Mark Stoops (UK Athletics Photo)
One given during Mark Stoops’ tenure at Kentucky has been that his team has never been overly impressive in the season-opening game.
Well, that and the fact that Stoops likely will never have a quarterback pass for 3,000 or more yards and 30 or more touchdowns in a single season.
Stoops does have one interesting idea on how to fix the first-game issue, not only for Kentucky but also for other teams. He suggested on his weekly radio show on Monday that it is time to let college football teams play an exhibition/scrimmage game before the season starts.
Kentucky has always struggled to win its opener, but four top-10 teams also struggled in their opening games and all lost. Stoops noted that coaches normally agree that teams make the biggest jump from game one to game two, so why not let the teams get a taste of competition before the first official game, like the NFL, NBA, and even college basketball do?
“Sometimes you try too hard to press too much, you play with dirty eyes, you name it. You just kind of get that game under your belt, you settle in and try to play and execute better,” Stoops said about week one games.
Kentucky beat Toledo 24-16 last week. The defense was superb most of the game, and the running game cranked up in the second. However, the passing game was anemic at best.
College football teams will hold intrasquad scrimmages in the preseason, but then often hold out players to avoid injuries. Stoops would be in favor of an exhibition/scrimmage game either in the spring or preseason, or maybe just a live practice with another team, like NFL teams do.
“We might be one of the only sports that don’t get to play any other people except our own all spring, all summer, all through camp. It’s exhausting playing your own people over and over again. You’d like to have some practice opportunities with some other teams because we don’t have any practice games or any of that,” Stoops said.
What’s odd here is that the NCAA allows Division II and Division III teams to do that. Division III Centre College in Danville has a scrimmage game before the season opens. Centre also goes on an overseas trip every three or four years and plays against a European team on the early summer trip to prepare for the next season.
While it would seem easy to make this a money-making event for schools, respect Stoops for not wanting to make it about the money.
“I’d just like to give us the opportunity. Even if it’s not trying to make money off it, because the minute you say that you’re scrimmaging somebody, everybody’s gonna try to make money off it and charge and all that,” Stoops said on his radio show.
“I’d like to just practice against some other people. I have a great relationship with Walt (Wells at Eastern Kentucky). I’m sure we could get together and just practice with EKU. Even if it’s just one-on-ones, half-line, seven-on-seven, just things of that nature. I think it would help.”
With the NCAA ready to expand the college basketball season as well as expand the college football playoffs, why not a spring or preseason exhibition game or scrimmage for the nation’s best teams?
8 Responses
Not being ready for opening day is not an institutional problem, it is a personal problem that has plagued Stoops' UK teams since the beginning.
Little Baron has pointed this out to me privately and in this pages for years, since Stoops' 2 or 3rd season at UK.
The answer is knowing how to motivate players to play hard on every down. This has not happened in first games, and frankly, that problem has lingered through the course of most seasons.
Stoops is the problem, not the schedule.
The Professor is right, but even if Stoops is gone, the next coach will not need or want to have an exhibition game. There is a much greater chance of losing a player or players to a season ending injury in the game of football. Any football team is chomping at the bit to play that first game. If they aren't ready to play from an X and O standpoint, that falls squarely on the coaching staff with the head coach being ultimately responsible. Maybe Stoops needs to file a petition to let his teams start practicing in January since they won't be playing in a major bowl game.
"… why not a spring or preseason exhibition game or scrimmage for the nation’s best teams."
Well, Stoops need not worry about getting a preseason game then because UK is NOT among "the nation's best teams"
I agree with Barry about the risk with playing any game.
What is the upside of an exhibition game? No coach is going to show everything he has if the game means nothing. If you are just prepping a cock-fight, there are other ways of getting that done without risking an injury.
I can see it now. Stoops would go into an exhibition game and every starter would play most all the minutes. Only one QB would see the field.
Stoops would then claim his starters needed the reps and then the complaining about backups not being game ready would begin.
Surely not Old Fan
I would hope not, but He hasn't shown any desire to develop a QB.
Stoops refusal to rotate players in and out makes him look STOOPID! A rotation would keep fresh legs in the game, develop a higher team skill level, and develop depth in case of injuries. What coach in the SEC would not want that? A STOOPID ONE!