UK Striking Balance between Perspective, Urgency
Kentucky football’s season has been defined by extremes.
There have been euphoric moments, from memorable victories over Florida, Mississippi State and Missouri to a top-10 College Football Playoff ranking leading into a matchup with Georgia for a right to play in the SEC Championship Game.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Wildcats have experienced bitterly disappointing defeats against Texas A&M and, most recently, Tennessee – and that’s just accounting for on-the-field performance. The preseason brought diagnoses of serious illness for a player, Josh Paschal, and an assistant coach, John Schlarman.
“Please tell me another profession where the highs are so high and the lows are so low,” Mark Stoops said on Monday. “That’s the way it is. For us, we always try to handle things the right way. Of course we’re going to celebrate big accomplishments and big wins, individual accomplishments, recognize what kids have done. That’s great, but you really always have to keep things in perspective and I really always try to do that.”
This week presents a test on that front.
On one hand, UK is 7-3, has been ranked for eight straight weeks and remains on the precipice of the program’s best season in four decades. On the other, the Cats are coming off a performance against Tennessee that left Benny Snell Jr. saying the Volunteers had “wanted it more.”
Therein lies Stoops’ challenge in preparing his team for a matchup with Middle Tennessee (7-3, 6-1 Conference USA).
“You always have to get back on track,” Stoops said. “You can’t bring last week into the new week. You have one-week seasons and this is a one-week season for us. We can’t change that past. We can’t change last week, but we can learn from it and try not to make the same mistakes.”
The physical and mental mistakes are one thing, but the overall approach is another much more important one. The success of this season has brought national attention and, therefore, a change in the way opponents have approached Kentucky. Adjusting to that isn’t something that happens overnight, which came to a head at Tennessee.
“We haven’t been very good when we’ve been the hunted,” Stoops said. “We’re a much better football team when we’re the hunter.”
On paper, UK will again be the hunted against Middle Tennessee. A win for the Blue Raiders would be a signature moment for them, but the Cats will need to match and exceed the hunger their opponents will bring to Kroger Field at noon on Saturday.
“Well we’ve got to play with the same mentality every week,” Stoops said. “It’s who we are. That’s always been my philosophy and I’ve always said that as a defensive coordinator, as a head coach. Your mentality, your identity, that’s got to be with you 24-7.
“We’ve gotta understand what level you’ve gotta play with all the time,” Stoops said. “I constantly try to teach that. I constantly talk until I’m blue in the face about that. We’re intentional about leadership and trying to do things the right way. You’ve gotta be good enough to overcome things when you’re not at your best.”
To that end, the Cats will be faced with some hard questions this week. Considering the way they have performed for most of the season, Stoops believes the answers will be the right ones.
“What kind of mentality do you have going through your preparation?” Stoops said. “Are you going through the motions or are you trying to get better? That’s where we cannot be inconsistent with, what? We’ve played 10 games this year and we haven’t been perfect in those 10, but I think all but one, we had the right mentality.”
