Q&A | Stoops says loss was 'tough to swallow'
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops was understandably unhappy with his team's performance in a 27-3 loss at Georgia, but he remained confident that there is no panic in the Wildcats' locker room after four straight losses. You can read a full transcript of his comments below:
Opening statement: “Again, very difficult loss. Tough to swallow. Took a pretty good beating by Georgia, a very good football team that had their backs against the wall and responded much better than we did. Give them credit: they beat us, made it very difficult for us to move the football. As I said over and over, again, we’re certainly not build to win any game on any one side. We need to play good on offense, defense and special teams. Really didn’t play good enough on any side to win. Did some decent things on the defensive side of the ball at times, and we’re doing the very best we can in the kicking game with our kicker struggling kicking the football. So, the coverage units did a decent job, but all in all, again, we’ll look at ourselves, we’ll man up and know that this type of play is not acceptable. We’ll go back to work and do everything we can to go back and get a victory next week.”
On special teams hurting them for a second consecutive week: “Yeah, field-position issues have been major. With the fumbled punt, there’s not a lot I can say about that. Obviously we can’t do it. So, field position has been a major issue. Like I said, guys are grinding. There’s a lot that goes into it, and kickers are a big part of it. When their punter is knocking the heck out of the ball and their kicker is knocking the heck out of the ball that certainly helps your cover units.”
On if Austin MacGinnis is still injured: “He was not 100 percent.”
Post-game analysis | Cats blown out in Georgia
On if there anything in particular Georgia was doing defensively to cause them so much trouble: “I don’t know about anything in particular. They executed and played very hard and covered us. We didn’t – I thought the possessions is what killed us. We were going three-and-out way too much. So, we would get some decent yards on maybe first down – I say decent, but you get four or five yards – and then if you don’t get any on second and we weren’t very good on third-and-medium or third down in general. So when you’re not moving the football it makes it extremely difficult, and then you add in some turnovers and not good. Then the defense, you know we’re just not built to play like that. We can’t keep on going out and sustaining it against anybody, especially a physical football team. To keep on going on the field and thinking that we’re going to get off, it gets difficult.”
On going for it on fourth down in the third quarter: “Yeah. Poor decision. In hindsight, obviously not a good choice by me. You know, certainly wanted to get a spark. I felt like we needed a spark. I could tell possessions were going to be very tough for us, and I went for it there. It didn’t work, and it wasn’t a very smart decision by me.”
On if he has to start thinking about a change at quarterback: “You do got to look at some options. Yeah, you do. You have to. In fairness to the team, I think you have to look at everybody. You know I always say that about all positions. You’ve seen us change the depth chart at a lot of positions all the way through the season on who is playing well, and I think it’s fair to say that we have to look at the quarterback position, yeah.”
On Barker warming up briefly in the first half and if he considered making a switch then: “Not early, no. Not in the first half.”
Game Rewind | Georgia 27, Kentucky 3
On if there is something else going on with Jason Hatcher since he didn’t play until late in the game: “No, he’s still playing. He’s just not getting all the reps. I know last week we talked about him getting more, and he did. It’s just not 100 percent effective. With the ankle, he needs to be at full strength to utilize his skill sets and to be able to rush the passer and be strong enough in the run game. Again, he’s getting closer. He should be darn near 100 percent by this week, but he’s missed valuable reps.”
On penalties hurting: “Yeah, penalties, they’re always a part of the game. So, we’ve got to deal with it and clean up some things and do our part to eliminate them.”
On mistakes hurting them, like on the onside kick and face mask penalty: “Yeah, you’re right. It was already a tough night and then when you do things to put yourself behind the chains -- we had the turnover at the end of the first half with surprise, with the pop up. It was not a called fake. We just mishit the kick a little bit, to be honest with you. We still get it, but we were offsides and that hurt us and then the face mask. Face mask when we’re moving the ball, that didn’t help us.”
On clarifying the onside kick: “I should take credit for that. It would’ve been my only smart thing of the day, huh? Didn’t work anyway.”
On Georgia overcoming distractions and having back against the wall: “I absolutely knew. I know the character of this team. Coach Richt’s been around forever, and that’s a prideful football team. Give me a break. Y’all just gave them a chance to circle the wagons. You know what they’re all about, you know that they were going to play good. And we have to do the same thing. Again, I don’t fault our kids’ effort or attitude or anything at all. Believe me, we’re going to go back to work. The kids will be excited to try to get a victory. Things aren’t easy all the time. You’ve got to put your head down and go to work and grind away. I know our fan base and people are going to get upset with that. I get upset, believe me. I don’t sleep a whole lot, but we’re going to go back to work and we’re going to fight to get better. And I know our team will. It’s going to be a grind again this week, but we’re going to fight our tails off to go try to get No. 5.”
On the players’ only meetings, etc.: “Again, that’s nothing earth shattering there. People just said, -- They just said, ‘Hey, focus. Get your sleep. Do the right things off the field.’ There’s nothing. There’s no panic. Nothing at all. The team has been a joy to coach.”
On if he expects Boom Williams to be back next game: “He has a good chance. He has a chance. Dr. Johnson told me today that he re-evaluated him today and feels like this week, there’s a chance.”
On Wildcat package: “Yeah, last couple of weeks, we’d been working on a few things. Tried to get a few plays out of it. They hit us on the first drive with some of that. Some plays carried over from the Tennessee game and beat us to the punch on that.”
On how much he’s looking at young guys to see which ones can handle the adversity: “Yeah. I think it’s real important. Just looking at the guys and seeing them and seeing the fight in them, I’m encouraged. Our young players -- Derrick Baity out there missed a couple tackles, but that’s growing. Playing out here against mature, physical dudes, that’s how you grow up. There’s no replacing experience, and we’re battling our way through and continuing to bring guys along and hopefully we’ll put it together here real quick.”