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What is the morale like for the Kentucky football team after consecutive losses to Vanderbilt and Florida, both games UK was favored to win?
“We’ll be fine. Again, it’s a tough business, it’s a tough league. Our guys understand that they physically got to get healthy, we’ve got to get treatment. We’ve got to balance that, but we’ve got to get prepared to play another really good game,” Stoops said.
So that explained that injuries could be taking a toll on the Cats but it did not exactly answer what the morale is like after the Vandy and Florida losses a few weeks after a home loss to South Carolina, a game where UK was a 17-point favorite.
Kentucky is 3-4 (1-4 SEC) going into Saturday night’s home game with Auburn … and don’t forget UK is 2-10 in its last 12 SEC home games. That’s why Stoops might change the team’s routine Saturday night.
“I tried the last home game to talk about that and address it a little bit. I think I do look at a few things, yes, especially with pre-game, when we get there and things of that nature,” the UK coach said Monday.
Kentucky’s streak of making a bowl game for a ninth straight year is in serious jeopardy, something that has UK fans frustrated considering the preseason expectations for this team.
What message does Stoops have for his critics?
“I’m talking about play calls, go for it or not, those are — I critique myself and things of that nature. The outside noise, I can’t bother myself, zero, with that,” Stoops said. “I have been around here a long time, you can face a bad day and tough times with a good attitude and that’s what I’ll do.”
Stoops said again he does not get involved in play calls, something that many UK fans have worried about. However, he then admitted he did get involved at Florida.
“I’m not opening myself up here. The criticism, fair. But I don’t get involved in play-calling. But they did ask me on the three (yard line), when we had a first and goal on the three, and I absolutely said pound it. Pound the rock,” Stoops said.
“We did, and we scored. Let’s not get cute now. We can be physical. We can run it in here. I told him they had four downs because it was first and goal. So I said, ‘Let’s not outthink this.’ On the others, I didn’t say a word. Call what you want to call.”
So he said “pound the rock” and UK scored but the other time in scoring territory he offered no opinions?
That only seems to lead to more second guessing by fans to me.
8 Responses
Stoops’ comments revealed, to me, that there is morale issue on this team.
Stoops has been here quite a few years and he’s gotten recruits we’ve really never had before..But even with that said it seems we’re slipping back to old Kentucky.. Is it a tough conference ? Yes of course. But it’s not only losing games it’s how we lose them.
I’m not with the team, so I really don’t know what the issues are on the inside; only what it looks like from the outside. Having said that, I just have a gut feeling that Stoops doesn’t really want to be at UK and he has even stated that he doesn’t like having to worry about NIL. Maybe he just needs to go be a DC somewhere and that would take care of those problems. Also, from the outside looking in, it looks like Stoops has lost this team.
Maybe Stoops is one of those coaches that just can’t coach when he has a lot of talent. You see that sometimes in all sports. He has more talent than he has ever had and just doesn’t know how to put it together into a functional unit.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Wow I never thought about that and thats the best assessment I’ve seen about this team. Everyone is right this is the best team on paper. It has to be. We have more talent on this team then 2018 and 2021 when we won 10 games. We actually have double the 4* guys then 2018, and 12 more than 2021. When I really dug into what you said because its brilliant you are exactly right. Look at teams like Florida and Auburn. They get top 10 recruiting classes year in and year out and still can’t put it together with all that talent. They go threw great coach after great coach until they can get it to come together.In Florida’s case they are the new Tennessee and Tennessee finally found the right coach and the right fit. Now you have all that talent and all that money so its even worse. Maybe that’s why the top teams are struggling more this year and you see some weaker teams playing with the so called better teams. I bet egos are huge on every team with nil money. With money comes problems. If you are doing the same job as someone else. They are making a million and your making a couple thousand you don’t think that causes animosity? Brilliant comment I think your exactly right. This years team doesn’t look as close on the field and off the field as usual Mark Stoops teams. Maybe that team concept gets thrown out the window with nil money involved. I know this nil money has certainly upgraded that parity in college football. Anyone can literally beat anyone on any given day. So hold on to your coca colas because I think this is going to be the craziest year in college footballs history.
Old Fan, that post shows that you are more than just a pretty face…very insightful.
Mark Stoops needs to do what Cal did. Hit the restart button on his career. He should go coach the Ohio Bob cats or Toledo or Youngstown state. They play his style and he could probably do good in the mac. We need a up and coming coach. Or a proven coach and nothing in between. Leave big dog with us. Even tho he would probably leave with Stoops. Jon Gruden would be a good coach. There are a couple more coaches that would love to come to kentucky. Would you take Neal Brown over Mark Stoops? It would be switching a good defense for a good offense. I’m but I would tell Stoops to do the right thing like cal did.
