Kentucky Football Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt
Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
Nov. 14, 2020
 
UK Head Coach Mark Stoops
MARK STOOPS: Thank you, Tony. You know, obviously it was extremely important for us to come away with a victory today. As it’s been well documented all week, it was extremely important for to us play well for LeAnne, coach John Schlarman, his family, his kids, and was really proud of the team to get this victory.
Wasn’t easy. It was an emotional week. It’s very different times for everybody, and then we’ve been hit with a few curve balls this year. Certainly very discouraging news this week with the passing of Jon. There was no getting around it that that was important to me and it was important to our team to win for them and to honor Jon and the man that he was, to continue his legacy.
I felt like our team came out and we played very good football. Vandy has been much more efficient moving the ball offensively, and they did a good job certainly late I felt like.
With playing in this league in the competitive games that we’re in, when we were up I believe it was 17, I felt like it is really important forget Beau in the game. Instead of going to our normal ground and pound, and we felt like we probably could have done that obviously to play — you know, the series before we ripped off a big run and were getting physical and starting to run.
I felt like it was important for our program, important to give Beau some reps and throw the ball around a little bit. We’re not in that opportunity too many times. Certainly I didn’t want to get it that close and probably would’ve been crucified had they got that on-side kick and come back.
Again, I want to continue to push the program forward, so I did feel like the game was in control. I would’ve liked for our backups on defense to play a little better late in that game. And for us to have to go back and put some starters back in and try to preserve the victory, wasn’t real pleased with the end in particular defensively.
But, again, felt like it was important just to get guys snaps and throw the football and not just go in to kill the clock and ground and pound. If we would’ve done that, I felt like obviously we could have probably cut into that — the way they come back there at the end, could have killed some more clock. So part of that is on me.
Again, in the long run, getting the victory and getting Beau some snaps and getting Joey some snaps, it was important.
Q. Can you just walk us through the tribute on the opening play, how you all came up with that, and just kind of how that developed.
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I’m really not sure. Mitch is in here and Mark Hill and Dan, the guys just came up with it and mentioned it to me early in the week or throughout this week, and I thought it was a great idea.
The O-line have been trading off 65, and Landon was wearing it today. Somebody in the staff here came up with the idea, and of course we all thought it was a great idea.
You know, I have great respect for Derek Mason and should have said that in my opening statement, the respect I have for him and the way he coaches as well. But he immediately said, Coach, I’ll decline that. He didn’t have to.
But I also want to compliment him on his team. He had quite a few opt outs. He’s got guys hurt, down very low. It would be very easy for them to say they’re under the threshold and not play, and they continue to coach very well and scrap and play.
You have to compliment Derek for that and his staff, because that team plays hard, and we knew they would.
Anyway, getting back to the question, I thought it was good idea by somebody in our staff. I’m not sure who gets credit for that. I was on board with it right away, and it was great to honor him that way.
Q. Kind of following up with that, what was your message to the team going out before the game in such an unusual situation like this? What did you share with them?
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, it was different. You know, certainly there was a lot of conversation that I would like to keep in the locker room. A lot of that is personal. The bottom line is to honor Jon by playing the way he coached, lived his life, and we constantly talked about the tenacity that he had, the toughness that he had, but also when he was a player he was extremely technical and very detailed.
And so we knew we would be emotional, but I also really wanted to execute and really felt like offensively we really played pretty sharp and had 460 yards on only 55 plays.
So we’re very explosive and efficient offensively. Had we played a little better defensively I really thought we could have done — kept on getting some points on there and would’ve been a much greater margin for the victory.
But really that was a big part of it for Jon, just to honor him. Wanted to make sure that LeAnne and their kids had a game ball with a W on it; didn’t want to give them a game ball with a loss, and it’s important for us to bring that to them and do that for them.
Q. Terry was very efficient today, especially hitting those touchdowns across the middle to the tight ends — one of them was across the middle; one of them was maybe in the corner. But those guys, just how important was it to get those guys involved and Terry comfortable going back out there after being off a few weeks?
MARK STOOPS: I thought it was very important just in general offensively. I felt like we were very efficient today throwing the ball and I felt like we could have been even more efficient. Again, I put that on the defense. I feel like if we didn’t let them possession the ball the entire second half we could have got a lot more opportunities and kept on throwing it around a little bit and were very efficient in keeping people off balance, and we’re going to need that moving forward.
Q. Talking about the defense, I know you won’t know for sure until you look at video, but anything in particular stick out to you there?
MARK STOOPS: It just seemed like to me that it was one of those games where they want everybody else to make the play, not them. That’s just how I felt. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m sure there are some guys that played very hard, but to me we were just out there oozing, just lining up, expecting somebody to make a call, stop somebody instead of making plays and trying to stop people. It was evident. We made very few competitive plays.
Q. 308 rushing yards, no sacks allowed. I’m sure Chris was even touched on that 74-yard touchdown. What does that say about the offensive line today?
