University of Kentucky Football Media Conference
Sunday, October 8 2017
Mark Stoops
Kentucky – 40, Missouri – 34
MARK STOOPS: Luke, without getting into too in detail, as you know I can’t with what’s going on with him, but he is responsive and that’s what I was just updated with. Second thing is thanks to the fans. I appreciate; we really felt their energy pulling in the stadium tonight. They stayed, we always got to make it dramatic and, again, I appreciate our team and their effort and our coaching staff and their effort. We absolutely knew coming into this game that it was going to be a tough game. The first thing I told our team last Monday is, I read off scores from a year ago and we were in a similar situation to them. I know Barry and the way he coaches, and guys on their staff and they had two weeks to prepare and get better and they played an exceptional game and I want to credit them. So that’s the first thing. I want to credit our team with finding ways to win and responding to adversity, big plays happening. And we’ll get those things cleaned up. They did a nice job, they put us in some situations where they put us in a bind and that created some. We know some of the issues very clearly, very easy in some regards to fix, you just know the problems, the matchup problems that they were getting. But they did a very good job and I’m proud of our team, I’m proud of our fight and our effort. This bye comes at a perfect time for us, we absolutely need it at this point. They played their hearts out for six straight weeks and it’s a good opportunity for to us catch our breath there for a minute.
Q. On Luke Wright…
MARK STOOPS: Yeah that was very scary for all of us, because nobody likes to see that and our team was definitely a little bit shook, but once we kind of figured out what it was, at least it was better than some other things that could have been going on, I guess, without getting into it.
Q. Why did you opt to go for the field goal there on the fourth and two?
MARK STOOPS: Because it was a tie game and three points, for the very reason they got it down there and had to get in the end zone and it makes a big difference, with no timeouts. We know they can go fast and we obviously saw how explosive they can be. So I just felt like we had to do it. It was tempting, but not at two. If it was fourth and one you might try to make them drive the length of the field if you don’t make it. I think six was big and you had to make them score the touchdown.
Q. Did you see what was happening at all before that final play, it seemed like the ball took a long time to be placed or someone may have dropped it. What was kind of going on?
MARK STOOPS: At the end there? I don’t know what — I don’t know what was going on.
Q. Did you learn anything new about your kids, because at some point they were in control of this game, completely loss momentum, and then still found another gear in the fourth quarter and sometimes that doesn’t always go ya’ll’s way?
MARK STOOPS: That’s right, but we have seen that from our team this year. We haven’t been perfect, we lost one, but you’ve seen us fight back from adversity and that’s the way this team’s built right now. It’s going to be tough, hard fought-games. And that’s the way most of this league is. Y’all see it. Y’all see — take a look around, I mean, it’s tough. So I’m just proud of the way our team fights back from some tough situations and most of our games are going to be sixty minute games.
Q. Can you talk about the fake punt, whose call was that and what did you see that prompted that?
MARK STOOPS: That was Dean. Dean, luckily the gut was right again, but I was hesitant and he said, what do you think, and I said, do it. And it worked. So that was big. It was a big play in the game.
Q. Did anybody else lobby for that one?
MARK STOOPS: No, no, that was between Dean and I.
Q. Can you talk about the record Austin set tonight?
MARK STOOPS: Just proud of him. So proud of him. And what about the 53 yarder he made again in a tie game? That was a big kick and he’s meant a lot to our program and been steady and I wouldn’t trade him.
Q. Was there a common theme on that deep balls that they had going tonight?
MARK STOOPS: No, it was a few things. They were putting a little, they were putting some stress on us, as you could tell. When we were rolling up in the corner that was creating some of the big plays down the middle and the one that they hit through the middle there on number three vertical. And then when we were playing different coverages where we were soft cornered they ran by us a couple times. So they put that stress on you. And the one in, the long one that they hit up the chute there they were doing something that put a little stress on our back side and — anyway I’m getting too technical — we had to take another man out of the rush and you can’t, and that wasn’t good in that situation because he had too much time to throw it.
Q. It seems like you guys had a lot of guys banged up today, and I know going into this you did, does this bye come at the perfect time for you guys?