I’ve always said Stoops doesn’t call the plays and for some reason everyone thinks he does. Hes just terrible at hiring offensive coordinators. Which wasn’t the case early in his Kentucky career. Neal Brown was a good offensive coordinator we just had worse players back then. Put it like this if Hamden was a good offensive coordinator Missouri would have kept him calling plays. Another thing Boise state absolutely destroyed that conference they were in. Of course he’s going to look like a good play caller. I think he starts panicking during the game when his horrible play calling don’t work. Then Brock gets happy feet and don’t know wether to run the ball or pass it. It seems like he wants to run more than pass. Even the announcers question why her doesn’t see wide open receivers and takes off running. This is why he didn’t start at georgia. We have to stop feeling like we hit the lottery with other teams rejects. There is a reason they aren’t playing. Put that with a terrible offensive line and you have MO PROBLEMS! It sucks but its true.
Wesley Woodyard, former UK linebacker from the great Rich Brooks teams, put out a tweet today that said it is his dream to become the head football coach at UK. He said that he hasn’t forgotten about UK or BBN, and that he has always bled blue and loves UK–said he was getting ready to go work on some things, and that he would see us down the road as the future UK head coach!! That was something I did not expect to see today—but it was a really cool message and was something fun to think about! I have always loved Wes–he was a major player during the best run of the Rich Brooks era–he was on all of the best teams under Brooks. That was a really fun time for UK football–those guys back then didn’t have the benefit of all the facility and program upgrades that have been made at UK in the years after the Brooks and Joker eras that todays players have. Nor did they have the benefits of NIL. But those guys played their guts out and led KY to 4 consecutive bowls during a time when that was much harder to do here. The SEC was much more top-heavy and the mid-level teams were a little better than they are today. Plus, KY’s talent level overall was nothing like it is today–we didn’t have the recruiting pipelines with OH, PA, and the Midwest like we have with Stoops. Plus it was much more difficult for us to get recruits from the backyards of the SEC too—and also no transfer portal. But one thing Rich Brooks did very well here: was recruiting the state of KY, and in particular, the city of Louisville! Brooks swiped numerous players from the backyards of the inner city of Louisville that UofL pursued hard and wanted badly. But it’s amazing now to think back about the fact that the best of UK’s talent, both on offense and defense, were comprised mostly of Kentucky natives. Andre Woodson was from Radcliffe, Keenan Burton from Louisville, Myron Pryor and Corey Peters from Louisville, Marcus McClinton was from Ft Campbell, Jacob Tamme was from Danville, Alfonso Smith was from Louisville—there are many others. Its shocking how much that has changed in 20 years—this state does not put out the kind of talent today that it was putting out back then. I think that’s part of what made the run of 4 consecutive bowls and 4 straight winning seasons under Brooks so much fun and made it mean even more that the heart and soul of the team was comprised of KY guys. Those guys overall may not have been as talented as alot of these guys today, but I tell u, I would put Brooks’ first string offense in 2006 and 2007 against any SEC team today and take my chances with them–those guys threw the ball all over the place and put up mad points. Even in losses, u knew they were still going to put up a lot of points. With that group, it was never really a question of which play calls and which strategies were going to work or not work, or which ones were going to work better against certain teams than other teams—NO–u already knew what the style and the system was, and knew what the personnel was, and u trusted in them to do it–the only question was would they be able to go out and move the ball and score ENOUGH on a particular team to get the W. U knew they were gonna put drives together and score points–it was just a matter of would they be able to get enough of them on the tougher teams, depending on how good the other defense was. More often than not, the best Brooks teams found themselves in shootouts, win or lose, and it came down to our defense needing to get enough stops. The Brooks defenses were not as big or talented as today’s guys, but they played with the same tenacity and blood, sweat, and tears that the offense did–and the one thing Brooks’ defenses were terrific at was creating turnovers. They really had a knack for that, and that proved to be a really crucial thing, because with an offense like we had then, anytime the defense could give those guys a short field to work with due to a turnover was almost guaranteeing a TD, or at the very least, points! When the Brooks offense was at its best, it was like a machine. See wins against LOU, ARK, LSU and down to the wire losses against FLA and TN—I was at all of those games in person and I remember how good that offense was. It was actually an NFL-type offense at the time. That TN game was one of many "should-have-been wins" against them—it ended 52-50 in 4 OT’S—it was just gut-wrenching and sickening. But everybody admired the blood and spirit that those teams played with–they gave everything they had and left it out on that field. All of those games I mentioned there were absolute wars, and they scored a mad number of points against all those teams, win or lose. But the quality of play was phenomenal, and like I said, the SEC was really strong then from the middle half up. LSU still won the natl championship that year even with losing to us and ARK, both games going to triple-OT. ARK had Darren McFadden and was top 20 most of the year, FLA had Tim Tebow, and we hosted Gameday for the game with them the week after the LSU win. I really thought we had a good chance to beat them and wanted it so bad—we only lost it by a TD. That loss and the TN loss that year were both heartbreaking gut-wrenchers, but we all knew