Mark Stoops (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops knows that Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia will ad-lib and make “plays off schedule” against UK today because he’s done it every game this season.
“We have to be very organized in our pass rush lanes and be very disciplined, win (matchups), play very hard, play all the way through the whistle, cover guys down the field,” Stoops said.
However, White said Vandy’s offense is about more than Pavia.
“Their offensive line is extremely good as well, and they’re very good across the board. You have to give credit to (offensive coaches) Jerry Kill, Tim Beck, and Pavia, they’ve been together for about four years, so they know the system. They know what they’re doing,” Stoops said. “They can add and tweak it all the time.
“Do quite a bit of formations, a lot of different unbalanced (formations), put a lot of different pressure on you. But it starts and ends with being physical. They are a tough, physical team.”
Stoops felt there were ways the UK defense could have finished better in last week’s win over Tennessee Tech.
“If we finished the plays, we finished the series and gave up less points than we did. There’s a lot of things we could do better, across the board and execution. I appreciate our team’s effort. They’ve been playing well but there’s things we could have done better,” Stoops said.
Kentucky had four first-time defensive starters against Tennessee Tech and might be without up to five defensive starters at Vanderbilt due to injuries.
“(I have a) Lot of confidence in those guys. They played a lot of football for us, so we trust them. Going into it, it starts trickling down to your depth, of course, but good players,” Stoops said. “ I think one guy that stood out, that played a very good game, would be Cam (Dooley). Cam played really well, but again he’s played a lot.
“Cam is a very good player and he’s a guy that’s gotten a lot of reps this year. He was definitely our third safety (entering the season) so we’d consider him almost like a starter. I know with the other two (Jordan Lovett and Ty Bryant) playing very well, maybe didn’t get a ton of reps but when he slid in there, we felt confident and sure enough, he went and performed, played very well. Had a very physical play, caused a fumble, had the interception of course, and was reliable throughout the game.”
This afternoon’s game is sold out, a rarity at Vanderbilt. Many years when UK has played in Nashville it has had more fans than Vandy but not this year with Vandy 8-2 and in position to make the college football playoff if it keeps winning.
“I haven’t been there since the stadium’s been completed. I know they were doing the renovations and everything, and with the program and what (coach) Clark (Lea) has done, it doesn’t surprise me (the game is sold out),” Stoops said.
“So I’m sure it’ll be another great environment, and they’ve worked really hard, invested a lot to make it that way. You could tell this by watching the games, that it is fun and it’s always a challenge, going on the road to an SEC stadium.”
10 Responses
Stoops has good reason to be concerned; we are back to playing better teams now.
That's right Barry. The pillow fights are over.
We have to punch them in the mouth early and often. If we sit back in a zone with no pressure on Pavia he will eat us for lunch. He also is great at realizing weaknesses in the defense and exploiting it. If Pavia played for Georgia or Texas he would be the Heisman front runnner. There is no better QB in college football than we will face off against today. Vanderbilt is on another level than Louisville. Louisville is very beatable. Vanderbilt we will have to play great on offense and defense to beat them. They are going to score points they do on everyone they play. We just have to match there intensity on offense. I think we have a better defense but with 5 starters out it's going to be extremely hard to win this game. The one thing that we have going for us a good defense can easily be gashed up by this offense. If Afari is a game time decision along with Waller I would almost hold them out of this game so they will be near 100% when we play Louisville. We will need a healthy defense against Louisville to beat them. I'm a Kentucky fan so im going to go with my heart. Kentucky 30 Vanderbilt 27. Vanderbilt misses a tying field goal at the end of regulation and Vanderbilt will be playing in the Citrus bowl. I think if they lose to us they will lose also to Tennessee. If they beat us I think that takes them over the top where they also beat Tennessee. Some are saying with a Kentucky win they will clinch a playoff spot because if they lose to a top 25 Tennessee team they won't fall out of the playoff picture. It's either going to be a close game and Kentucky wins or they will throttle us by 14-17 if the defense doesn't step up. We also need to play clean football no turnovers. If we can play turnover free football and cause them to have a couple of turnovers it will flip this game on its head and we will win. Vanderbilt has a terrible pass defense. There rush defense is solid but I think McGowan has a big game. Dowdell will breakaway on a big run too.
Good ole Cashzada! Threw a interception. He threw $20,000 on the ground and got distracted.
Stoops is Diego Pavias Mom's little boy.
The Cats were exposed tonight. I hate it for the players. That said, the defense looked totally out of sync. Guys chasing the wrong receivers or not chasing them at all. The secondary has always been our weak point but tonight, we got exposed plane and simple.
The secondary has been the weak point for years. You’re right, WildWest! Nothing has been done to improve the position coach or the quality of players. It has cost UK MANY games!
The SLOW start after the pre-game talk that puts UK players in a trance was up to par today.
Vandy was kept to a FG the 1st drive because they quit passing after buzzing all the way to the 20 by going 5-5 passing. The DL held them to a FG.
But UK offense was still in a trance as they were in the opening drive and it was quickly game-set-match!
Once again the grear play calling to start the game in the 1st UK series. 4 runs & one pass to a receiver behind the kind of scrimmage were 5 of the 6 play. The one real pass which went forward was for 6 yards. The lack of rhythm & lack of decent play calling had already made its statement that UK will not be in the game today.
Is it time for the AD to hand out some life-time contracts with added incentives to the HC (increase to $15 mil), OC, OC Line coach & Secondary coach ??
Kentucky is firmly entrenched in the bottom third of the SEC. We are not getting our money's worth from Stoops. A Louisville win is a MUST! Then winning a toilet bowl game would take some of the heat off of Stoops. A Louisville loss will make the next 8 months pure hell for Stoops.
I told some people on here last week to get the Cocoa Cocoa Puffs out. This week we need to get the plate out.
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