Quick hitters: Three takeaways from Mark Stoops' Monday presser

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- With the season opener just five days away, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops met with the media on Monday for his weekly press conference.

Here are the main takeaways from Stoops’ time with the media.

A storyline throughout the offseason has been the matchup between Shannon Dawson’s offense at Southern Mississippi and Mark Stoops’ defense at Kentucky. Dawson, who coached UK’s offense last season, was fired in December. Stoops said the two haven’t talked since then, but he has no animosity toward the offensive coordinator.

“I have respect for Shannon Dawson or I wouldn’t have hired him,” Stoops said. “We had as good a split as you can have. He was a professional. He handled it the right way. I certainly tried to handle it the very best I could.”

UK defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot has downplayed the notion that he would have an advantage by being familiar with Dawson’s offense, saying Dawson is also familiar with what Eliot likes to do on defense.

According to BigGoldNation.com, the Rivals.com affiliate for Southern Mississippi sports, Dawson had this to say when asked about the matchup with UK.

“I have a little bit of knowledge about them and they have a little bit of knowledge about me,” Dawson said. “It goes both ways. Ultimately, like Coach (Jay) Hopson said, the team that executes the best is going to win it."

Junior college transfer Tate Leavitt was once considered the immediate replacement to Jordan Swindle at left tackle. But after going through spring and fall camp, Leavitt has been unable to crack the two-deep at the position. On the depth chart released Monday, Cole Mosier was listed as the starter at left tackle with true freshman Landon Young as the backup.

With Leavitt still having a redshirt year available, Stoops hopes to utilize it this season.

“We’ll see how that goes that way down the road we’ll know he will be a quality football player,” Stoops said. “It’s quite different stepping in and playing at this level, so we’ll see how he comes along. He’s also a guy that we’ve moved inside and has looked very good inside as well.”

Junior Kyle Meadows is currently listed as the starter at right tackle with sophomore George Asafo-Adjei backing him up. Asafo-Adjei is also listed as the second string right guard behind Ramsey Meyers.

Along with the aforementioned Young, true freshmen Jordan Griffin, Davonte Robinson, punter Grant McKinnis and Kash Daniel are all listed on the two-deep of the depth chart. Stoops said he expects all of those players to play on Saturday, but he named several more first year players who they will have to count on this season. Running back Benny Snell, defensive end T.J. Carter and tight end Justin Rigg were other players who Stoops said he expects to play over the course of the season.

In all, 10 freshmen -- either first-year or redshirt -- were listed on the depth chart. Eli Brown is competing with sophomore Jordan Jones at weakside linebacker and McKinnis is battling with Bryan Kirshe at punter. The others are all listed as backups.