A Closer Look: Is the team still listening?

Is the team still listening or are Mark Stoops' words falling on deaf ears?

We're about to find out. Wednesday's press conference guarantees that.

When the coaches finally start talking about their ongoing struggle to light a spark that becomes a flame, you know there's a problem.

Symptoms of the motivation problem this year:

-- Late-first half mental lapses in coverage resulting in points for Southern Miss and New Mexico State.

-- A lackluster second-half defensive performance against Southern Miss (although lack of quality depth was clearly an issue here as well).

-- That forgettable game in Gainesville, when it seemed no more than a small handful of players on the team were interested in competing.

-- Finally, and the most telling example of all: The coaches themselves, in an angry, frustrated and bewildered tone, calling out the defense following Wednesday's practice.

Who is responsible?

Maybe that question doesn't need to be answered.

What's the problem?

Looking to the coaches for answers now is an exercise in futility. They don't know the root cause of the problem. They don't know the solution.

Consider this series of quotes from Wednesday.

"So we’re just immature."

"I don’t know why we just can’t lock in and go to work every day."

"...We lost a lot of leaders from last year and a lot of those guys from last year were very serious and very disciplined. Our group this year, we don’t have as many guys like that."

That's from D.J. Eliot alone.

Mark Stoops struck the same tone -- which was depressing on the surface, in an attempt to be anything but.

"...we absolutely regressed today, and that's our problem. That's our problem."

"So until we grow up and get a mentality about us and have some guys step up and get tougher, then we're gonna look like the same bunch of crap."

"Some guys need to grow up in a hurry."

"We have no idea what it takes to have concentration, from the beginning of the week through the end and through a whole game and so on. You get the picture?"

"We're not real tough, we're not real smart and we've got a long way to go."

"I’m not pleased. I’m just, you know, it’s frustrating. We try to teach, try to coach, try to educate, and sometimes all that don’t work. The truth is the truth. If we’re so fragile we can’t handle the truth, we’re not going to win many games."

If coaches are making those comments in August at the start of fall camp that's one thing. There would still be time to fix things. Then, those quotes could be a sign of a hopeful staff trying to light a fire.

If Kentucky beats South Carolina then this will be much ado about nothing ... for a little while. But in a coach's fourth year, going into his team's fourth game, none of that looks or sounds very good.

An inspired performance against the Gamecocks will be proof, on at least some level, that the players are still listening. If Kentucky comes out flat, fails to respond or turns in anything less than their best effort of the season, then the only reasonable conclusion might be that there really is no solution, and Stoops does not have control.

He's taken control of the defense, for all practical purposes, and we know that from his admission that Eliot will give input. It won't be Stoops giving input to Eliot, but rather, Eliot giving input to Stoops. But does that mean he's really in control?