Vicky Graff Photo
It happens to almost every major college coach during spring football practice. At some point, the coach just loses his cool and makes sure his players know he’s upset.
Part of it is because for every good thing that happens on either offense or defense, it means something not so good happened on offense or defense also.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops hit his breaking point Saturday and did not mince words about his frustration to clearly send a message to his team that the next few weeks of practice needs to dramatically improve.
Stoops said he didn’t have a “lot to say” to open his media time after practice and then did say a lot.
“I’m a little frustrated, a little disappointed, a little pissed to be totally honest with you. It’s been lackluster the past couple of days,” Stoops said.”
Stoops admitted Friday’s Pro Day was a “great day for Kentucky football” with every NFL team at UK’s practice facility to watch quarterback Will Levis and other UK players work out. However, he’s afraid his current players might not understand the effort it takes to be in position to have a Pro Day workout with a lot of NFL personnel watching.
“Guys right now, I don’t know if they think they can just roll out of bed and be good or whatever. But it’s not the same. We need to get back and play the way our brand was made and that’s by being tough and being physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage, being able to run the football,” Stoops said.
“I just feel like we got a bunch of guys that are entitled and don’t work extremely hard. They think it’s going to happen and are waiting for the next guy to make it happen. I’m not real pleased.”
Stoops was not buying there being any reason for the lackluster practices.
“No excuse. Bullshit, whatever it is,” the UK coach said.
Want more?
“We got no leaders right now,” Stoops said. “I’m not going to single out anybody right now while I’m pissed because I don’t want everybody to read between the lines like it’s just them. It’s the whole group.”
3 Responses
They must be watching the basketball team.
We seemed to have a lot of players that thought they just had to show up. Thought they could just turn it on when they wanted.
Hard to win college games when your coaching for the NBA.
Look at the final 4 this year. Wonder how many lottery picks and first rounders their are on those 4 teams. How many are freshman or sophomores. I would be willing to bet there have been years Cal has had more one 1 team than all 4 teams combined.
Basketball is for teams, not individuals. Players first coaches seem to have a harder time with getting the idea of team to permeate individuals. You can be a players coach, and still put team first. I think Cal has lost that view.
I’m not surprised about the entitlement statement by Stoops. You throw money at an 18 year old and suddenly he thinks is the King of the Hill. Every father has seen some form of this problem from his own children at one point or another. Kids at this age can’t seen past their noses for the most part. Call it maturity or whatever but it takes time for most kids to see the light at the end of the tunnel and what they see may pretty dark. It reminds me of a joke my father told me when I was a kid. "Three kids were looking through a railroad tunnel. One kid said there was a small light in the middle of the darkness; Another kid said it was a man with a flashlight; and yet the third kid said it was a small orb that was getting bigger and would soon fill the blackness with light. In the train at the other end of the tunnel, the only thing the engineer could see was three stupid kids getting ready to die.".