Mark Stoops News Conference Transcript, Nov. 10

Mark Stoops News Conference
Post-Florida, Pre-Tennessee Tech
Kroger Field Media Room
November 10, 2025

Opening statement…
“Looking forward to being back home again, acknowledging the 25 seniors that we have that are going to play for the last time at Kroger Field. I really appreciate those seniors. Some have been here for a long time, some not so long, but they have all had an impact and we appreciate them. And also the support staff (student equipment managers, athletic trainers, recruiting assistants, etc.) – there’s a lot of young people that dedicate a lot of time and I probably don’t say it enough and acknowledge them enough, but I really appreciate them.

“Obviously pleased with the victory. To get back home and get a good win over Florida meant a lot to our team, to our fan base, and to everybody. Really good and complete game. Just pleased with the offense, efficiency, defense and special teams across the board, played extremely well.  Once again, I think our players, we’ve been talking about it, continuing to play with great effort that they play with, but the execution has been better.

“You can’t say enough good things about Cutter (Boley) and the way he is playing. Going back as a staff and watching it Sunday, and even buzzed it again prior to coming in here, so effective. Sure, we’d like to have a couple of those turnovers back, the fumble and the interception, you take those away, and he absolutely played lights out. Felt like during the game we could have thrown it a bit more, but you really look at how the game played out, he was very effective in the first half. The second half, the first six plays we called, we actually called five passes. He scrambled for one, got the first down, and then the next thing you know, we feel like you could put a dagger in them, we ripped off some runs, got it in the high red (zone), and were able to pound it in. The very next possession, we ripped off a long run, and Cutter’s day was about over throwing the ball at that point. We didn’t need to, and it just wasn’t smart, and we wanted him to play ball and he needed the snaps,but didn’t want (him) pulling the ball down and running around, getting some kind of senseless injury. We also pulled him out, I want to say, with about nine minutes to go  in the game. Very good game by him. Across the board, I thought the offensive line played very well. Once again, the running backs and receivers are all stepping up.

“Defensively, I can’t say enough good things about Coach (Brad) White, the defensive staff, and certainly those players. As I’ve said over and over again, (they) have great pride in what they’re doing, have really responded the right way, and played extremely well. Back-to-back, probably two of the better games we’ve played in a long time here defensively. That says a lot about them and their character. I really appreciate the effort. Once again, special teams were solid.

“Tennessee Tech is a team that has not experienced defeat this year, so any time you play a team like that, they know how to win. They’re obviously well-coached and a good football team. We have to continue to do what we’ve been doing, and that’s concentrate on us, no matter who we’re playing. Continue to play with the effort, continue to have great weeks of practice, and worry about approaching this week, and starting today, with having a great week. Let’s worry about Kentucky getting better and carry that over to the game.”

On Cutter getting more comfortable and letting him do more ad-libbing …
“I feel like Bush (offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan) has really done a good job, certainly the second part of the year, of getting better at the things he does well. We’ve dressed things up nicely, he’s done a nice job with some motions. Cutter is certainly processing it, and then there are some things happening during the game that you love to see, the way he’s throwing the ball, the spots  that he’s throwing it. As you do that, you see people making good catches, and a lot of things just look routine, which is what we all like. When you’re just sitting there and watching ball and seeing things look routine, that’s what you want. I think receivers are making really nice catches.

“I thought the third-down efficiency was exceptional. A couple of third downs we didn’t get, we converted the fourth downs. I also think the two fourth-down conversions that we got to open up the second half were huge. I believe that was the first possession of the second half, right? The fourth down, yeah, because it was a 13-play drive. The fourth-down conversions are huge. That’s demoralizing as you’re on a long drive.”

On Jordan Lovett and Sam Greene not being on the depth chart…
“I wanted to address that in my opening statement as well. Really disappointed for these young men and our team, but unfortunately, they will be out the remainder of the year. They have significant injuries that will require surgery. So, really disappointed and greatly appreciate the leadership that they’ve shown and the way they’ve played.”

On Alex Afari Jr. being back…
“I hope so, more than likely out at least a week or more as well.”

On Coach Hamdan’s quote after the game, when he’s calling aggressively, acknowledging sometimes that bad things are going to happen, you have to respond… 
“I think we all feel comfortable when the operation is like that. I mean, yeah, let’s be honest. You could be coaching a team, and no disrespect (laughter from media), and if you’re throwing and catching and doing that, hey, Mark Stoops will throw it 50 times a game if it’s efficient. I mean that. I do feel like there’s always a physicality part of the game that has to be there. But the efficiency of the offense and throwing it opens up other things as well, and you want to keep people off-balance. And I think it’s the vision that’s there and the location, and then the guys making catches. The players are growing as well, and I think that has a lot to do with the way the quarterback plays.”

