Stoops 'Pleased' with First Week of Spring Practice

Many times during spring football practices, coaches are able to find plenty of faults with their teams, especially at the beginning of spring drills. While his team has not been perfect by any means through three practices, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has been happy with how his team has performed.

“Very pleased with the first week of spring ball,” Stoops said. “The guys worked really hard. We had three practices this week and, obviously a lot of meetings. Really pleased with what I’m seeing across the board. Really good group. Very efficient and off to a good start.”

Stoops has been especially impressed with how his team has picked up the new offense, under the direction of offensive coordinator Liam Coen.

“Very pleased with the efficiency of the offense and the way we’re going about the install,” Stoops said. “It’s hard, as you get going, sometimes you may look good in day one or day two but as you get to day three and day four of the installation, you’re trying to put everything together and that can get a bit overwhelming for the players. But they still have done a good job. Obviously, there’s still a lot of work to do but I’m pleased with the start.”

When asked if he was surprised by the way the spring has gone so far, Stoops deferred to a word he kept going back to on Saturday.

“I don’t know if surprised is the right word – pleased,” Stoops said. “Pleased with a bunch of new offensive coaches, a new system. Very pleased with the efficiency of our offense. Just the basics, the communication, the urgency, getting to the line of scrimmage, alignments, assignments, being efficient at our plays.”

Stoops has liked the play from his quarterbacks so far through three spring practices.

“The accuracy, our quarterbacks, they know where to go with the football,” Stoops said. “Our completion percentage is extremely high, which I really like to see. Very few drops, very few footballs on the ground. I’m pleased with what I’m seeing.”

As as far as the wide receivers, Stoops has been, well, pleased with their effort so far.

“We’re deep. We’ve still got 11, 12 guys out there getting reps right now,” Stoops said. “We need production. We need to get better. There’s no denying that. We’ve got to take some steps forward. You do that by replacing, you do that by recruiting, you do that by developing the guys you have and getting them better each day. And we’re working hard at that. We’ve got to keep on pushing them and getting better.”

Stoops notes that the return of receiver Isaiah Epps could be big for the new offense.

“With Isaiah coming back, if we can keep him healthy, Isaiah gives us that speed,” Stoops said. “Then you’ve got Josh (Ali) and you’ve got Wan’Dale (Robinson), that’s as good of a front line as we’ve had in a long time.”

There are 12 spring practices remaining for Kentucky over the next few weeks, but it’s been so far, so good for the team through the first few days.