Mark Stoops news conference, September 27

Mark Stoops news conference, Sept. 27, 2021

Post-South Carolina, Pre-Florida

Opening statement …

“Excited to get going with the big opportunity here with Florida is coming into our place here this Saturday. We’re looking forward to that challenge. Florida is always an extremely talented football team, very well coached. We will have our hands full. I’m very proud of our players, I thought we did some really good things this past week in a hostile environment (at South Carolina).

“Obviously, I’m sure I’ll get questions about it, there is no excuse — we need to clean up the turnovers, the fumbles in particular. We will work extremely hard on that this week. I believe it is something that we can get corrected, and we will. I really appreciate our kids’ effort, we really had a great week of preparation last week. We’re very excited to play. We played extremely physical, extremely fast in particular on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, very physical. Any time you can run the ball, have that kind of success, good things are going to happen. Anticipated throwing the ball more, the turnovers didn’t help. The success of the run game helped us as well.

“It was time to get back to work yesterday for the coaches. We are preparing for a really talented Florida team. Dan Mullen calling the plays offensively, always is a great playcaller. Very talented players as usual, very physical run game, rushing for over 300 yards a game is extremely impressive. Defensively, (coordinator) Todd Grantham does a wonderful job. I’ve got a lot of respect for Todd and his defensive philosophies and the way they play. A very long, athletic defensive group. All in all, a very good team, it will be a great challenge, really looking forward to having a great home atmosphere here this weekend.”

On his worry of Chris Rodriguez’s fumbles…

“I’m confident Chris that will get it corrected. Any time you let things go to the point where they are right now, there’s a concern and it needs to be addressed. There’s no denying that. I’m not at all at a point where we need to be in a state of panic or anything, but we have to get any habits that we’re creating early in the season, we have to get corrected.”

On fumbles by Josh Ali during the South Carolina game…

“The second one in particular, once he cut it inside, the ball was too loose and he could’ve put two hands on it at that point.  You know you’re going to get a hit by big, physical guys and at that point you have got to cover it up with two hands.”

On Ali getting used to running against big guys…

“There’s been times in the past here when we use to run the tunnel screens, and they’re coming outside in. The receivers are getting the ball up in the middle of traffic. Running backs are used to running it in-between the tackles, but wide receivers, it’s a little different beast when you have these big guys redirecting, coming right at you. In this case, this was just a safety coming up, put his hat right on the ball and made a really good tackle. Once Josh cut it up inside, made a good move, had the first down, he’s got to cover up at that point and take the yards that were given to him.”

Stoops’ keeping confidence in the running backs, despite the fumbles…

“It needs to be addressed, and it will be addressed. There is no excuse but I’m not going to sit here and it’s not going to be the end-all, be-all, it can’t be. There is a lot of good things going on, but it simply cannot happen. We understand that. We’re going to technically talk about it and go through things, and then we’re going to move on.”

On any anticipated updates of the burglary case…

“I hope so. I have no updates at this point in time.”

On Dekel Crowdus returning to practice…

“He’s been working and getting better, but he’s just been with the trainers at this point.”

On Jalen Geiger and his progression…

“I think it was really good for Jalen. He’s the type of player, like most, that just need some reps, it’s a confidence factor. Once he gets playing more and more you see him getting better as the season is going on. I really thought he played, definitely, his best game (at South Carolina), and got some good quality reps this past Saturday and made some really important plays for us. I was happy for him going back to his hometown and really playing well.”

On Octavious Oxendine’s improvements…

“Ox is showing some flashes again. I thought he did a nice job. He redirected, chased the quarterback down on a QB keep. It was a minimal gain.  He’s playing fast, doing some really good things. He needs to continue to stay physical, he’s getting a little light. There’s a time or two when he’s getting reached here and there, like a lot of our guys, but overall, he’s playing extremely hard, giving a great effort and getting better.”

On moving Octavious Oxendine into the starting lineup …

“He brings us a little more juice and little more quickness in there when we’re trying to get some pressure on the passer.”

On his evaluation of Dare Rosenthal this past game…

“Dare was just ok this past week. He got dinged up early and didn’t seem to probably play his best game.”

On Naasir Watkins coming back…

“It is yet to be determined whether Naasir will be back this week or not. At some point he could work his way in, but Jeremy (Flax) will be ready to go.”