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, and being down Luke and Kenneth as well. You know, so we had backups stepping in and really playing well. I know it was important to those guys to play well. There was no doubt in my mind. It was important to all of us, but certainly that group it’s personal. They wanted to honor Jon and play a very tough, physical game like the way Coach Schlarman lived, and they did that.
Q. You had both your punter and kicker out, and yet Chance comes in and he’s perfect, and Colin did a great job. When did they know they were getting the start, and talk about their performance today.
MARK STOOPS: Yeah, we knew for a couple days, and I was very proud of those guys the way they stepped in and really did a good job in the kicking game. Chance was really solid. We did a great job in the punt game as well, so it was good.
Q. Almost looked like, at least to me watching Terry, that was like the 2018 Terry, making the decisions he did, showing the speed he did. Is that a fair observation or…
MARK STOOPS: I agree with you. I felt like this was the Terry that I expect him to play each and every week. Again, I think that has a lot to do with the people around him and the coaching and putting him in a position to be successful.
Yeah, I thought he played very well and he was very efficient. And let me say I’m proud of him and the way he responded, because that position is different. Let’s just be honest, it is. There is so much scrutiny, pressure on that position, and you have to play well at that position to be successful.
And there is times when it all comes down on him and there is times it’s deserving and there are times that it’s not. But he didn’t look for an opportunity to run and hide. He took that criticism, took the coaching, and he got better. I really respect the way he responded and the way he came back and play.
Now, we expect him to do that every week. That’s the standard which we need him to play at and that is across the board.
Q. Are you at liberty to talk about the absences of Matt and Max, just a reason for their absences and other players?
MARK STOOPS: I mean, you could probably read between the lines. I can’t comment on that.
Q. Just wanted to hear it —
MARK STOOPS: Tony cut you off. Not me.
Q. The SEC announced yesterday I think until — moving forward until Monday you might not know who you’re going to play on Saturdays for the rest of the season. What does that do for preparation and how do you approach the last three weeks?
MARK STOOPS: Well, there are things that we’re going to do every week and that carry over. We do advance scouting on or opponents anyway and watch them and crossover on film, so we’ll make it work. Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it.
You know, that’s the approach we have taken all year. I really respect our players and our staff, and they’ve done a really good job trying to stay as safe as they can.
Our team is responding and we’ll show up. We’ll be there next Saturday wherever they tell us to play.
Q. Is there anything in the next few days you and your team plan to do for LeAnne and the family and is there anything UK fans can do that you would encourage them to do?
MARK STOOPS: So, yes. LeAnne and the family have a service that will be private on Monday, and then there will be a memorial here in the afternoon, on Monday afternoon. I mean, it’s not open to the public. For the team and for LeAnne and her family and alumni, Jon’s friends. He knows so many people. Ex players, so many people that played and coached with Jon at all his different stops.
So you can imagine there is an awful lot of people that want to come pay their respects to LeAnne and Jon, and so we will do that on Monday.
I know LeAnne mentioned to me that Jon was very close to a lot you media as well, so I don’t want — I like to stay in my lane, you know that. But I also know that LeAnne personally had involved some media I believe as well. Maybe not to film and everything or anything like that, but just to pay your respects as well. Because I know many of you were close to Jon.
Q. Mark, you talked about that it wasn’t just Terry, it was the players around Terry. I know you put a lot of emphasis or working on the passing game over the last two weeks. How do you think the receivers did today?
MARK STOOPS: I thought they did a good job. I felt like there was a lot more plays out there. I’m disappointed. We had only 55 plays again, but we did have 458 yards, which is great, very explosive. I wish we had more opportunities.
That comes back to defense getting off the field and giving us some more opportunities and letting those guys have a little bit of fun because they’ve worked extremely hard. I felt like they been working hard and I felt like we could have continued to be more efficient in throwing the ball, but there is also that fine line. Again, winning.
Again, that’s why I did that with seven and a half minutes left or whatever it was. Normally we could go right into — we’re as good a four-minute offensive team as most because we’re extremely efficient at running the ball and get creative in sets and can pound the ball and use up clock and get some first downs.
Again, I felt like for the growth of the program it was important to throw the ball around a little bit. Made it a little closer than I wanted to, that’s for sure.
Q. A lot of people view Chris Rodriguez is an inside guy, a guy that gets the tough yards, makes something out of nothing a lot of times when the nothing is there. How pleasing was it to you to see him break out?
MARK STOOPS: I mean, doesn’t surprise me. You know, we feel like he’s a complete back. He gets very tough yards, but he also can be explosive, and so it was good for him to get some big plays.
Q. Mark, just talk about Chris’ performance and just the way he’s running right now. You know, just seems to be on a roll right now.
MARK STOOPS: Well, I’m just looking at his stats there and I guess I can’t argue with you there. He had 11.5 yards per carry. That’s pretty impressive. So I agree. Again, it’s not surprising to us. We have great confidence in him. We have confidence in our other backs.
And, again, there was only 55 snaps there but we were very explosive. Again, darn near 460 for 55. I wish we could have got some more possessions. That comes down to getting some better stops defensively, certainly in the second half.
Let me just say I appreciate you. Thank you for reaching out during this difficult time to myself, LeAnne and the family. You guys have done a remarkable job of covering Jon and honoring him, and we appreciate it and I know LeAnne does. Just want to say thank you.

