UK Ready to 'Run the Tank Dry' during Mizzou Week
It’s Mark Stoops’ goal to have a team playing its best on 12 straight regular-season Saturdays.
The thing is, he knows reaching that goal is a virtual impossibility.
“We’re not always going to play our best football no matter who it is,” Stoops said. “You have to find ways to win.”
Four times in five tries, Kentucky has managed to find a way, the last coming as the Wildcats played at a level furthest from their peak this season, at least offensively, against Eastern Michigan. Nonetheless, UK moved to 4-1 (1-1 Southeastern Conference) with a 24-20 win.
“I’m glad we got the victory,” Stoops said. “Again, I thought, after the game when I was in here, it just felt — and it was. It was a struggle. It was a hard-fought game.”
Defense and special teams carried UK to victory as the Cats’ offense managed a season-low 228 yards. As Kentucky prepares for a matchup with Missouri (1-3, 0-2 SEC) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Stoops has two areas for improvement in mind on that side of the ball.
“Protection and playing physical,” Stoops said. “We were not physical in the run game. Protection was an issue. Stephen (Johnson) threw the ball well when he had time. I thought the receivers made some good catches at times. There were other times when we need to be sharper, more crisp in our route running and getting open for Stephen.”
UK’s passing game has actually been more consistent than its running game so far in 2017, with the Cats topping 200 yards rushing just once this season and being held below 100 yards twice. That’s a surprise considering a potent ground game was the primary drive force behind UK’s end-of-season surge in 2016 and the return of Benny Snell.
Snell is fifth in the SEC in rushing at 406 yards, but is only averaging 3.8 yards per carry. On Saturday night, Snell admitted to some frustration in light of all that and Stoops says it’s not limited to his star running back.
“Our guys know and they ought to have the confidence to know that you’ve just got to get back on the sidelines, get some things corrected and move forward, offensively, defensively and on special teams,” Stoops said. “There’s some times when guys want things to happen so quickly and when they don’t, they get frustrated, and that can’t happen. So we’ve got to address some of those things.”
That’s what UK will do beginning on Monday, when it’s right back to work for the Cats. Sure, the circumstances are different than they were a week ago when UK was coming off a heart-wrenching loss to Florida and Stoops doesn’t have to deal with the deflation that came with it this week, but his goal is no different.
“It’s always one week,” Stoops said. “It really is. You hear me say it often, but it’s the truth. There’s no getting around the highs in this business are very high and the lows are very low. Somehow you got to get back to par on Monday.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge in doing that this week is the accumulation of bumps, bruises and general fatigue that comes with playing five games in five weeks that were all in doubt in the fourth quarter. Stoops has every expectation that Missouri will make it six.
“It will be a real challenge for us this week,” Stoops said. “I really have a lot of respect for Barry (Odom), and what he does. I know the season got off tough for them, but I can relate to that. I’m sure they had their bye week and had a chance to hit the reset button and want to start this season, their second part of this season, much different, and I anticipate them coming out and playing extremely fast.”
UK will its bye week until after the Missouri game, but Stoops isn’t looking to that just yet. He can’t afford to.
“I think we’re in a good spot here this week to have a really good week of preparation and to run the tank dry this week and play exceptionally hard and practice exceptionally hard — to then hit the reset button in the middle of the season,” Stoops said. “We won’t look any farther than that.”
