Stoops Likes That New Players Are Worried About Now and Not Last Year

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Kentucky coach Mark Stoops knew the UK coaching staff had to do a better job of evaluating talent but also the character of transfer portal players as well as high school players after last year’s 4-8 season.

He also knew that the UK coaching staff had to take advantage of the opportunity to work with players this summer to make sure the overall culture of the Kentucky program was better this season than it was last year.

That combination has Stoops feeling a lot better about this year’s team than most others do going into the season.

“I think everybody wants to be better or be the best they can at that, right? I mentioned in here many times, the NFL could come in here and work guys out and meet with them and things we can’t do, you know what I mean, before they draft them, and they make mistakes, right? It happens,” Stoops said.

“So when I say that, again, I don’t say it like that’s the headline. That’s common sense to improve and get better and that you are going to hit on. We’re going to hit some home runs on guys that nobody thought we would hit home runs on. You don’t really talk about that, but the misses are magnified. You don’t want to do it, and bringing guys into the program that maybe are great kids, but maybe can’t play at this level, that’s not good for anybody.

“Certainly you don’t want to bring people in here that don’t meet your standard with your culture and don’t meet their standard with playing. Now you’re really in a bad situation. You don’t want to do that.”

What about this team?

“I think it’s just the proof is in the pudding with them. I think with us starting all the way back to last offseason there was a lot of work to be done, and I feel like they’ve done that, whether it be all the way back to last winter with strength and then you take it to the mat drills or fourth quarter drills and things we do in that, the mentality that they had, the toughness that they showed,” Stoops said.

“Then through the summer and the consistency with what they’ve attacked things have been impressive. The fact that they’ve been darn near absolutely perfect on attendance and also on time is pretty remarkable, pretty consistent for an awful lot of workouts.

“Then with our timeline on grass with them this summer has reinforced that. I think they’ve been very good, very consistent, working very hard. That’s what we need to do. You know, to them they’re pretty resilient. They don’t really listen to a lot of outside noise. They kind of just put their head down and go to work.

“That’s where I said maybe the freshness of 50 new faces that weren’t here that didn’t have the negativity of that last year, that is refreshing. That helps in certain ways. I like that. You know, the heck with what happened last year. I wasn’t part of it. They’re worried about what we’re doing now. That’s fun.”