MARK STOOPS: Absolutely. Yeah, we do. The guys have really worked hard. We have been in six stressful games and they have worked hard during the week, we have had some hot weeks here lately in practice and the guys have really worked hard and they definitely needed a little time here this week, mentally as much as anything.
Q. Stephen threw 36 times tonight, what did you think of the way he played?
MARK STOOPS: Really tough, I saw him picking himself up off the field several times and I saw him have tough runs at times, just doing what he had to do and really played some very good football. He put us in a position once again to one the game.
Q. What goes through your mind with when you see your starting quarterback trying to leap over a guy?
MARK STOOPS: I was all for it at that point, so, yeah, but he’s so coachable and so good because, in a game like that, we know every first down, every yard matters, and he – when he pulled it earlier and he slid and I was like, “hey, don’t leave us with second and two or third and two, go get that.” And he did the next time, he went all out. And that’s what you have to love about him.
Q. How nice was it to see some of those big plays on your side?
MARK STOOPS: It was beautiful to see the offense respond. And as I’ve said in here, and y’all heard me and you can quote me, the strength of our team is our team. That’s not coach-speak BS, that’s the truth. We do what we have to do to win games. One week maybe all three sides aren’t hitting on all cylinders. Tonight, if we didn’t have the big offensive plays, and they didn’t score points, we wouldn’t have won the game. So other times, other games, the defense had to step up or special teams. And we’re all in this together, it’s a great group, we’re far from perfect, but we definitely play for each other and believe in each other and that’s good to see.
Q. In your coaching career have you ever seen a quarterback dramatically improve so much in the passing game than what Stephen was last year to what he is right now?
MARK STOOPS: I think there’s so many pieces to it, there’s so many components to it that has to be right and it starts with protection and starts with guys running the right routes, making catches for him. Sometimes you have to make competitive catches. Again, we all watch football, sometimes guys are covered and receivers have to make plays for them. You can’t constantly diagram beautiful, clean plays. You got to make competitive plays, you got to get open, you got to win, you got to beat somebody. And so I think overall he’s definitely improved, but I definitely think around him has improved as well.
Q. You got guys to jump offsides a five or six times with a hard count. Was that something you worked on for Missouri or to just get people to stop biting?
MARK STOOPS: We just work it when we feel like they’re over aggressive and it certainly worked a few times and we were very close on a couple other ones.
Q. Have you been around a bunch of teams that have found ways to win and is that something that grows from week-to-week that they gain confidence that whatever happens we’re going to find a way to win this game?
MARK STOOPS: It definitely does. I think that I’ve said it as well that we’re not a fragile football team, they can handle adversity. And we’re going to work on our mistakes, but we’ll keep on finding ways to win. There’s not many football teams that go through the season that don’t win, somehow, some close games. We don’t need to do every week like we’re doing. I would like to have a one that you could breathe a little bit, but it shows a lot of character.
Q. It looked like you put Frank Jackson in the center, I think he stayed pretty much there. What is he doing that you guys like so much and is that his spot?
MARK STOOPS: Well, I didn’t really — I saw him in there but I wasn’t really paying attention to the rotation, so I’ll have to wait and watch the film and see how many plays everybody played. But we have said that he’s been building and playing better and we told you Monday that we would have an eight-man rotation and he would play some. So not exactly sure how the numbers all worked out, but he’s playing good football and that’s helping us and it’s helping us play some other guys at guard and move Bunchy to guard a little bit and so — and Nick’s wore down and he needs a little time here to get healthy.
Q. Is there a game where we’re going to be able to relax the whole game?
MARK STOOPS: I don’t know.
Q. Can you talk about a little bit, as far as what the coaching staff has done to make this team so resilient to be able to just not quit?
MARK STOOPS: Honestly, I think it comes from, as I said last week, it comes from a lot of years of doing things and building things. With the help of the leadership and the gentleman sitting quietly in the corner right there, Jason Cummins, and leadership and character is developed. Just like strength is developed and Jason does a wonderful job with myself, the staff, and the players. And our leaders. The team is now led by players. When you do that, you got a chance. Our team is fun to coach and I think Jason deserves a big part of that and does a wonderful job and our leaders have done a good job.