On how impressive Florida’s offensive flip, to more running this season, is…

“It is. You look at the talent he had last year with the quarterback, the tight end and the wideouts, and the guys they had, obviously they were a handful, and this year they are a handful in a different way. This is a lot of the identity of Dan (Mullen) and the teams that we faced way back when he was at Mississippi State and with Dak (Prescott), those kind of guys they had. They had quarterbacks that could run and throw, very impressive. It’s really always been that way. I know last year was a little different with the talent he had. In general, it has always started with a physical run game.”

On if any position groups have or have not exceeded expectations…

“I really don’t care to single out any one group one way or the other, to be honest with you. I don’t feel like any of those groups merit a pat on the back. I appreciate them as a group and the same way conversely I don’t feel like I need to call out any group at this point in time.”

On how to extend the success of the offense…

“A lot of it is self-induced, and that we can’t do. I think we got a little off track this past week being backed up. It’s not an excuse but I think one of the possessions we were backed up, we got a couple first downs, created some decent field position, got a punt. Another one when we were backed up we didn’t get a first down, we go three and out and that was I believe from the -3 (UK’s own three-yard line). I think we had one punt early in the second quarter and then we kind of got back on track and then the fumbles jump in. We go the long drive, end up with a field goal, but get really close to scoring a couple times, good drives, get another good drive, and then fumble, fumble. That doesn’t help anybody. That really hurts getting into a routine, the minute you feel like we are starting to maybe, hopefully, wear them down a little bit and get some good drives going, we get turnover, turnover. And that’s going to stall anybody. And the first time we do get good field position, we go early to get the pick. We finally get field position because we stopped them on downs and we throw the pick.”

On the team and DeAndre Square viewing quick changes as opportunities…

“I think we’ve done a good job in general in the past, we prepare and talk about that a lot. It says a lot about those guys in their character and their leadership. They went right back out there and had huge stops. I want to say both of them were stops on downs if I’m not mistaken. Late (in the game) both of them were on downs.  Those are back to turnovers to me. I know it doesn’t show up that way on the stat sheet but to us, that’s a turnover. They went for it three times right around midfield I want to say -44 (yard line), +47 (yard line) and one another around the 45. That’s huge and those are turnovers.”

On if Stoops is surprised by the decision-making… 

“I don’t want to put that out there and make a headline. I can only control what I do, I mean, I was pleased with the result.”

On creating a physical mindset against Florida…

“It’s also more than physicality, toughness is the desire to prepare each and every day, all through the week. So there is a lot more that goes into it than just physically. When we have effective runs a lot of times they are physical and finishing and playing hard and playing through the whistle and the backs are running hard, but it’s also executing and targeting the right guys and doing the right things and being on the same page. When we do that, we are effective. So I think it comes with a great deal of preparation. Of course, it’s a mindset and it’ll be a real challenge because this is one of the most physical teams in the country, there’s no question. I You sit and look at them (Florida) and Alabama going at it, you got to have a lot of respect for those two teams and they played them to an incredible game. You don’t do that unless you’re very well coached and very good in all areas.”

On Kentucky confidence in feeling prepared… 

“I think it always comes that way. I talked about it last week, coming off a game where our expectations for ourselves weren’t met in how we played. You could either put your head down, be defeated and have a defeated mentality or you could go out and gain confidence by the way you prep and the way you play and your attitude, and I felt like our guys responded. Now we just have to continue to do those things and focus on the details of the mistakes and the things that we are doing. I have no problem with our guys’ attitude and their efforts, we need to execute better.”

On Stoops feeling a sense of relief after beating South Carolina…

“I guess you could call it relief, you could probably put a lot of terms on it (laughter). You used that word, I didn’t (laughter). But I think it’s fair to say that there are times in that game when you get a little … you know, that’s why we do this. The end result is what it is, but it’s always fun preparing and overcoming obstacles, you never know what’s going to come at you. We certainly didn’t anticipate fumbling two possessions in a row but we had the ability to overcome it and I felt a great deal of gratitude to our players for responding.”

