Cats Must Move Forward, Focus on Vanderbilt
Kentucky suffered a tough loss to Tennessee on Saturday night. Now, the challenge for UK head coach Mark Stoops and his staff is to not let that loss carry over to this week.
The Cats fell to the Vols 45-42 on Saturday at Kroger Field. Kentucky had more than 600 yards of total offense and never punted but still came up just short. Stoops is hoping that there are no lasting effects from Saturday’s loss.
“Once again, no matter who we’re playing, it’s about us, the situation that we’re in and how we will react to what happened to us Saturday and the way we played,” Stoops said. “That will determine the outcome of this week. How we handle it, how we prepare and get ready.”
As far as the mood or the mentality of the team after losing a tough game on Saturday night, Stoops is not worried.
“As far as team morale and where we’re at, I’m very optimistic,” Stoops said. “I know our team, I know our leaders, I’ve seen a lot of them, I talked to a lot of them after the game. They’re highly motivated to finish the season. I can promise you, there’s a lot of guys in that building that are motivated to move on and try to go get the next victory.”
The Cats will get back on the field Saturday night when they visit Vanderbilt in Nashville. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on ESPN2.
The Commodores are 2-7 on the season and 0-5 in the SEC under first-year head coach Clark Lea. Vandy has lost its last four games but did have a competitive game against Missouri last week in Nashville, falling 37-28.
Stoops has seen improvement in the Commodores as the season has moved along.
“On the road again this week, to Vanderbilt, a team that you can see is showing a lot of spurts of playing some very good football, very inspired football,” Stoops said. “Very disciplined in a lot of ways.”
The all-time series between the schools is fairly close. Kentucky holds a 47-42-4 advantage over Vanderbilt, buoyed by the fact that the Cats have won five in a row and six of the last seven in the series.
Stoops put it simply when it comes to this week’s game.
“We’ve got to get back on track,” the UK head coach said.
In order to do that, the Cats first must put last week’s game behind them. Then, they must turn their attention to an improved Vanderbilt squad.