Q. Any updates on Westry and Pringle on the seriousness of their injuries?
MARK STOOPS: I really don’t, no.
Q. With the toughness you guys and your kids are now showing is this the kind of team that if your father were watching you would say, hey, they’re really, really good?
MARK STOOPS: That would be. Ironically, you ask that question, my old high school coach, legendary coach, Don Bucci, he was the head coach that my father worked for, for 30 years. He was tough as nails. He’s not in here now, but he is tougher than nails. This is — you think I’m exaggerating — I’m going to pull a Mike Leach right now and randomly just talk.
(Laughter.)
But Don Bucci, he’s here, and my father worked for him for 30 years as a defensive coordinator and Coach Bucci, is one of the most disciplined, hard working, tough coaches you have ever been around. The honest to God truth, we would practice for three and a half hours a night and it would be pitch dark and people would put their headlights on — and that’s no exaggeration, you ask anybody who went to my school — that’s just the way it was. And he just has a lot of respect for him and tonight was his first game here and so I just saw him walking off the field. But glad to have coach here and I wish my father was with him, but I’m sure he’s got a good seat up there, but, yeah, he would be very proud.
Q. Do you remember a time in your career where you’ve had three games go down to the final play at home? It just happens every week?
MARK STOOPS: I know. My poor heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
UK Student-Athletes
#15, Stephen Johnson, QB
On how it feels to be 5-1…
“It’s incredible. Our locker room, everybody is overjoyed. Ready to keep playing football. We’re all really excited and just happy with where we’re at. We can do a whole lot better, but we’re happy with it.”
On Missouri’s attacks and battling through them …
“That’s just been our mentality, don’t flinch. We know where we can go on offense; we know the things we have planned. So it’s just us executing our plays.”
On if he expected to throw the ball so much …
“I guess not really, but you got to be ready for any situation.”
#44, Kash Daniel, LB
On the fake punt …
“We work all the time with Coach Hood and it’s always in the back of your mind when it’s going to be called. I didn’t know it. We never really talked about it. Went to sugar huddle and he called it and I’m like ‘oh crap, here he goes. Let’s get going.'”
On how the play is signaled …
“It’s usually a signal, but sometimes if we feel like ‘hey, let’s go. Let’s do it.’ He’ll send it out with us. I’m really glad he did, that was a lot of fun.”
On if he panicked when the hole filled up …
“No, I just went back to my training as a stud quarterback. Should’ve been a five-star, starting in the 11, but it’s whatever (laughing). Just kept my feet moving, man. Pulled my Benny Snell trick out of there, kept my feet moving.”
#9, Garrett Johnson, WR
On the team not being pretty, but being tough…
“I agree. That’s the first thing I said. I came back in the locker room and I said it wasn’t pretty but we got it done. Sometimes that’s just how it is, you got to get nitty gritty, get to it, and just try to get the job done.”
On Stephen trying to hurdle a player…
“Oh, I love that, I love that. I told him Steve is going to start making me get on my hurdle game. He has so much heart and determination. Everybody can see it. Everybody can see it. So that’s something I love, I thrive over it.”
On what’s changed to allow the team to win these kinds of games…
“Just like I said, I feel like the maturity and the mentality. We’re getting older, we’ve been in the system for longer so we’ve seen games like this for numerous years so we just know we can’t fall in that hole, we have to just get over it.”
On being 5-1…
“Oh, that’s lovely, over the bye week, that’s lovely. We’re going to take this bye week like it is, you know, still get a little work, still get the kinks out, but that 5-1 sounds lovely.”
#8, Derrick Baity, CB
On close games…
“That’s just something we have to grow with. We have to have that killer mentality. I think we get too relaxed when we get a comfortable lead and then we make our own job harder. It’s starting to get frustrating. So during the second half of the season, as a leader that’s something that I’m definitely going to emphasize and I know the coaching staff is going to back it up.”
On Missouri completing deep passes…
“I feel like when they caught that pass on me that that was luck. Once I turned and looked for the ball, I lost my balance. I don’t think they game-planned to do that. We gave them those plays. I don’t think that was something we were too worried about, but then once it started happening we adjusted to it.”
