Stoops, Cats Look to Bounce Back This Week
The Kentucky football team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, falling to nationally-ranked Ole Miss 30-23 at Kroger Field.
After watching the tape, UK head coach Mark Stoops said that his team did some good things, but that there are issues that still need to be resolved.
“After watching the film, there’s two ways of looking at things,” Stoops said. “There are a lot of good things, and that we have to build on and a lot of mistakes that we have to get corrected. But we played winning football for much of that game.”
Stoops knows that his team needs to take better opportunity of advantageous situations when those arise. For example, UK got two interceptions from Ty Bryant in the first half of Saturday’s game, taking over in Ole Miss territory both times. The Cats did take a 10-0 lead in the process, but it could have been more.
“We’ve got to learn to capitalize, finish it off and play better in critical moments,” Stoops said. “But (we) did a lot of good things.”
The Cats will have a chance to build on the positives on Saturday when they host Eastern Michigan at Kroger Field (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU). However, Kentucky is not exactly sure who will be under center when the game begins.
Starting quarterback Zach Calzada left Saturday’s game with a shoulder injury and did not return. He was 15 of 30 through the air for 149 yards with neither a touchdown nor an interception. Stoops said that Calzada would not practice on Monday and that he would get treatment all week. However, his status for Saturday remains unknown at this time.
Backup quarterback Cutter Boley came in for Calzada late in Saturday’s game and completed one of three passes for 38 yards. Stoops did say that Boley will play on Saturday.
“I’m excited to see Cutter,” Stoops said. “I never want to see a player get hurt but what that happens, I’m always excited for the next man up. I’m excited to see Cutter and Cutter will absolutely play.”
The Cats will spend this week building on the successes of the first two games while working to resolve the issues that are fixable. Stoops and the Cats hope that this formula will lead to a cleaner, more efficient effort on Saturday against Eastern Michigan.