Kentucky Student-Athletes
 
#65/67, Landon Young, Sr., OT
 
On the emotional first play of the game …
“The emotions just going through my mind were we just lost a member of our family. More than a member of our family, but we lost our coach and someone who was basically a father figure for every offensive lineman that has come through this program. So, we are going to honor him any way we can. Just because of the impact and influence he had on all of our lives, one of the toughest and greatest men I’ve ever had the chance of meeting in my life. We left a spot out there because we are missing one of our Wildcats today. Another thing, just to be able to have the opportunity to wear his number (65) just shows how much bigger than football it is. It was a blessing for me and a blessing for him to allow us to do it before he passed away, and a blessing that his family still wanted us to do it and they were here to see it. You know I want to go out there to play my game and lead anyway, but to be able to do it for a little extra reason with that number on me.”
 
On whose idea it was to start the game with an intentional penalty …
“It was kind of a cumulative effort. I know that the coaches definitely wanted to take a penalty and take a moment of silence for Coach (John Schlarman), show that we were missing a Wildcat. We actually decided right before in the pregame to actually bump (offensive guard) Luke (Fortner) to tackle for the very first play so that Coach Schlarman was a guard when he played here, and I know he’s always a guard at heart, so we wanted to leave a spot open for him to show where he played and represent that number well.”
 
On the difficulty of the past 48 hours …
“It was definitely hard, and it doesn’t get any easier talking about it. But we wanted to make sure we did what he wanted us to do every single day, and I know he’s sitting up there watching us right now, and you know having the mentality and grit that he had he would not have wanted us to sit down and feel sorry for ourselves for one second. The man never did it himself, even though he was pumping drugs into his body, and for goodness’ sake came out to practice not just hours after he had just gotten his first surgery a couple weeks ago. So, the last thing he would want us to do is sit back and feel sorry for ourselves and miss a game or practice, or not do this or that. That’s just his mentality. He’s a tough man, and he loved his game of football, and at the end of the day, one of the last conversations I had with him, ‘Coach Schlarman, why do you do this after all these surgeries? Why do you bring all this effort and attitude?’ His simple answer was ‘For the team.’ You can’t have a much better answer then that. A guy that’s truly committed to the game of football and is truly committed to each and every soul on that field, and what is best for us is growing us as men and being able to further us as a football player and have the best opportunity we can out there.”
 
 
#22, Chris Rodriguez Jr., R-So., RB
 
On his 74-yard run …
“You know it felt good. I don’t treat any run different. I run inside, and I run outside, but I mean I prefer it inside.”
 
On the added emotion within the offensive line …
“I could tell in the meetings this week. You know Coach (Mark) Stoops had some words for us and showed us a video that we made. But you could see it in their faces that they were just really sad. But today, you saw in their faces that they wanted to come out and play and win for (Schlarman) today.”
 
On his memories of Coach Schlarman …
“Before I really started playing, Coach Schlarman would always encourage me to run people over with the ball, and I really liked that. But coming to practice, you could just see it in his face that he was hurting. Sometimes I go to practice and I don’t want to be here, but then you look at that man and what he’s going through, and every day he was there. He was just a strong human being who taught me a lot.”
 
