. And, you know, it’s the second week in a row. I guess people in the concession stands are liking us because they are selling stuff all the way until the end, I guess. We had some pretty good plays by some guys and some pretty bad plays by some guys. So we get back tonight about four in the morning and tomorrow will be a day off and then we got to get back and get ready to play Vanderbilt who we have not played well against at all the last two years – at all. In fact, they have taken it to us the last two years. So, coming home to the swamp. Excited about that but we got a lot of work to do.”
On going to Luke (Del Rio) and sticking with him …
“We just felt we needed to jumpstart a little bit. And Feleipe (Franks) didn’t do anything wrong. He was disappointed about it, but he is also one of the happiest guys in there that we won. That tells you something about the guy and tells you something about this team and that’s good to see.”
On Luke playing next week …
“We will sit down and evaluate it and look at the video. I mean, Luke threw it to the wrong color jersey once and missed it to Tyrie (Cleveland). It would have been a homerun, but, you know, I thought he moved around. I thought that fourth-down play, obviously it was a veteran move. They had good coverage on him. You know, he found the mark. I mean, that was a good play. It’s one of those that you never throw across your body late inside, right? But it worked.”
On Luke getting to see more of the playbook …
“Oh, I don’t know. I think, again, continuing to get some of these guys touches has got to be big. I think B.P. (Brandon Powell) came up big when we needed him. Obviously Kadarius (Toney), you know, bit-by-bit, getting a little bit more and more where he stays comfortable. Tyrie came up big. I really thought Freddie Swain did some stuff that didn’t show up in the box score that, guys, I’ll be surprised that he’s not our player of the game. I think we hopefully gained a litter confidence upfront. I was proud of the last drive that we didn’t go to thinking we had to throw it every down, you know.”
On why does it take being down to get the best out of the team …
“I don’t really – that’s a great question. Like I said, this crew of guys now, they’ve been through some ups and downs now and yet that’s a tight locker room in there. We are starting to gain some leadership and that’s great to see. Some of these young guys that, you know, I think we had about 14 or 15 guys that actually made the trip down here two years ago out of 70. So that probably shows you where we are at from a youth standpoint, and yet sometimes with youth they don’t know any better. They just go and play.”
On fourth down early in the fourth quarter …
“You look at it from the analytics standpoint, you know. It’s the right thing on the road with that call knowing that if we hold them to a field goal we are still a two-scoring game. That’s what we did. We had faith in the defense that we were going to hold them to a field goal. So, I knew right there, still carrying all three timeouts that that’s something that we would do and we knew that going into the drive as well.”
On when energy appeared in the game …
“Well, I think the good thing is that I never saw them get in to that funk. I really kind of think maybe that the defense getting off the field and holding them to a field goal right there probably said – you know, because we knew, again it was going to be a two-score game no matter how you slice it. And we had confidence in our guys that we’d get two scores out of it. Them probably stopping it has much to do with that confidence piece as anything.”
Florida Student-Athletes
#14, Luke Del Rio, QB
On entering the game in the middle of it …
“Yeah, you know, when you get put in in the middle of a game, you know, it’s fun to go in and play, but it’s not easy because everyone else is kind of in the rhythm of the game. So I tried to settle down as best as I could, move the ball, which was encouraging.”
On staying poised while being down …
“It’s a long game. I knew we could move the ball on them. It wasn’t like we were going three-and-out, three-and-out.”
On playing on the road at Kroger Field …
“It’s a great road win. Great crowd, sellout crowd. That’s the loudest I’ve heard Kentucky’s stadium. It sounded a lot louder than 62,000. They did a really good job filling the seats. Players played really hard. Glad we came out with a win.”
#16, Freddie Swain, WR
On whether it was hard to come in and make his first touchdown catch of the season while behind …
“No, because we practice, we just – Coach Mac does a good job with having a game-type atmosphere, so making a play in practice is no different than making a play in the game. It’s just more fans, but we have crowd noise in practice. It’s the same thing.”
On the team’s mentality to come back from being down late …
“We never looked down on ourselves. Coach Mac always pushing the team, telling us we’ll be alright. Just keep your head in the game and focus.”
On his thoughts on playing multiple quarterbacks …
“They both played great. You’re going to make mistakes. They both did a good job and we’re just happy that we won.”
#92, Jabari Zuniga, DL
On Florida’s defense bringing pressure …
“To be honest with you, we were just hustling.”
On back-to-back games in situations where the team was under pressure …
“It feels good knowing that the team can stay composed in situations, but I mean the win wasn’t pretty, but it was a win.”