On winning the past three close games… 

“I love the group and we talked about it a lot last week about really trying to put it together for us. I’m not saying we went into it thinking we were ever going to beat anybody by a lot, that’s not the goal, the goal is to just play your best football. We talked last week about not having those letdowns, whether it’s mentally, physically or whatever, really trying to push and play a complete game. I think you saw that on one side of the ball. Offensively we did some good things, but the turnovers really stopped some momentum. But, we always talk about handling adversity. If you’re going into an SEC road game you can almost guarantee some type of adversity and how are you going to respond to it. I talked about that to our players and obviously we can win close games, we’ve shown that we can do that. I’d sure like to win one by not a one-possession game (laughter). But it is what it is, we prepare the best we can.”

On playing “complementary” football this past Saturday…

“I thought we played much better complementary football this week. You heard me talk a week ago here, that was definitely the worst we’ve ever played for each other (vs. Chattanooga). This week we complemented each other very much. It’s hard to define exactly those moments, but I think you can understand that. When we get a turnover, defense steps up, maybe offense needed it if they’re backed up, just get a couple first downs, punt it, you know what I mean? We flipped the field with a stop on downs, just things of that nature we played much better.”

On how he and the other coaches can help Liam Coen with his game plan Florida, given the staff’s past experience with Todd Grantham…

“Todd – I don’t know – that’s tough. Liam is a very intelligent guy and we’ll watch all that, and (he’ll) have to make his own conclusions. We’ll try to help in a lot of ways, but to Todd’s credit, he really will change things up a lot too, he really does. He does a nice job, and can be — I say this in a complimentary way — can be unpredictable, at times, and does a nice job.”

On his thoughts on past games with Florida and if there’s a way to draw confidence from the fact that UK has been four plays away from beating them 5 times in recent years…

“Because we’re not into moral victories, I think our players know that we can play with anybody, if we play well. That’s the point that we’ve gotten to as a program. But, we still have to do that. We have to have a great week, we have to play well, we have to prepare well, we have to control what we can, and execute at the highest level. Then, maybe you do need a bounce here or a bounce there, sometimes you need the ball to bounce your way. Or, get a call at the end of the game (laughter). I winked at you on that (laughter).”

On Josh Ali letting the ball bounce after a punt and how much of that is left for their (the players’) judgment…

“Exactly, and that one, he was really making a great effort. I thought he saw it off the foot and was trying to get to the ball, and there was traffic in front of him. At that point, it’s hard because our guys are blocking too, they don’t see exactly where it’s at, so there is the opportunity to run into your own defenders. He is protected if he gives a fair catch. But, that’s up to him whether he can get there or not. Of course, we coach that, to get there, and it’s a lot easier when guys aren’t running up on him. But, in that heavy traffic, sometimes it is excusable, and sometimes it’s not. It just depends on the situation, the punt, and what it looks like.”

On teams challenging Carrington Valentine…

“I really like the way he’s got a great competitive nature about him and has really stepped up and played well. He competes and he’s getting better with every opportunity. He realizes in these games, as he plays more and more reps and is in more one-on-one situations, the stronger the base, the technique that he needs to play with, and I think he’s very conscientious and is working at it.”

On the video of DeAndre Square circulating and getting a lot of attention…

“I had no clue about it until maybe late last night or whatever, and so I talked to Tink (Belcher) about it directly, and I’ll talk to DeAndre about it today, but I went down and talked to Tink this morning and Tink was all smiling about it. I wanted to make sure he was okay. He said him and DeAndre were laughing about it after the game and had words. He loves DeAndre, and DeAndre loves him. No hard feelings. I better just stop there because if I try to defend somebody, somebody’s going to roll me over about it (laughter). But, Tink’s message was, ‘that’s a sideline, that’s football.’ He’s been here a long time and that was him, his words.”

On how scheduling might change after the expansion of the SEC…

“I’m not sure. Marc’s back there (Deputy Athletics Director Marc Hill), he can answer that question. I haven’t had time since the announcement with Oklahoma and Texas coming into the league to really sit down and analyze the future scheduling. Marc does a lot of that, so we’ll talk about it and address it.”

On the mindset of Will Levis is now…

“I don’t know. I didn’t sit there and have a conversation with him afterwards. I anticipate him to walk in today like a beast, like he always does, just locked in. He puts a lot of pressure on himself and he’s always amped up. He’s ready to work. So, I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to slow him down. He’s done some good things, he’s done some bad things, but he’s going to get better with every opportunity. He doesn’t strike me as a guy that worries about his confidence.”