 
#3, Terry Wilson, Sr., QB
 
On what the last three weeks have been like for him …
“It’s really just been trying to get back healthy. Like I said with my wrist, it’s kind of limited me. I couldn’t throw so I had to sit out a couple practices. But once that started to get better and get back in the groove of things, just looking at things we can improve in and things I can do better to be able to go out and win a football game and continue to win football games. Locking down on what we have to do and what I have to do, to help the team.”
 
On the play between him and running back Asim Rose …
“I threw it and I thought it was the perfect pass, but it came up short. I had to put some more on it, and it’s just something that I wish I could get back. But now I know the next time we call that play, let it (go) and let AJ get it. It’s one of those plays that you look at and you’re like ‘Ugh, you don’t want that happening.’ We just have to correct it.”
 
On his offensive line …
“Coach Schlarman would want those guys to go out there and do what they do. He wouldn’t want them to be pouting around and feeling sorry. That’s just the type of guy Coach Schlarman was, a tough dude and he wants his players to be tough. Our o-line went out there and executed and did what they were supposed to do. Those guys mean so much to me, seeing how much they work, and this week was tough for us. And seeing how they responded, those guys really give it their all each week, every game. So, we just have to keep working and get ready for next week.”
 
 
#44, Jamin Davis, Jr., ILB
 
On the defensive and offensive performance today …
“In general, it’s just something we have to clean up moving forward. It’s always easy to just point the fingers at offense or defense but as a team we just want to stay together and figure out what we got to do moving forward.”
 
On not having DeAndre Square as much in today’s game …
“Marquez (Bembry) did a good job of answering the call. It was a little different, but I just tried to make sure I focused enough on my game. And be ready for whatever I had to do, whether it was Mike or Will. There still is some things to clean up on film and moving forward just making sure we are exact with everything moving forward. And, just being ready to answer the call honestly.”
 
On the tough schedule ahead …
“We look at it like anyone else on the schedule. We don’t worry about anything. Like I said before we don’t pay attention to outside noise and what-not. We just prepare the same way we would prepare for anyone else and do what we got to do to come out the right way.”

 
 
 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Derek Mason
 
Opening statement …
“My thoughts right now are definitely with the Kentucky football family, and just having the chance to talk with Coach (Mark) Stoops, you know, after the game with the Schlarman family, and definitely feel like those kids played to honor him. I thought it was a good football game. I thought our kids played hard, but just wanted to really say our condolences and thoughts are with them. I thought starting the game with declining the penalty was the right way to go in this, in terms of honoring him. I’ve got to continue to give thanks to our medical staff and as well as our organizational people for getting us to Saturday. It’s always a sprint and a tough job to get to Saturday in the COVID era. Fortunately for us, we got a chance to play football today. Overall, I thought it was much better ball control than a week ago. I thought we cleaned up some things on the offensive side of the ball and gave ourselves a chance all game. I saw what (backup quarterback) Mike Wright brought to the table and what he was able to do, like today. It was good to see (starting quarterback Ken Seals) and Mike, both of these guys know how to play off of each other, and I think it helped us in the situations that we needed them, so that was great to see. For me, defense in the first half to give up 21 points was a little unsettling, like for us. Then, you look at how you got to battle back, and that’s just part of it. We couldn’t stop the run, just too many explosive plays. I thought offense was very good on third down today. Defense didn’t get Kentucky to third down enough, and really for us, it was good to see us throw the ball in the red zone. I think this may be the first touchdown that Kentucky has given up in a long time in the red zone. I thought the plan was good, I thought we executed as well as we could. We just ran out of time and possessions.” 
 
On the future of Vanderbilt’s skill players …
“We knew that we were going to be somewhat behind when we started the season in terms of what it looked like because we just did not get the overall skill development that we needed, in terms of what the summer looked like and how things shook out before we started fall. It’s like anything else. I think as we have been able to play games since we’ve been back off the bye, every week I think we have gotten better. It took that time during the bye and that little bit of off time to really start to have the quarterback and the receivers start to understand how we all work together, like where guys need to be. Playing week to week, and that’s what me and Coach Stoops were talking about before the game, he was worried about coming off a bye because what you’re trying to create is some synergy, some energy and the idea of continuity. I think as we have been able to play, and that’s why it’s important to play every week, we’re going to continue to see these guys get better, and what we got to do all the way around is make sure that we can take it from week to week and make the necessary changes to put ourselves in a position to get a win.”
 
