UK Focusing on Task at Hand after Emotional Home Finale
Saturday felt like a conclusion of sorts, the end of a season-long – and in some cases, career-long – journey.
From an emotional Senior Day ceremony during which Bunchy Stallings held up a picture of his late mother to Josh Paschal making his return to Josh Allen sealing a win in his final home game with a pair of record-breaking sacks, there was plenty of reason to get swept up in the moment.
The win over Middle Tennessee, of course, was by no means a conclusion. The Wildcats have two games to play and plenty to play for in them, but even Mark Stoops had to remind himself of that.
“They were teasing me and said, ‘Coach, you’re going to get all sappy and cry on us,’ or whatever,” Stoops said. “I had to play it off because if I really thought about it I could. Those guys mean that much to me. They are a special group, but I really didn’t want to get swept up with it last week knowing we had a big week here this week.”
There will be plenty of time for reflection come January once Kentucky has played its bowl game. All the Cats can afford to do right now is focus on the task at hand: going to Louisville to face the archrival Cardinals in both teams’ regular-season finale 7 p.m. Saturday at Cardinal Stadium.
“We just worry about us and our execution and playing a disciplined football game,” Stoops said. “They beat us last time here. I wasn’t very proud of that after a year ago and we’re looking to just improve and we have a lot to play for. We got our eighth victory this past week and trying to play for nine. That’s our concentration on obviously preparing for them, but control the things we can control and that’s us and how we play.”
Kentucky has come a long way since that matchup with Louisville this time last year, when Lamar Jackson led the Cardinals to a 44-17 victory and the Cats allowed the intensity of the rivalry to get the better of them. Now, UK has been ranked for nine straight weeks and has its first eight-win regular season in more than three decades, having overcome obstacle after obstacle.
The senior class that No. 15 UK honored last weekend has been essential to that. Once again, Stoops will count on them to set the tone against Louisville.
“They’ve been through this rivalry,” Stoops said. “Those 16 guys that I mentioned, they’ve been through it a few times, so they’ve got to keep that in mind and, again, play disciplined. We always have to play with that edge and that mentality and play physical, but we have to play disciplined football.”
As much as things have changed for UK, they have changed even more for Louisville. The Cardinals (2-9) have had a disappointing season that led to the dismissal of Bobby Petrino on Nov. 11, having lost eight straight and allowing 52 points or more in the last four of those games.
Stoops expects to face a motivated Louisville team, but not one that has made wholesale changes in scheme in their second game under interim coach Lorenzo Ward.
“They’re not going to re-invent the wheel in the last week,” Stoops said. “They’re going to play the system that they’ve played and they’re going to play hard. You see it in every game that they’ve played, they play hard and they play aggressive and some big plays or some trick plays and things like that have gotten out of their comfort zone as well.”
In other words, Stoops and the Cats will carry a healthy respect for their opponent into Saturday’s matchup. Their focus, however, remains internal.
“I felt like our team played with a sense of urgency this past week that we’re striving for,” Stoops said. “I really liked the way we got out of the gates and started fast and really played with a great sense of urgency. We’re looking to do the same thing here this week. It’s about us and the way we play. We know what they’re capable of and how Louisville can play. They’ve shown signs of that this year.”
