Vicky Graff Photo
The Kentucky football team had its first practice of the spring on Tuesday morning. UK head coach Mark Stoops thought that the practice, in which the Cats wore no pads, was a solid start to the 15-practice spring period.
“Our players have worked really hard through the winter,” Stoops said. “Our strength and conditioning coaches have done a great job of preparing our players.”
Stoops likes the mix of experienced players and talented newcomers that he has on the 2024 roster.
“I’m just excited. Really excited about this year,” Stoops said. “I feel like we have a really good nucleus of players – players that have been here with good experience and understand our culture and what we expect. I think we have a lot of good additions.”
Those new additions stretch to the coaching staff, where new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and offensive line coach Eric Wolford have joined the staff in recent months.
With a new offensive coordinator comes the installation of the new offense and any wrinkles that the coach, Hamdan in this case, likes to employ. How did the Cats handle it on the first day?
“The first day, today, I was very impressed,” Stoops said. “There were obviously some mistakes, some areas where we have a lot of practices to clean up. But overall, procedure, alignments, motions, plays, I really like what we’re doing. I really feel good about Bush and the creativity that he has and the experience that he has and the knowledge. Overall, first day went very well.”
One thing that Stoops hopes to address is the pace at which the Cats run their offense. Last season, UK was among the more deliberate teams in that area but Stoops knows that being able to play at a faster pace could be important.
“I feel really good about the tempo,” Stoops said. “Just the way we’re getting plays off quicker. Getting through practice, ripping through a lot of plays in the same amount of time. Things are going well, off to a good start.”
The one thing that Stoops believes, as he always has, is that an offense must be balanced between the running and passing games. That will not change with Hamdan in charge of the offense.
“I think it’s important to keep that balance,” Stoops said. “It starts with being physical and being able to run the ball.”
Kentucky returns 10 starters on defense, a side of the ball that should be a strong unit for the Cats in 2024.
“Defensively, a good mix of players who have played a lot of football for us,” Stoops said. “We need that experience. And we have some good newcomers.”
6 Responses
I’m so excited about this football team. I think overall this is the deepest team that stops has had here at kentucky. We almost have too many wespons. Will there be enough playing time for the boatload of defensive lineman? We will dominate the trenches this year. I just hope our skill players took the time to get better. If Barion Brown improves on catching the football and big Tray shows out at running back I think this easily Stoops best team. We have more talent than we’ve ever had. I think we have over 40 players that had at least one 4* star rating and a couple players that had a 5 star rating. I used to get excited when we had three 4* players. Now our defense is full of 4* and our offense is full of 4* players. This has never happened. I think last year and the year before we had over 25 4* players. Every year we add to that total. I think we are also good if Brock happens to get hurt. Beau Allen is capable of leading the offense now that he is older and wiser. I think he will be the backup. I think cutter redshirts and next year if Brock comes back he will run some sets as a redshift freshman. Then start the following year. I’m super excited about our QB room. Stone Saunders will push cutter to be even better. The thing I will be looking at is improvement from the running back room and the wide receiver and tight end room. I think we have dynamic playmakers at every position for the first time ever. Brock was a 5* Silver was a 5* Barion Brown was a 5* in some services and Dumas Johnson was 5* in some services. That’s 2 on defense and 2 on offense. All these players should start respectfully at their position. I’m calling for 9 wins this year and possibly 10. I think Georgia won’t be as good this year as they have been. We will have a shoot out with ole miss. I think we knock Tennessee off this year and I think we upset Texas. If we can clean up our home schedule and win at Texas and Tennessee we will win 10 games but I think we will probably win a game or 2 that we are not picked to win. Think about it. We will be improved on offense and defense. Our offense should be able to put alot of points on the board and our defense should hold opponents at a all time low. Fan Duel has over and under on 6.5 wins. That will easily be over. I see 8 wins if the season goes bad for us. I see 9 wins if we operate about how I think we will operate and I see 10 wins if we win a couple games we shouldn’t win but we are good enough to win. Im calling for us to finish 3rdin the SEC standings and possibly second. I’m very excited about football. Our defensive line and linebackers will be absolutely incredible this year. We will lose alot of players on defense this year so this year we need to make things happen. I call for Weaver to have the year we all envisioned him having last year. Deone Walker will be All American. I also think dyerick Jackson will win some hardware as well. Then you have Dumas Johnson who should be 100% by summer practice. He’s absolute beast and he was the hardest worker behind the scenes at Georgia so what does that tell you? I think we have a top 5 defense this year and we should have a top 20 offense. So overall we should be unstoppable.
I hope you’re right. The better athletes are major.
Was @ UK when we lost to Houston 0-56 at Homecoming. I watched Tim Couch throw SEVEN TD’s under one of the greatest offensive minds when Hal Mummie raised UK FB into the Outback Bowl!
Been a Stoops fan since day 1, and he peaked in 2021 with his 2nd 10-win season (1/2 of UK’s 10-win seasons in history!).
Stoops now needs to get back on track to when Coen led UK to the 2nd 10-win season under Stoops – that’s 1/2 of all the 10-win seasons in UK FB history! Stop controlling the OC & UK can get back to being a contender in SEC. If not, middle of the pack is the top & the UK peak (the 2 @ 10 wins) by Stoops is history.
I hope you’re right. The better athletes are major.
I was @ UK when Houston embarrassed us 0 l- 56 @ Homecoming
I was in the 3rd row near the 20 yard line at Commonwealth Stadium (sold by the fraud’s money minion AD to Kroger) when Tim Couch threw an SEC record SEVEN TD’s under one of the greatest offensive minds when Hal Mummie raised UK FB into the Outback Bowl!
Been a Stoops fan since day 1, and he peaked in 2021 with his 2nd 10-win season (1/2 of UK’s 10-win seasons in history!).
Stoops now needs to get back on track to when Coen led UK to a 10-win season!
Stop controlling the UK OC & we can get back as contender in SEC. If not, middle of the pack is the top & the UK peak by Stoops is history.
I hope you’re right. The better athletes are major.
I was @ UK when Houston embarrassed us 0 l- 56 @ Homecoming
I was in the 3rd row near the 20 yard line at Commonwealth Stadium (sold by the fraud’s money minion AD to Kroger) when Tim Couch threw an SEC record SEVEN TD’s under one of the greatest offensive minds when Hal Mummie raised UK FB into the Outback Bowl!
Been a Stoops fan since day 1, and he peaked in 2021 with his 2nd 10-win season (1/2 of UK’s 10-win seasons in history!).
Stoops now needs to get back on track to when Coen led UK.
Stop controlling the UK OC & we can get back as contender in SEC. If not, middle of the pack is the top & the UK peak by Stoops is history.
To early to get overly excited. I have been watching UK Football for many, many years and I refuse to get excited this early in the season. It’s easy to look good on paper. It’s easy for an offense to look good against a bad defense in practice and vice-versa. The true test will be on the field against good competition. I enjoy UK Football every bit as much as I enjoy UK Basketball, but I keep myself in a wait-and-see mentality for both.
I am looking forward to this upcoming season, because I too, think it could end up being special.
As for Stoops saying UK needs to be able to run the ball, that is true. The only thing I have to say to him about that is that passing the ball effectively can open up the run game just as much as running the ball effectively opens up the passing game. They both work best when they work together.
Ditto… you nailed it…
“passing the ball effectively can open up the run game just as much as running the ball effectively opens up the passing game. They both work best when they work together.”
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