Cats Keeping Hungry Approach for A&M Week

Mark Stoops hasn’t been talking like the coach of a 5-0 team coming off a relatively comfortable win over a Southeastern Conference opponent.
 
“I think our players were very excited to play at home, and a sellout crowd, and play well for our fans and for themselves,” Stoops said. “We really let the situation get the best of us a little bit in certain situations. It pops up a little bit when players try to do a little bit too much, too soon instead of just playing the game.”
 
In spite of the fact that Kentucky is days removed from a fifth straight double-digit victory to begin the 2018 season – a 24-10 win over South Carolina – and is now ranked in the top 15 of both polls, Stoops is thinking a lot more about how his team can improve than what it’s already accomplished.
 
Sure, the Wildcats might have the No. 3 scoring defense in the country and rank No. 12 in total defense. Of course, they have a running back in Benny Snell Jr. garnering Heisman Trophy buzz and a linebacker in Josh Allen asserting himself as one of the most dominant defensive players in the country. Stoops is pleased with all that. It’s just not stopping him from thinking about how the Cats can get better.
 
“To wrap it up, I think there were a lot of good things, a lot of things that we can do better,” Stoops said on Monday. “The team will be excited to see those things today and ready to improve.”
 
UK won’t have much choice but to improve considering what the Cats are about to face this weekend. Kentucky, after a three-game home stretch to finish a memorable month of September, will head on the road for the second time in SEC play to face Texas A&M at iconic Kyle Field in front of a crowd of 100,000-plus.
 
“We have great respect for A&M and Jimbo (Fisher), as I just mentioned, and playing in that environment is going to be a real challenge for our players but we don’t need any extra motivation,” Stoops said. “We want to try and get a win and we have to be able to handle that situation, handle that environment, handle the fact that it’s a big game on national TV and we have to get down to playing and executing good football.”
 
Texas A&M is unranked in both polls after a 3-2 start, but the Aggies can hardly be blamed for their two losses. In week two, they took then-No. 2 Clemson to the wire in College Station, Texas, in a 28-26 loss. A couple weeks later, they undertook the unenviable task of facing No. 1 Alabama on the road and lost 45-23. No other team has stayed within 37 points of the buzz saw that is the Crimson Tide.
 
The added wrinkle for Saturday’s game – which will kick off at 7 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN – is that the matchup will be the first between A&M and Kentucky since the Aggies joined the SEC in 2012. In fact, it will the first such matchup since 1953.
 
“You always get some crossovers once in a while but A&M definitely for me is new and fresh, definitely not very familiar with them,” Stoops said. “It’s no different than playing a non-conference opponent. You just look at it and we attack every week and look at it and see what we’re going to do and little tweaks.”
 
Stoops might not be all that familiar with A&M, but the same can’t be said of Fisher, the Aggies’ first-year head coach. Stoops spent three seasons as Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State, helping rebuild the proud program.
 
“This is the first time we’ve played each other,” Stoops said. “You guys have heard me talk about him and credit him back for a lot of things for every year I’ve been here. I’ve learned different things from him, there’s no question.”
 
At the top of that list might be to focus on his own team above all else. Stoops is having no trouble living out that lesson.
 
“This is a new situation and a new week and again, how are we going to handle that?” Stoops said. “I expect our team to have a really good focus this week and ready to get back to work and that’s been the attitude of this team, that they’re always learning and growing and they’re not satisfied with what we’ve done and we’ve got to continue to stay hungry but stay hungry in that preparation.”