On Missouri’s quarterback Drew Lock…
“He has a strong arm! He is a great quarterback, if you ask me.”
#19, Kayaune Ross, WR
On close games….
“I believe we want to win those games. We kind of have a little lead way on how we feel at the end of the game. But in the end it just shows the strength of our team and all our guys coming to work together.”
On emotions during a close game…
“For certain people, like when you’re on defense you just want to stand up for the defense, try to get them going. And when you’re on offense, like for me, I’m like let’s get the ball, let’s go, let’s work. Or for them it’s like let’s get a play and score. That flip just turns on in those situations.”
On staying on the sidelines for the last play…
“It’s not nerve-wracking, we just have to trust our team to get the plays and do what we’ve been doing.”
On scoring 40 points, break out game for offense… “When we started off we were going down their throats and then I think everything we do, we either shoot ourselves in the foot. But at the end of the day when we see the way things are going and the kind of guys we got, we know those guys can make those plays on those calls.”
#26, Benny Snell, RB
On being 5-1…
“5-1 baby! I’m happy we’re 5-1, we’ve come a long way from last year. After every game I feel like we’re our own enemy, we’re our own critic. So us just getting better, on every side of the ball we did our thing. Defense has to step up a little more. Our four for one’s and shorts and two’s. I got to step up more too. A ‘W’ is a ‘W,’ I’m happy we where we’re at right now.”
On putting up 400+ yards…
“I feel like the offense is doing every struggle. The offense, we always correct ourselves after every play. We let each other know if there’s something we got to get it fixed. So I feel like throughout practice it was a big help, and we’ve showed that throughout this game.”
On last play of the game…
“I was on the bench standing up. Standing up and supporting them. I wasn’t worried. I’ve seen that defense do a lot of things, a lot of great things. And come up with a stop. I was confident in them.”
On getting groove back…
“I feel like I got it back, but I still got a lot of work to do. I still can’t be comfortable. Can’t be comfortable. I always got to stay uncomfortable and stay trying to learn – make sure my cuts are faster and read better. There’s a lot of things I got to get better with myself, but we showed a lot on the run game today so I’m happy with that.”
Missouri Head Coach Barry Odom
Opening statement…
“It’s hard to lose any game, but it’s really tough to lose one that your team goes out and fights and competes and for. For the past two weeks, they’ve done absolutely everything that I’ve asked them to do. From an investment standpoint, from a practice standpoint and preparation. All the things that you want to go accomplish and have the chance to do in a bye week. You know, I thought we made some progress. Close doesn’t count and over the course of game on a couple of evenly matched teams it’s going to come down to who makes more plays. I’ve been in games like that before and it usually comes down to six or seven plays over the course of a game and it’s the deciding factor, and that’s the way it was tonight. What a great environment to play in. Give credit to Mark and his staff for having his guys ready to play. I’m proud of the way our offense went out and made plays, made big plays. We just kept responding. We were able to run the ball which opened up some things in the pass game. I thought Drew (Locke) played well, protection was pretty good besides the first sack fumble and then defensively, even though you look down score-wise, we’re not where we want to be. If we score 34, we got to hold them to 33 and we didn’t get it done. But those guys did an outstanding job in some of the situations that we put them in, on playing one snap at a time. Through our D-line control, Brick (Haley) has done such a great job with those guys, rotating guys in and we had some guys injured but we got them back last week a little bit during the bye week. But that’s life in this league, that’s the way it is. We have to continue to work and use the things that we did tonight that was a little bit better, build off them, learn from them and get ready to play a top five team in the country in great environment next week in Athens. I’m hurt for our guys. Get to the end of the year and you’re a play or two away from this one, that’s going to sting for a little while.”
On the field goal kicking…
“Well we snapped one, we rolled two back there and then we had one high snap which results in the rhythm and the timing of not only protection but the kicker kicking. We hadn’t had that leading up until tonight, so it was not very good. I was proud of the way Tucker (McCann) competed. We got to have the guys starting with the snapper get the ball back here and give us a chance to kick it and we didn’t do that.”
On whether he considered going on 4th and eight or if it was a 45-yard field goal…
“No, if we would have gotten a couple more yards on the third down we were going to go for it.”