On run defense …
“I think up front we got pushed around a little bit, like to be honest. There were guys in gaps, there were guys fibbing a run, and then on a couple explosive plays we had a couple misfits. But let me tell you, when you’re playing 8-, 9-man front, the football is not really that hard. You got to be able to put your hands on somebody. I thought they did a good job of being physical, but the one thing about those backs, I can give credit to those backs and really what they do up front. The backs stay in the hole, they stay in the tight crease. It’s not like every time they’re hitting the crease the crease is wide open. They’re hitting the crease, they’re staying there, they’re staying there and they’re getting through to the other side. For us, we just didn’t do a good job of staying in the crease, of puncturing the line of scrimmage. There were times we set edges and we had them for tackles for loss, but just didn’t finish. And again, we just got to get better. We talk about it, we work it, we drill it, but when it comes to doing it, it’s like the fog of war, you got to trust your training, and you got to make sure that you can make it come alive because it’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the strain of the guys that are playing football. Not saying that they’re not straining, because they’re trying to play their butts off. We just need a little more, and that’s it, and we’re going to get to it because I know these guys, and these guys want to get better. They love practicing, and right now what we got to continue to do is just make sure how we play, and the physicality of our game shows up, and right now it’s not consistent.”
 
On whether safety Dashaun Jerkins affected Vanderbilt’s second-half pass defense …
“I don’t think it was just Jerkins, I think we tightened the coverage. We got to the point in the second half where, for us, we really needed to make sure that the coverage was a little more solid. The coverage was just a little too loose. We played a little too much zone in the first half just trying to make sure that we could get eyes on the quarterback pool because we knew the quarterback pool was going to be a good part of this game. I thought guys sort of manned up, we sort of took the challenges, and I think it helped in the second half. But anytime you play man in the pass game, it can be detrimental in terms of second-level defenders in the run. So, when you saw the big run, we were in man coverage and didn’t have a knockdown guy, so you didn’t have a third-level guy to get it on the ground.”

Vanderbilt Student-Athletes
#28 Allan George, CB
On the challenge of dealing with Kentucky’s offense…
“We weren’t seeing anything that we weren’t prepared for, it was just the matter of they won the rep whenever the play was running. Our coaches had us prepared throughout the week with all the looks. We knew what type of formations we were going to be seeing because Kentucky does a lot of funky unbalanced formations, so we knew what we were going to see. It was just a matter of if we going to stop it or not. We just had a bunch of missed tackles, they guys lost leverage, basically that’s all that happened. “
 
On execution in the second half in comparison to the first…
“I think mainly we just come into the game a little flat sometimes, but we’ve shown in the last two games that the second half is not a sleep-on half for us and we come out with a lot of fire. We do make a lot of adjustments to the game, because our coach sees things and our players come back with information from the field, so we do make a lot of adjustments in game. It’s not like we change our plan or our fundamentals when we come into the game, we just make sure we wrap up and tackle and get up the field on third down.”
 
On if how they played in the second half lets up any frustration that may come with not having a win so far this season…
“It doesn’t really, because we don’t really take moral victories in the fact we came out and had a certain amount of three in outs in a row or we came out and held them to a certain amount of yards. In the end game we just want to win, so it doesn’t really help frustrations at all because we don’t have any moral victories on the defensive side or the offensive side.”
 
#86 Ben Bresnahan, TE
On transitioning well between quarterbacks …
“We have confidence in both of them that whenever they’re on the field they’re going to be making plays. We going to have to make the opposing defense prepare for a lot of different looks and different plays with Mike (Mike Wright) and Ken (Ken Seals) in there. It’s great to have both of them in there.”
 
On whether having young skilled offensive players adds optimism.…
“It definitely does. You’ve seen how we’ve grown over the season even in the last couple of games have been close, but obviously we didn’t come out with the win, but we’ve had some promising plays and drives on offense. We just have to keep growing and we obviously have the athletes to do it and players to do it, so we just need to keep going out there each and every week.”
 
On improvement on offense…
“I think it’s a mindset, I mean execution obviously, you’ve seen that we’ve benefited early and done better over the season. That mindset, just going into the game and knowing you’re going to have to win, every single person, all 11 are going to have to win their 1-on-1 battles. It’s a mindset to win every single play, every single down, drives and trying to get into the game.”