On Daveren Rayner playing well…
“Yeah, I agree. Starting with the opening play of this game, I thought he was very aggressive and pulled the trigger and made it, very disruptive play on the opening play of the game. I think he’s a guy that can play explosive. He has that knack for – maybe sometimes you’re watching film, it’s not perfect, but he plays ball, which is what you want out of an inside linebacker, just the instincts there. He’s played a lot of football, and he’s been a really good leader, so very proud.”

Update on Tavion Gadson…
“Yeah, let’s hope he’ll be back to full strength this week. We will take it day by day right now.”

On Jaden Williams playing well in Gadson’s absence …
“Yeah, really good to see, just really good. Sometimes it is a little different when you then get into the games. We want to see this on the practice field. We want to see consistency. We want to have trust to get guys in the games, but when they get in there and they produce, that’s a good thing as well.”

On Cam Dooley…
“I have a lot of trust in Cam. He’s played a lot, as you mentioned, probably could play more, but those two guys are playing so good, you know, with Ty (Bryant) and J-Love (Jordan Lovett), so I think they are both really good players. Cam is a guy that we look at as a starter, and he’ll do a nice job.

“It would be good to get Dyllon (Williams) going and certainly see (Martels Carter Jr.), he’s a guy that we also have a lot of trust in. It’s kind of that balancing act that you don’t want to burn redshirts for not a lot of plays. We’re getting very thin here and the guys are very willing to play. Between the two of those youngsters, we have some games to play with, and so we just kind of try to manage that the last three games here.”

On moving some cornerbacks to safety…
“No, we feel good about the young guys being able to go in there and do that. We certainly could do that. Q Scott (Quay’sheed Scott), you saw him actually the way we were rotating that defense, he was in a safety position there, and the overlap on the interception, just with the way we were disguising and doing some things there. He’s very versatile, but he’s playing so good at that position, you don’t want to mess with that. You’ve heard me say through the years how important that nickel position is. He’s gaining valuable experience there and playing very well. We kind of don’t want to mess with that.”

On Grant Godfrey…
“Yeah, really proud of Grant. I thought he really stepped up, did some really good things. The experience of playing a talented team in space against Florida, want to see proper angles, leverage, just playing. We appreciate it because we trust him more and more.”

On DJ Waller…
“Yeah, DJ was very close (to playing). I feel like he really wanted to go in that game. We just couldn’t see him fully open up leading up to it. It’s getting very close, so let’s hope this last three-game stretch, he could be at full speed. He’s another one because of the situation we are in, certainly he was a guy that was playing as good as anybody on our defense (before the injury), but with the way it’s played out, we have three games to play with a redshirt for him as well.”

On Tennessee Tech being 10-0 and how that motivates the team…
“I hope it really helps our team, because it should. You give them all credit. I know there’s some teams out there and credit to Indiana, the way they came back this week and won. And there’s some teams that, when you’re undefeated, it says a lot. You know how to win. And these guys have done that, it’s a credit to them. And it should get our team’s attention. Our team has been very motivated with ourselves, in trying to improve, and just trying to get better. If we continue that approach, then we’ll play well, because I fully admit we hadn’t always done that here, and we want to, we preach it, we talk about it, we coach it. But it doesn’t always happen. The better football team you become, the better you’ll play each and every week.”

On Tennessee Tech offense, they score a lot of points…
“They do. They got a quarterback (Kekoa Visperas) with a lot of experience. They have some experience across the board with their team. They’re very multiple. They’re a group that will get into quite a bit of sets. You’ll see a lot of 11 (personnel grouping, one running back, one tight end). You’ll see the standard sets out of 11, but you’ll see big sets. You’ll see 12 (one RB, two TE), you’ll see 21 (two RB, one TE), you’ll see 13 (one RB, three TE). You see multiple sets. They do a really nice job. Anytime you get a quarterback that can make plays and create and are confident – I think he plays very confident, and he rubs off on that team.”

On the team’s confidence…
“Yeah, I think early – when you look at it across the league, you look at the big picture. I tell them a lot, nobody’s gonna feel sorry for you. Watch the NFL. Watch SEC football. It’s tough. And when you feel like you have the opportunity to win games, you’re a play short at times, and doing things you know you can do. It’s just about us getting better and making those plays when you need to, not always, but we know we’re capable. We know we’re getting better. I think it’s a tribute to the coaches and tribute to the players that you can definitely see the team getting better as we move forward. So we just want to keep that mindset.”

On Zach Calzada’s video that went viral…
“We’re always going to be a program built on development and accountability. Always have been and always will. The mistakes are going to happen, and those become coaching moments to all of us. So, Zach made a mistake, he acknowledged it, and he’s apologized for it. We’ve addressed it, and we’re going to try to move on.”

On the roster changing back to normal with the extra covid years players graduating…
“Well, we will see (media laughing). There’s always litigation (media laughing).”

