VIDEO: Kentucky HC Mark Stoops, Blue-White Spring Game
Kentucky held its annual Blue-White Spring Game on Saturday at Kroger Field to give fans and media a glimpse of the Wildcats on their 13th day of spring practice. Head coach Mark Stoops shared his thoughts on the Cats' progress after the game.
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE
April 13, 2024
Lexington, Kentucky, Mark Stoops
Press Conference
MARK STOOPS: Ok, I hope everybody is doing good andenjoyed the day. Got a beautiful day out there today. So it wasawesome to see some fans in the stands. See the media. Letyou guys see a full day, for the most part, obviously someform of a practice there. You know, it was nice, to get as agame like simulation as we can without taking it totally to theground.
It was good that way. Coaches were in the booth. We are usingthe headset communication. Again, on opposite sidelines justto see the operation, get the calls and execute. We were veryvanilla on both sides of the ball. I think you guys can see whenwe get everybody back, the pieces are in place to have a heckof a football team. And so, that is what is exciting for us. Ithink obviously we are down nine defensive lineman rightnow. Expect six for sure to be ready by camp, close to 100%.Maybe down a few for a month or so at the beginning of theseason. We have good depth there, you know that was one ofour positions where we had great depth and all of a sudden,bam, we get whacked with some injuries. It's always good tohave the big guys and we should get those guys back. Youknow, outside of that, we had a lot of surgeries from last fall.You know, quite a few guys were not participating to beginwith and were very limited this spring.
I'm pleased, I think you can see the operation. I think you cansee offensively some pace. I was glancing – you guys mayhave looked. I always like keeping my eye on it in thatsituation. It seemed to me that the ball was snapped in about20 seconds just about every time or more. You guys may haveanalyzed it better than I had my first glance looking at it. Itlooked like we are getting some plays in and out and guyswere getting the formations and executing. We have someplaymakers, again, with Coach Hamdan. It's always difficultbecause certain things you are doing and certain things youare working on, you don't want to put too much out therethat's going to be totally open via the Internet or filmed forpeople to watch. But I'm pleased.
I think the players have worked really hard. You think abouthow long it is for them. We get these guys up every day around6 o'clock, 6:30 a.m. They are in there grinding. It gets old. Itgets old on them beating up on each other. I thought theypushed through this week very well. We have a couple that wecould follow up on that we will go light and work on ourselvesand work on some things we need to educate them on for thesummer. Possibly even take a look at, you know, futureopponents and things of that nature for two practices that wehave left.
Overall, you know, good day. Productive. I think you can seethe talent from all three of our quarterbacks. I think Cutter isgoing to be frustrated with the way I ended that game rightthere today but getting everybody reloaded and back on. I didn'twant to get a penalty for the defense running on the field there.But Cutter is going to be one heck of a football player.Obviously, you saw Brock and the way he operates. He’s agood football player. It's great to have Beau back. Beau hasmuch improved since when he left here. He's much strongerand bigger and has a greater presence about him and a lot ofconfidence about him. And Brock has had a tremendous spring.Today it was hard for him but you have to look at how muchdepth we have and putting it all together and everything butextremely talented. I think our receiver group is as deep as ithas been since I have been here. We have to continue to buildthe offensive line and get the defensive line healthy. We've gotour work to do. But very excited.
Q You talked about how well the offense executed earlyand how clean it was and last week it was a little softer.How did today kind of stick out?
MARK STOOPS: It was better than last Saturday. That's whatI challenged the guys. I think last Saturday, they knew normalwhat I told you in 12 years normal going to the groundcomplete physical scrimmage last Saturday. The fact weweren't doing that. I don't know if that played into it but wewent on a little lackluster. It gets like that. It gets stagnantduring spring. Like I said they are up early every morning andgrinding them every day and they are competing againstthemselves with no game to look forward to. It gets old fromtime to time but I thought today they were much morefocused. Again, not perfect and lot of things to clean up on butI think the DB's challenged some things and we tried to getthe ball down the field a little bit but the defense kept somethings in front of us.
Q Mark, you mentioned that last play. Jaremiah Anglinflashed several times today.
MARK STOOPS: Yeah. He's really just coming back off injuryand quite a few, you know, when we get it back at full tilt weare pretty deep at that position so he is pretty far down thedepth chart. It's been hard for us because he's been injured. He'sbeen injured a lot and really just getting back out there.
Q How well has everybody that come back and how well thenewcomers are doing?
MARK STOOPS: The newcomers have really picked thingsup really good. That whole class, I'm just very impressed with.From the twins (Jacbo and Jerod Smith) to the B-Rob (Brian Robinson), Cutter (Boley), as I mentioned. (Jason) Patterson.It's just a good group. All of them. We like them. They aregood football players and getting better.
Q Obviously it’s hard to gauge when you are not going tothe ground, but how much can Brock be a weapon?
MARK STOOPS: I think that's definitely a point. You can seehe has that comfort level. If you sprinkle that in four times agame it is aggravating with design runs. And then the abilityto pull it down and get some tough yards, it's always there.We saw it with Will (Levis) when he was fresh and healthyhis junior year what a weapon that could be.
Q The one scramble drill too, he kept his eyes down, Is thatone of those things - scramble drill rep kind of thing youget? When you complement it?
MARK STOOPS: It is. I think he definitely has that presence.I've seen it - I've seen it in games and I've seen it in practice. Heis the type of guy that was very much waiting for that receiverto shut it down. I think with more reps and more work with thatthey will all get better.
Q Mark, In terms of generating some pass, rush of the edge,has anybody stepped up this spring?
MARK STOOPS: Well, I think J.J. (Weaver) has had it againand J.J. has been around a long time and we expect him to. Hedefinitely will give us some pop. All of those guys are gettingbetter. We need to continue to get better.
Q Because of all the injuries you had to adjust todaythrough practice. How much more challenging is it to study video in the of-season and think about what you'regoing to make changes?
MARK STOOPS: No, that’s part of it. Schematically for uswhere we are and where we want to go, that part isn't difficultfor us. I think we can kind of forecast what we are and whatwe can do. We are always working at that. Coaches have a lotof time and love looking at the film and watching new playsand all that stuff. That's never ending for us.
Q On there being no drops or fumbles today …
MARK STOOPS: I think we did pitch and catch and made itlook routine today. Again, it's not a fair assessment for Cutterlate. You know what I mean? He's got guys breathing down hisneck and you know I'm sure all of the quarterbacks would loveto get some reps with the one wide receivers and tight endsand it looks a little different. But yeah, it was relatively clean.Even today was less than normal but when we are practicingour normal practices are pretty physical and even the runningbacks who fumbles are very few on the ground.
Q Brock got thudded to the ground, were there some wordsfor D’Eryk Jackson?
MARK STOOPS: I did not know who that was that hit him or Iprobably would have yelled at him.
Q Mark, do you anticipate adding more in the portal thenext window or are you fairly okay with where you are at?
MARK STOOPS: We will see. There is a lot of things thatfactor into that. We will see where we are at.
Q Mark, do you expect to lose in the portal this next period?
MARK STOOPS: I need to lose a few because I need to get to85. If I want to gain something I gotta lose a few, you knowwhat I mean? All right. Thank you.