Mark Stoops on Vanderbilt Third Down Efficiency, Defense and More

Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt Saturday night hoping to slow down the Commodores after their stunning upset win over then No. 1 Alabama last week.

Kentucky is coming off a bye week following its own road upset of then No. 6 Ole Miss.

Here are some observations UK coach Mark Stoops offered on the Commodores:

On the expectation of a physical game Saturday …

“Without a doubt.  You saw creativity in their offense, and you saw physicality, and obviously tremendous efficiency from their quarterback position. You put those things together and it’s hard to defend, no matter who they’re playing against. So, I think it’s important for us to match them physically but also be very sharp in our assignments and very disciplined in what we’re doing.”

On Vanderbilt going 15 of 20 on third and fourth downs against Alabama and the importance of winning those downs …

Stoops: “I think it’s important as a team. With the way we are, methodical as well, with possessions and the way we drive on offense and the way they do it. Obviously, we’re both searching for explosive plays off of that, off of what we do we’re looking for explosive plays, but it definitely can be a short game, and that makes the margin for error shrink. So, it’s important for defenses to get off the field, of course. And points are going to be a premium, and obviously, in a game like this, turnovers are going to be hugely important, got to make sure we protect the football and try to create a turnover. It’s going to be hard for a quarterback that hasn’t thrown a pick all year, so he’s obviously playing at a very, very high level.”

On the Vanderbilt tight end productivity …

Stoops: “Yeah, (Eli) Stowers, number nine, he’s a guy that, he’s a very good player. He’s very mobile, he does a lot of good things, not only in the pass game, but he’s critical to their offense and the efficiency that they have. With some of their counters and wraps, and the way he pulls, and will also insert, and just does a lot of things. Very good player, just a good complete player.”

On Vanderbilt’s defense…

Stoops: “Well, you know with Clark (Lea) taking over, you see a very well-coached defense, in particular can give you a lot of problems if you get in third and long situations. I think it’s really important for us to stay ahead of the chains, make sure we get into third and manageable. He’s very creative and can do some damage on third and long, but just very fundamentally sound as you would anticipate with him, and their team in general plays extremely hard. They had some adversity early in the year, and had a couple tough losses, but have responded and that’s what you expect from a good football team that’s very well coached. Clark has done that and they play really hard and very fundamentally sound.”

On if the loss to Vanderbilt two years ago in Lexington is a motivator for this game …

Stoops: “I get asked that question about every week as well, one way or another, whether we beat somebody or lost to somebody. It shouldn’t have any bearing on this (game). Our players should be motivated no matter what happened two years ago or what happened last year. We should be motivated to handle our business throughout the week, to put ourselves in a position to play well Saturday.”