‘Not Interested in Going Back,’ Cats Open Fall Camp
Mark Stoops enjoyed winning the VRBO Citrus Bowl and capping the best Kentucky football season in four decades as much as anyone. Nobody, however, enjoyed relished the aftermath of the New Year’s Day bowl victory more than Stoops.
The seventh-year Kentucky head coach watched as his team returned from Orlando and saw no signs of a hangover after a 10-win season.
“When we got back after the bowl win, to see the team immediately after that game, I enjoyed it,” Stoops said.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Stoops saw a team eager to build on success.
“I was just pleasantly surprised with the approach of this team,” Stoops said. “I just feel like from the moment they got back on campus, I saw the hunger in their eyes. They want to prove themselves, put themselves in a position to be successful.”
That hunger didn’t dissipate through winter workouts, spring practices or summer strength and conditioning. And it was certainly still there when the Wildcats, at long last, reported for fall camp on Thursday.
“I feel like it just came from being doubted, slept on,” running back A.J. Rose said. “We were ranked last year, finished, what, (11th) in the nation and we’re not ranked now. I don’t get it, but it is what it is. We go out there and play. We like it. We’re going to keep that chip on our shoulder and we’re going to show what we can do.”
About four weeks from now, Kentucky will get its first opportunity when the Wildcats host Toledo on Aug. 31. There is much to be done between now and then though.
“We just gotta be consistent and try to practice consistent,” senior linebacker Kash Daniel said. “You can’t have days where you’re on and you can’t have days where you’re completely off. So for us, I think it’s about getting in our playbook and making sure every guy from the secondary to the d-line knows their job and each and every play and each and every responsibility they got, each and every check call. It’s little things. If you do the little things right, the big-picture things will come.”
The big picture is that UK is faced with the task of coping with the loss of the best defensive player in America, Josh Allen, and the entirety of its starting secondary. The enormity of that might be overwhelming if that’s what the Cats were thinking about, but it’s not.
“(Stoops) was telling us yesterday: He gives us the medicine and it’s our job to take it,” Daniel said. “We gotta listen to what him and his staff tells us and for the two hours or however long we’re on the practice field we gotta bust it each and every play. And while we’re in the meeting room, we gotta be straight up and laser focused through walkthroughs, through interviews, through practice, through every part of this camp, if we expect to be back to where we were last year if not better.”
And make no mistake: That is the expectation.
“You may think that we had a really good defense last year,” Daniel said. “Can we replicate that? And so that’s our challenge is here in this camp. That’s what our challenge is here throughout the whole season. Prediction-wise, I can’t predict anything, but I can say that this defense’s goal is to be the most feared defense in the country.”
Considering the makeup of this year’s roster, that will start up front. Daniel will quarterback the UK defense from his linebacker spot alongside Chris Oats, DeAndre Square and Jamin Davis. Outside, Kentucky will rely on Josh Paschal and Boogie Watson to rush the passer and UK’s defensive line is experienced, talented, deep and enormous.
“It all starts up front and I think our front seven guys are some of the best returning in the SEC,” Daniel said. “So for us, we have to hone in on our gaps, we have to hone in on our responsibilities and our pressures to get some pressure on the quarterback.”
It’s a similar story on the other side of the ball, where UK will rely on its offensive line to continue to create the same holes it did for Benny Snell Jr. the last three years.
“Everything starts up front in this league,” Eddie Gran said. “It’s about the physicality. Big men lead the way. If you cannot run the ball, you’re going to have a hard time winning in this league. We want to be balanced. We want to be a little bit more balanced this year.”
That balance will rest on the shoulders of a receiving corps headlined by Lynn Bowden Jr. and quarterback Terry Wilson, who enters the 2019 season as UK’s presumptive starter. Wilson, suffice to say, is confident.
“We’re loaded,” Wilson said. “We have depth that we need and it’s going to be fun to show everybody what we can do and how explosive we’re going to be. This whole fall camp is going to be fun.”
The idea is for a fun and productive fall camp to translate into yet more growth for a program that’s done nothing but consistently improve since Stoops’ arrival. Though challenges lay ahead and some of last year’s stars will now be playing on Sunday instead of Saturday, Stoops doesn’t intend to let that trajectory change.
“We’re not interested in going back,” Stoops said. “We’re not here to take steps backwards. We’re not. We’re continuing to grow. We’re continuing to improve the program. That’s not just coach speak when I say those things. The outcome will take care of itself. I know I’m judged ultimately on wins and losses. But internally we’re judged on how we’re building our program, what we’re doing to continue to grow and put ourselves in a position to be successful. That’s what it’s all about.”
