Cats Click in Saturday Scrimmage
Mark Stoops wasn’t shy about challenging his team after a lackluster scrimmage last week.
Based on the ensuing week of practice and the scrimmage that capped it off, the Wildcats must respond well to their head coach.
“Very good work today,” Stoops said. “I was pleased. We’ve gotten a lot of work done this past week and came out and had a good scrimmage.”
Stoops was particularly pleased with the Kentucky offense.
“We worked hard all week at the offense and really pushing through and playing extremely fast and working on getting the ball down the field and working on the passing game and putting it all together,” Stoops said. “They really had a solid week, and it showed today. We got to continue to build. It’s a long season, but I like the work that we’re doing, the mentality. Just got to keep on pushing it.”
He still isn’t ready to name a quarterback, but Stoops said both Terry Wilson and Gunnar Hoak were efficient moving the offense as they split reps.
“We wanted to wait with totally open minds through this scrimmage and give them all equal opportunity,” Stoops said. “We were very close on the snaps. I think we’re about dead even with Terry and Gunnar. We have to look at this film. They both did some good things today. Offense in general moved the ball pretty good, so that’s good that they both did good things and look good. We’ll zero in on that probably as you get closer to the Monday of game week.”
Helping the offense’s cause was Benny Snell, Jr., who returned to action after sitting out last week as a precaution. Undoubtedly, that had something to do with the offense’s effectiveness in the deep passing game.
“We did a lot of great things,” Snell said. “I saw a lot of great movement from the (offensive line). The twos did a great job. Guys stepped it up. I seen a lot from a lot of the freshmen and a lot of guys. I’m very happy where we are as an offense.”
On the other side of the ball, there wasn’t quite as much exuberance. That had something to do with an offense that was clicking and dwindling depth, particularly at the linebacker position with Jordan Jones limited during camp. Stoops expects to be healthy there by the season opener on Sept. 1, but
“Defensively, it’s hard to judge,” Stoops said. “Just very inconsistent at times. Got to look at the film and see whether it was just very good execution offensively, making great individual plays or not doing so well defensively. We are very thin at certain positions, and we knew it was going to look quite ugly at a few positions going into it and it was. So, got to get some guys healthy and get a solid two-deep going. That was hard to do today for the defensive side of the ball.”
Linebacker Kash Daniel wasn’t all that interested in trying to explain away the offense getting the better of the defense on account of those injuries.
“It’s difficult, but we can’t make it an excuse,” Daniel said. “Guys go down, but (other) guys are here for a reason, too. They’ve got to step up and make plays, including myself.”
Daniel was clearly downcast as he spoke to the media and realized as much. He was sure to explain no one should take that as all being lost.
“You read my body language right now and think we must’ve had terrible scrimmage, but that’s not the case,” Daniel said. “I beat myself up more than anything and I put some of it on myself in a way that if I feel like we made some mistakes here or there, it’s my fault because I’m the leader, I’m the dude in the middle, so I’ve got to be a leader and get those dudes right in every area. I’ve got to get myself right. I’ve got to get the linebacker room right and we’ve got to get everybody right. Just because I look pissed off at the world don’t mean we had a terrible scrimmage.”
It just wasn’t as good as the offense.
“The offense as a whole brought the energy,” Stoops said. “They were very consistent. That doesn’t mean they were perfect, but they had a really good mentality and when they had bad plays they overcame it at times and if not they overcame it the next series. There were some stops in there, there were some plays. After the big play with Tavin (Richardson) on Derrick Baity, he came back and wanted to go. Went back in and actually got an interception a series or two later, which was good for him to bounce back and do. But, overall I just think the offense as a whole. I don’t think any individual person stood out. I think they had a great mentality as a group.”
