Mark Stoops Monday Press Conference (Nov. 20)
Mark Stoops News Conference
Post-South Carolina, Pre-Louisville
Nov. 20, 2023
Opening statement…
“Obviously, I’m in a much better mood today than I was Saturday night, although it still doesn’t feel good but it’s on to a new week. The great thing about being upbeat and positive today is (there’s a) big game here this week. It’s a rival. It’s the last opportunity for many of us. It’s a big game. It’s an important game. We’ve got some players who have been around here a long time. We have some new players. Could be the last opportunity with this team. There’s players that are probably going to hit the portal. There’s probably players that are going to get ready for the NFL draft.
“It may be the last opportunity with this complete group, so we have an important game against a Louisville team — Coach (Jeff) Brohm and his staff and his team have had an exceptional year. We have to go up there and play in another hostile environment. I don’t know if there is—you guys could probably tell me that—but that’s another top-10 team. I think that’s four. I don’t know how many teams have played current, sitting teams that are in the top 10. Another challenge—I think that’s one of the reasons why I was very frustrated and disappointed Saturday night. It’s been a challenging schedule, a challenging year and I felt like we had so many opportunities that we let slip away. That gets hard. That gets difficult.
“But, we watched it. We need to get some things corrected. We need to play better in certain areas. We need to coach better in certain areas. We will continue to do that. Nobody’s defeated in our facility, that’s for sure. Disappointed with that game, that comes from investing so much. But, (we are) far from defeated and our team will show the resolve that we’ve always had, come back this week and try to put together a great week. The bottom line is go execute a little better than we did Saturday.
“That is part of what was so frustrating. There were times defensively where it was just great execution, great play, great energy—just great in so many –negative plays for them, very positive plays for us. Offensively, we sputtered at times, we got frustrated, and then we would get the ball moving. I want to say there were three or four in a row. It started out kind of frustrating because we had the third down converted, get the penalty. That’s bad football there. There’s no excuse—no excuse whatsoever. We have to get … a protection issue—he thought he couldn’t hear what they were saying on the issue, the back stepped up, had two guys in motion, and we miss a third down on the first third down of the game, which was huge. We sputter. Then, once we get the ball moving, we go touchdown, the next one we’re driving and get in the redzone—interception—next one we get an explosive play, we’re going to have a first down going into the high red (zone)—fumble. The next possession, half’s over. First possession of the second half, 92-yard touchdown [drive]. So, we had a window where we had an opportunity. After that, on the road, in some of these environments, the momentum slips away, we let it get away from us. Disappointing, but we we’ll get it corrected. There’s nothing that we can’t get corrected. We will keep on moving forward.
“Again, I have a lot of respect for Coach Brohm and Louisville and the turnaround that they have done and the team that they have. So, looking forward to going up there and playing for the Governor’s Cup. It should be a great game.”
On Louisville’s biggest improvement from last season to this season…
“Quite a few things. They are better in a lot of areas, just very fundamentally sound in a lot of areas. Defensively, playing very aggressive, very disruptive, creating turnovers and negative yardage plays and trying to dictate. Offensively, just good at what they do. They are very efficient in the run game. They’ve had an O-line, I want to say they’ve had one major change. Other than that, I think four of them have been in there all year. You don’t generally see that, so great continuity with their offensive line, very few changes there. They have good running backs, good scheme. They are efficient in running it and it sets up the balance that he [Brohm] is looking for. So, they have just been very good, very efficient. I think they have made some nice additions in the portal at wideout, also.”
On offensive struggle this seasons…
“There’s been a variety of things, which gets frustrating. We have talked about throughout the year—whether it be a protection here or a drop here, a turnover, you name it—there’s been some things. But, this is not the time to point fingers and throw any one person or any area—we had an opportunity to win that game [South Carolina], even defensively. Giving up the points that we did and the possession where they scored with the second-and-extra-long and the third-and-long and all that. We had the opportunity to win, so we’re all in it together.”
On giving up third-and-longs…
“I think the biggest thing is consistent pressure. Obviously, there’s things we could do better in the back end in certain coverage issues. I think that’s a combination of things. Pressure helps.”
On the difficulty of taking the reins of a new program…
“It’s a little different world right now than it was 11 years—12 years ago—with the portal and that’s the nice thing. Every situation is different. I think the Brohms are quite comfortable in Louisville—growing up there, knowing everybody and playing there. Having a good team and him making It much better. The portal is a totally different world. We could only sign 25 different players on your roster at that point in time (2013). You can 75 if you want to—80, 85, whatever you feel like.”