On an early game time after a succession of night games…
“It will be nice, play during the day and see some sunshine. We love the night games. It’s a nice mixture. We talk about it all the time, the atmosphere, here and on the road. It’s challenging on the road, it’s nice to be home and have everybody juiced up and energized and all that. But it’s also nice to play college football sometimes and see the sun. For our players, I think health-wise, people don’t think about that. When you constantly play night games, and these young men get home late, wired up after a game, or on the road, getting home at three in the morning. It adds up now, it takes its toll on them. And that’s something that I think we all have to take into consideration. And that gets back to, I don’t want to get it on a tangent about Zach’s situation, or just in general, but you look at what happened in the NFL and mental health and what goes on with kids, and the challenge, it’s hard, man, it’s hard. And, that’s one thing I’ll say that I’ll stick up for our team. We are going to be accountable, and we’ve acknowledged that, he’s acknowledged that, we will continue to do that, and there’s no excuse. But there’s also no place to reward these people that call themselves trolls. There’s no place for that for young people.”

On Seth McGowan saying that this team is so close (to success) and us finally seeing what they have seen in themselves…
“Absolutely, what we’re hoping. I think you’ve heard me say it, and I know I’ve said it in here. I understand it’s a results business. I’m a big boy, I handle it, I understand that. I also know that this team is getting better in certain areas. You have to have all a lot of pieces together to win in this league. Half of our league – half of our league – has the same amount of league victories as us right now. Hear that. That’s tough. You know what I mean, it’s tough. It’s a grind. Eight teams in our league have two or less. No excuses, just a fact, right? Fact, we’re just trying to get better, and I appreciate their effort.”

On keeping the foot on the gas…
“Those guys understand the reward of just playing well. The results are the results. A lot of times, and you’ve heard me say it, it’s not lip service, it’s the truth. You play some great teams. The results are what they are. You prep the right way and play your butt off, and play hard and execute in critical moments, you’re going to give yourself a chance and that preparation is what matters. And that mindset is what matters. So, how they approach this week is what matters. The results are the results. You know what I mean?  We want to win. But, you have to do those things or you have no chance.”

On the offensive tackles playing well…
“Across the board, really pleased with the way the offensive line is playing. You know there’s going to be moments, but again, watch who they’re playing against. It’s going to happen- watch the NFL. And these guys are the best in the world. It’s hard to block those guys all the time. So, there’s gonna be some mishaps, but in general, their fight has been tremendous. They’ve been very physical in the run game. In the past game, very solid. I think we had one sack in this game, so not perfect but playing very well in general.”

On misperceptions of a Mark Stoops offense…
“Well, I’m going to say something and it will be the headline (media laughter). You absolutely want what we’re seeing at times right now lately is balance and some excitement in the offense. You have to be able to do that. Otherwise, you drop back and you get wrecked and that doesn’t look pretty, right? That’s not what you want. You have to be capable of it and you have to work towards it. We’ve always tried to have that balance. Again, if we can drop back and throw it 50 times a game and be extremely efficient and be exciting and throw it around then, hey, let’s do it. It’s pretty hard to do for just about everybody.”

On people saying Mark Stoops wants to run the ball every play and handcuffing his offensive coordinator…
“Well – whatever- you could write what you want. Handcuffing him – that’s what everybody wants to say. I’m the head coach. I’m responsible for it all. I can take anything that’s written, it really is but I think it’s fair to say, I’ve made no bones about it since I’ve been here, we need to be physical and I want to be physical. And if we weren’t, I wouldn’t have been here this long. You know what I mean? So, that I know. We want to do all things well.”

On Brad White talking about keeping the (bad) taste in their mouth after the Tennessee game…
“Yeah. definitely because you play so many talented teams. Look at what number 8 did this past Saturday from Auburn (referencing incredible catch from Cam Coleman that sent game to overtime). That’s who we play every week. Like those guys are on every roster. They’re scared. And, you know, you have to play that way. I’ve always said this when I was a coordinator, like going back to being at Arizona playing USC. We’ve traditionally played pretty good against those teams. I think you have to have a sense of fear. And don’t misquote me, like I’m afraid of anything. You think I’m afraid, let’s go to the alley (laughter from media). But, you have to play with a fear that way. Does that make sense? You have to play on edge, and with a fear, with an alertness to you on defense or you will be hurt. And, it happens all the time.”

On the team wanting to win for Coach Stoops…
“Well, I appreciate that, but I want more. I think what he means by that is that he wants to play for all of us and I’m part of that. All of us. I want to win for them, so I appreciate that. We’re all in this together. I’ve always said that. I’ll tell you this, you remember I said it a long time ago in here, they do not have to worry about me. I will not flinch ever and I’ll be fine. And I want to win for them and they want to win for we, us, all of us. And that’s a great mindset.”

On reaching for a bowl game…
“Yeah. I think it’s important. I don’t deny the things that are right in front of you that are true, that are real. It is important, but let’s just win this week and that’s not coach-speak, that’s truth. You keep on stacking good things on top of good things and you know the results will be there.”