On if Will (Levis) has a “quick amnesia thing” after games…

“Yeah, that’s the way I perceive it. I’m not going to sit there and get in his head and I’m sure Liam (Coen) isn’t either. I have all the confidence in the world in him, and I know our team does.”

On how much Florida’s quarterback-run game factors into the run defense…

“It definitely shows up. You’ve heard me talk about it for years; they do a nice job of buying time and scrambling and making people miss. And then they have the designed runs as well, so you add that in there and it could be a handful. It looks like their backup will be healthy. He’s a big, strong, fast, good looking athlete, and can throw the ball exceptionally well, too. So, you know, both good players.”

On Izayah Cummings’ good blocking…

“Very much so, did a great job. Some of those that you saw were basically like a trap (play) where he was coming from the opposite side. You could see him really running and also making some intelligent plays.  The one time he went up inside and kicked out (blocked) for the touchdown, the other time wrapped around all the way outside. It’s hard to simulate all the different looks but really played fast and played hard, played physical, and so did the rest of our tight ends. Brenden (Bates) and Justin (Rigg) did some good things as well.”

Do you feel like you have a target on your back after starting 4-0, including 2-0 in the SEC…

“I don’t know, we don’t look at it like that. I tell our players if they want to play in big games, they have to handle the things that are right in front of them, and that’s what wehave to do. We have to handle today, handle this week and if you want to be in big games you have to take care of business.”

On how Wan’Dale Robinson is doing physically…

“He is available to play. At this point, there are nagging things with people and it’s fair to say he has something nagging him.”

On worrying about Levis and Robinson’s strong connection and Will getting too lasered in on Wan’Dale…

“Not at all. There were times when I wish he was lasered in on him more (laughter). So, no, in this offense there’s the ability to distribute the football. Guys have to do what they are supposed to do. He’s got a very, very high football IQ and he’s got a great competitive nature about him.”

On Wan’Dale being an even better player than people thought…

“I knew he was a good player coming out of high school and you can watch the film from Nebraska and know he was a very good player. I don’t want to use the word ‘surprised.’ I am extremely pleased with him and love his attitude. I love his competitive nature. He is very unselfish. He works very hard. He is all about the team and I love that part of it and yes, by the way, he is very talented. But I love his work ethic and also his instincts. You’ve heard us talk about Lynn (Bowden), about that a lot, and just his football IQ and they are different people, but both of them are intelligent on the field.”

On Will Levis running the ball… 

“I think there was probably a read or two that he could have maybe done something different but the pull that he made, I think it was second-and-long, got us 12 or 15 yards or whatever it was, was a big run; and the critical third down (that he ran for and made). We dressed it up one time and had him at running back and Chris at quarterback and ran the Q-power, with the fake with that, rather than have Will run the Q-power and it was so fast they didn’t even see who was who. That was an effective play, so I think it was a good mix.”

On dialing up deep shots because you don’t want to run it too much into the ground…

“Well, people know. Everybody we play, they’re well-coached and they know off certain splits and certain actions are going to be run or play-action and shots. Knock on wood, we’ve done a good job over the years of cutting off shot plays against people and not letting them create those big plays off certain looks and that’s what they’re going to do as well. Then it comes down to executing some things and getting good spacing in our routes. There were some plays in there where we weren’t precise and did not create the right placing. There were times when they were covering us. There’s a lot of things that go into it. But on the interception (thrown to) Wan’Dale, I felt like we didn’t run a very good route. Opposite of him, Josh could have been cleaner on the dig and probably got the ball. So, those are things we have to get cleaned up.”

On how well the new transfer rule has played out and should UK use it more…

Absolute. Definitely look forward to finding the right people to complement our football team and help our team. I think we did a really good job at finding guys that fit in and came here and are helping us and if that can help us in the future, we’ll do it.”

On how important it is in recruiting to have an in-state player such as Wan’Dale perform well…

“I think it’s very important. Not only from this state but just at that position (wide receiver) and we all understand that. For all the people that used to use that against us in recruiting, I understand that. We going to use a lot of different (information), anything that we can as well. But I think now there’s no stopping us from recruiting talented wide receivers and getting that speed. And even if you may say other people have higher numbers, you can look at what we do and what we want to do and as we get better wide receivers, as we get greater skill and speed, we will open things up even more and more. That comfort level of what we are doing is getting better and better. So, anybody out there that can run 10.3 (seconds in the 100-meter dash), we need you.”