On Louisville’s quarterback Jack Plummer…
“A guy with experience, a guy that knows Coach Brohm’s system, spent three or four years with him before he transferred and then coming back. A guy that has been in that system and I think without throwing any one person under the bus but that’s hurting us with, again, two years in a row, new coordinators, new quarterbacks and with them the nice thing is that with Plummer, he has a good feel for the system and I’m sure they have a good working relationship there. I think that’s helped and you can tell, he looks very comfortable back there.”
On Louisville’s approach in applying pressure…
“Yeah, that’s what they do. I think if you go back and research them, I think they’re well documented on what they say and what they do and what they wanted to do since day one. That’s how their approach is, so there’s nothing different there but for us we have to be very clean. We have to be stronger at the point of attack, even when we’re picking up things, we have to be more firm to give the quarterback time to throw the ball. When we’ve had that we’ve been effective in certain games. I think that’s the big thing, is just making sure we have a good plan for all different protections and being very firm and we have to win some one-on-ones. With their pressure, it’s not like they are trying to constantly just surprise you or get guys free –I mean they’re getting good matchups and they’re pressing the pocket.”
On being concerned about tipped passes in the upcoming game…
“Yeah, I think anytime you have five tipped passes, it’s a concern, yes.”
On the difference between confidence and false confidence…
“Our team, hopefully we’re well past the false confidence. We know again, this is the fourth team that is currently in the top 10. It’s a pretty good group that we’ve played against–no excuse for last week’s loss whatsoever. I think that’s what makes that one very frustrating but we know what we’re capable of and whether we’re playing the No. 1 ranked team in the country, which we have, or anybody else – it’s truly always about us and how we play. Saturday wasn’t much different, we had our opportunities and in certain moments we fell short and we have to, there’s one way out of that stuff – go work. Go work and go grind and show the resolve that our teams generally have had. Again, we know we’re not perfect, we know we got things to work on but we’ve always had the ability and the toughness and the grit to fight back.”
On how much the on-field result of the Kentucky-Louisville game playing a part in recruiting…
“I don’t know. It could, maybe – I would never say never, have to ask those kids. We’re having a good year in the state again, Louisville’s certainly having a great year on the field and in recruiting, so I think they’ve done a really nice job. For everybody it’s the fit, it’s the right people. He’s done a nice job with some portal players that are good fit and good players.”
On Deone Walker in the South Carolina game…
“Yeah, Deone had a really good game, he really did. I thought he really just made very disruptive plays. He countered back on certain ones and you know he’s a guy that we’re talking about pressure in the third downs, he’s certainly a guy that’s always consistent with getting back there and drawing some attention, drawing a couple of guys on him all the time. We need some others around him to step up with that. Definitely not only had some penetration, he finished some plays, too, so when you have him in the back and they’re bouncing around and behind the line of scrimmage, he finished some plays which was really good to see, so hopefully the best is still coming for that young man.”
On how well you know Jeff Brohm…
“I know Jeff, I wouldn’t say great friends or anything, but way back when he was at Western (Kentucky) and we’d cross over at certain things. I’ve always liked him. I said that in the summer, or when he was first hired that I certainly like him and have a lot of respect for him and his brother (Brian). Coming from a family of coaches, much like ours, so good man and done a great job.”
On the characteristics of Louisville’s offense since Jeff Brohm was mentored by Howard Schnellenberger…
“I haven’t studied Coach Schnellenberger’s at all, but with Jeff’s I just like … you hate to compare but in a complimentary way, like maybe Missouri, with some of their lead zones, split, lead zone, you know what I mean? Do a nice job of keeping you off-balance, nice job with their zone schemes, and that sets up nice play-actions off of it. You’ve heard me for 11 years talk about balance. I think that is what he does a nice job of, he keeps you off-balance. He runs the ball well, they throw it very effectively, and then they have enough of the eye candy, or gadgets, or like us, sometimes on the perimeter, reverses, different things that keeps you off-balance. I think they do a nice job in all those areas.”
On what a win would do for this team…
“Well, it’ll be a big win for us. It’s the last game of the year. It’s been a tough stretch, without a doubt, but this is another game. It certainly doesn’t salvage some of the things that we’ve done or anything like that, we don’t look at it that way, we look at it like it’s another opportunity. We play a lot of big games here. This one, I’ve said it from the moment I walked in here that it was important. I know the importance of it to our fan base and to the community and I’ve acknowledged that for 11 years.”