we were at least just as good as those teams on paper with the kind of offense we had. Our defense had trouble stopping the really top-level SEC offenses at that time but like I say, they were great at creating turnovers, so that made up for alot of it. They got alot of turnovers that ended up proving game-changing. In 2006, I watched in person as Trevard Lindley picked off a pass by Matthew Stafford with less than a minute left to seal the win over GA—the first jn 10 yrs. And we have only beaten them one other time–and that one came in Brooks’ final season–2009–when we upset both GA and AUB on the road. But in 2006 we upset GA at what will always be to me Commonwealth Stadium and tore the goalposts down (I never call the stadium Kroger Field, sorry I’m old-school, and i think that name for a football stadium is completely and totally lame–yes, i know its all about money now!!!). I was also at the two games in 2007 that the goalposts came down: the triple-OT win over LSU and the upset win over UofL when they were ranked 9th in the country. (Stevie Got Loose) And I was in the end zone that he scored in after catching the bomb that Andre threw to him! That was really a fun time for KY FOOTBALL. and I think thats the source of frustration and anger for UK fans right now over the football program–first off, does ANYBODY on KY’s team look like they’re having any fun? To me, they haven’t looked like theyve been having any fun since Will Levis’ first season, to be totally honest. This year’s team looks to be as if they feel like they’re under just immense pressure–as if they were preparing to have surgery. And then also, I think fans would be more into it and more optimistic about coaching if there looked to be some kind of an identity with these teams–like with Brooks, he knew the kind of system he wanted to run, he recruited the specific kind of talent to execute that kind of system, and together they figured out how to make it work and how to make it work playing in the SEC, and winning in the SEC with it, beating good teams, 4 straight winning seasons, 4 straight bowl games with 3 straight bowl wins. Brooks was on a roll and seemed to be at his peak right when he retired, which I just hated like hell, because I felt like he was just getting started at that point, and could have kept that run going for even longer if he had stayed. IDK, it just seems to me like there is no happiness or positivity or fun of any kind in that fb program like there was back then, but I know college football is totally different now than then, as is the world. I mean, I know they haven’t been winning lately, but I’m just tallking Abt in general, the overall state of the program–they haven’t looked like they have been having much fun from the start of the season. I think Stoops just carries a really negative, very down and depressing vibe around with him, he has a really just dis-spiriting aura about him. And u know, in football, the coach’s persona and spirit plays a large role in the players’ persona and spirit, more so than in bball, I think. Football is just a different game, and a different world. It takes a unique personality and unique guy to handle a head coaching football job. Its one of those jobs not everybody could do. Stoops has never struck me as a personality that could inspire or instill much spirit and confidence in his players–he always looks like he is preparing for surgery too every single game when u see him on TV. He has a real "play not to lose" mentality, sadly enough. IDK if that’s because he came to a program that didn’t have any belief in itself historically as a winner, or if it had to do with the fact that he had never been a head coach before. I do think part of the issues he has had here stem from that. I don’t think he is the best choice in running a major football program. I also don’t think anybody is going to come running to try to get him after this season is over. That ship has sailed. He may realize that too–that A&M deal may haunt him for a long time. I think that and then that NCAA penalty over the vacation of the record from the 2021 season has cast a long shadow over the football program before the season ever got started. I think there is behind-the-scenes turmoil that we don’t know anything about, but I would count on turmoil going on among the team and with Stoops–i would prepare for mass transfers after the season–and God knows what with Stoops. He may have already mailed it in. He may have decided that he is done with it and is planning to hang it up after the season is over. The football program is in a bad place right now. And it has been on a downward slide beginning in 2022—but it took another real HUGE step down last season, I thought, and that has seemed to roll over and continue into this season. I’m afraid it’s going to be a really ugly ride thru this last third of the season—and their last realistic chance to win anymore in the SEC comes SAT with AUB. If they lose, it’s not going to be a shock. To be honest, I will be shocked if they win. But if they lose it, it’s really going to get ugly, and that will just set the stage for more ugliness going into TN, then u have another bye week—and it’s like now I don’t trust Stoops or his teams off of their bye weeks!! IDK what it is that they do on their bye weeks that other teams dont–but they come back off their bye weeks as if that week off made them decide they never want to play the game of football again. I’m afraid by this next bye week if they still haven’t won anything that they will have all packed it in for good, and if they come back and can’t beat Murray St, Stoops should be fired immediately. Let Vince run the show for the last two games against TX and LOU. At this point, Murray St is the only chance I give this team at winning anything, and I guarantee it will be a lousy performance even if it is a win. Wonder if they can score over 20 pts on Murray? I think Bush is going to leave after this season and we will be stuck with again having to find another new OC. But I also think there is a real possibility of Stoops stepping down, and I wish he would. This football program needs a makeover just like both bball programs received.
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