On freshmen playing…
“There were a lot of freshmen playing tonight and that’s not going to change. We got a great young class coming and we got to get those guys ready to play. We’re five games in and we can’t look at them like freshmen. We recruited them for a reason. I like the foundation of those guys and we’re going to keep on building. They’re going to be great players.”
#21, Ish Witter, RB
On his confidence going into the final drive…
“I felt confident. You know, we were moving the ball pretty well, we were putting up points. I had faith in the offense. We just gotta complete some more stuff.”
On what the team can build off of going into the next game against Georgia…
“That we can put up points. Offense and defense, we can work together and we can put up points and make big plays”
#77, Paul Adams, OL
On the difference in the way the team carried themselves…
“I think it was just being in a different place. We just had four straight, back-to-back-to-back, home games, so it’s just a different environment. We had to bring our own energy really and just kind of feed off of the 60,000 people they had and kind of just put it into our own.”
On the change in the team’s mentality while being down…
“I think there have been times in the past where we look up at the scoreboard and it’s not even the end of the first quarter and it’s 21 to zero. I think that’s kind of when we put our heads down a little bit. I think this week we focused more on just, you know, push that stuff to the side, we gotta play one play at a time.”
On staying positive in the midst of a loss…
“It shows that we can do it. We have enough, we have what it takes to win. It’s just a couple plays here and there and that game’s changed on our part really. We gotta execute better.”
#3, Drew Lock, QB
On anything he could’ve done differently tonight when J’Mon went down …
“I don’t know, I’m gonna have to go and watch the full clip. When I got it to J’Mon I pretty much immediately turned my eyes back to get our next play call to see what we were gonna do. I looked up to see how much time we had and had a good amount of time and then got the spike signal and went up to get the ball and what happened happened I just looked and saw the ball on the ground and had to scoot back a couple yards and what not, it’s upsetting but maybe we could’ve been a little better I gotta watch it.”
On expecting Kentucky to give them the ball at the one …
“Me personally I thought that was what they would do. I thought either they would punch it in, go at the ten, and put it out of reach with however much time is left or if you don’t get it you make us drive ninety-nine yards. That’s what I thought, but field goal, went up six.”
On what Ish gives this offense …
“He gave us leadership for sure, he’s played a lot of games in our uniform to where he was very calm throughout it all, he was a hard headed back tonight. Fought through a lot of tackles and just wanted to be out there in that last moment which is big.”
#84, Emanuel Hall, WR
On what happened after Ish Witter got the first down and only making a couple plays after…
“It was a tough game. We didn’t get what we wanted, you know we didn’t come out on top.”
On the atmosphere in the locker room after the game …
“It’s tough, we put a lot into this. No one is hype to be 1-4, but you know the only thing you can do is come back on Sunday and continue to work.”
On Drew (Lock)’s ability to stretch the ball and stretch the field tonight…
“I think Drew did a really good job and I think all around offensively we did a good job. We put up a lot of points. We just have to be more consistent all around to win games, and at the end of the day it’s a team game and there’s three different parts of the game. Special teams, defense and offense work together.”
#90, Markell Utsey, DL
On different atmospheres at games and any different feeling pregame for today…
“Not really, besides that away games you have to bring your own energy and I’m always excited about that.”
On thoughts of Benny Snell and the difficulty to stop him …
“Just a few missed assignments. I mean we did everything, but we just had a few missed assignments.”
#71, Kevin Pendleton, OL
On not stopping after the whistle …
“That’s something that we do in practice. Coach Odom wants us to be a physical bunch. We’re not a dirty bunch and that was borderline dirty. That was dumb, and I should have heard the whistle and that’s on me. I cost us 10 or 15 yards. That’s what it is.”
On seeing more physical play tonight …
“It wasn’t physical enough, we didn’t get the W. We’ll see how it went on tape tomorrow, come in and grade on how we did, but at the end of the day we weren’t good enough.”
On the run game clicking better this week and the reason for that …
“Guys were focused in and we really attacked the bye week. We attacked last week with the mindset that we needed to get the ball going on the ground. Like I just said, it obviously wasn’t good enough, but it was a step in the right direction.”