On what about the SEC schedule prepares you for a game with a Louisville and bowl games…
“I don’t really want to make a comment on that without feeling like I’m being condescending or defensive of what I had to do. People don’t look at our schedule — there were games on there like last Saturday, it was inexcusable, so there is no defense and I’m not looking for one. You know, there are some things we did well and there are some things we did not so well, but I can only comment on our schedule, not anybody else’s, and like I said, come live it for a minute.”
On how to make sure the feelings from the loss at South Carolina doesn’t linger ahead of the upcoming game…
“Yeah, it’s like that, it’s a challenge. It was like that last week coming off a tough one with Bama. Playing teams like that that are so big and physical, so it was a challenge last week. We worked hard all week, and I felt like, I really do, and I credit our players, I felt like they were in a good place. I just felt like there were some execution and some, again, I don’t want to blame it on any one thing, but when you’re getting drives, getting moving and get turnovers. You’re not going to win if you go on the road and lose the turnover battle like that, amongst everything else, but with the turnovers, not going to happen. So, I think our team was in a good place, we have to go work really hard again this week to get them back and get them in a good spot.”
On if you need to re-learn what it takes for this team to win close games…
“I think that is fair. I wouldn’t say learn, I’d say find the right balance, find what is effective for us to finish that off. One of them is that. If you look at the success rate in the run game, it’s halfway decent in that game, but again, it still doesn’t feel like it’s good enough for us and what we’ve done. It was 5.4 (yards) or something like that per carry. By statistics, they’ll say that was effective, but for us, maybe not. We need to be a little better than that. We are also getting penalties and negative yardage plays are stacking up because the distance that we have for third down is horrendous and you can’t constantly be in third-and-long. So, that is partly to your point I think, being more effective and more physical in the run game.”
On how much you look at completion percentage…
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely concerning. Again, I don’t need to put any undo pressure on any one position or any one person, but we left plays on that field.”
On if this will be the last game against Louisville with the conference realignment and changes in schedule…
“No, because next year’s locked in no matter what. After that with nine (potentially nine SEC games in future schedules), I don’t know. Again, you know how I feel about hypotheticals (laughing). I am a big fan of talking about hypothetical things.”
On taking chances throwing the ball down the field this week …
“Definitely some, we are definitely going to try to push the ball at times. That was disappointing, we had some real opportunities Saturday. We have to make those plays.”
On what you’ve seen from the offensive line room the back half of the season…
“Yeah, I think, being fair, you’re asking me specifically about them, inconsistent I could say. But I could also say that about a bunch of other ones (position groups).”
On it being great for the fans to keep the Louisville game on the schedule …
“I am looking forward to Saturday’s game. I would desperately like to keep that trophy here. It’s been here a while and I hope it stays here. But this is one heck of a football team. This is a new year and you also know how I feel about years past and records, all that crap. This year, let’s worry about this game this year. It is a brand new game and it is an important one to both teams. I will say this, it is good for the state. Hopefully we have a little better record next go-round, but when both teams are playing good it’s important. Hopefully, we can bring our ‘A’ game and play up to our potential.”
On Louisville being 7-0 in one-possession games and how does that give a team confidence in close games …
“Yeah, again, I can’t talk about other teams, I don’t know what their mindset is or what they go through or what they’ve done, any of that. For us, we know we can win close games and have. We were plays off a few games this year and that gets aggravating.”
On the “pony up” comment on the Monday radio show a month back…
“I really don’t want to talk (about that), I want to move past that. You have to listen to the whole conversation. Everybody takes a piece of something you say and act like you were making an excuse or anything. Please, listen to the one-minute conversation. That’s at my radio show, it’s a little more laid back, we can just discuss and talk and I was very upfront with the caller. Fans have every right, I never get offended or defensive. I may defend our program or our players or say things that we need. As far as that goes, that was nothing. It was something that I lightheartedly said that that person can do something, that is a way they can do something. Outside of that, I make no excuses. I haven’t for 11 years and I’m not going to start now. I will tell you facts and I will tell you reality, but I am not going to make excuses. I am not going to start now.”
On approaching the transfer portal going into the offseason…
“We’ll see. I think there’s definitely some, there’s ways now, there’s areas where you have to be selective. I think you have to find the right ones. You have to find players that fit your program. You don’t know. There are several positions that we’ll look at. I cannot comment on anything specifically.”
On Louisville’s defensive coordinator Ron English, have you crossed paths with him…
“Not too much other than to know he seems like a very good man and a very good coach and been around awhile, so I am sure he is a strong leader.”
