Here’s what Mark Stoops had to say after Kentucky’s upset victory over Florida
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Game day: Kentucky 20, Florida 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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The Kentucky football team defeated Florida in Lexington for the first time since 1986 on Saturday night, delivering a 20-13 upset victory over the No. 10 Gators.
The Wildcats got an early touchdown from Wan’Dale Robinson and got several big plays from their defense and special teams — including a blocked field goal by Josh Paschal that was returned by freshman Trevin Wallace for a touchdown — and kept Florida out of the end zone on the last possession.
Kentucky played in front of a sellout crowd at Kroger Field, an atmosphere that surely played a part in Florida’s eight false starts. The Gators committed 15 penalties for 115 yards overall, losing to UK despite outgaining them 382-211 on offense.
The Cats will now take a 5-0 record (3-0 in the Southeastern Conference) into next Saturday’s home game against Louisiana State, and UK is tied with Georgia at the top of the SEC standings.
Here’s what Coach Mark Stoops had to say after the victory over Florida:
Opening statement: I’d like to start by saying thank you to the BBN. That’s for you. They really showed up in a big, big way today and had an impact on the game. They affected the football game in a very positive way. I really can’t thank you enough.
I’ve been working hard for a long time to provide that type of team. But that’s what we need it like every week. We could recruit players when our stadium is like that. Our players will play hard and it affects the offense as it did tonight with some of those pre-snap penalties, really a big shout-out to you, really. It definitely affected the game. Playing at Kroger Field was a home-field advantage tonight.
Really happy for our players, our fan base, our coaches. Once again, just a great, great team effort. It was beautiful in so many ways. Just shows the character of this football team and the resiliency they have, the toughness.
Things like that aren’t easy. It hasn’t happened in a while because it’s not easy. Our players just constantly put their head down, the coaches put their head down, take care of things in front of them. I’ve said it for a long time now, this team, just take care of the business in front of us, they don’t need to be anybody other than who they are.
We knew against a team like this we had to play better. We did, as far as taking care of the football to some extent. Defensively, back to back as good of a performance as we’ve had in a long time. A credit to Coach (Brad) White, Jon Sumrall, Frank (Buffano), Chris (Collins), the staff, the players. Played unbelievably hard. Great execution. That’s a tough team to handle. They put a lot of stress on you in a lot of different ways.
Offensively we struggled. I give Florida and Todd Grantham a lot of credit, an excellent defensive coordinator. They really had a nice plan and played very good defensively.
Offensively we will get it going. We will get it clicking. It’s hard. That’s a very good defensive team, but I’m very confident that we’ll continue to get better.
You win games any way you can. As I mentioned, that was a thing of beauty tonight. Looking forward to celebrating the win for a few hours, then punching the clock and getting back to work tomorrow morning.
Q. On not having Marquan (McCall) in the game and how other players filled in for him …
Amazing. I thought the guys that filled in for Marquan played really hard as well. Didn’t seem like they were getting picked on or anything like that. Josh, as I’ve mentioned to you many times in these press conferences, it’s amazing the way he just empties the tank every day. I mean, he just plays exceptionally hard. He’s amazing.
Q. Do you feel like you can put your guard down and celebrate this win?
I thank the people, the crowd, the BBN. But, I mean, for me it’s back to work tomorrow morning. I’ll celebrate it for a couple hours. I got to practice what I preach to the team. You got to take care of the things in front of us. We want to play in a lot of big games. We have a long way to go. I’m very excited, I’m very proud of this group, but, man, we got to go back and punch the clock tomorrow.
Q. Seven or eight shots at the end, I imagine that’s what you imagined, the situations you’d be in, and you still came out on top.
That was a tough hill to climb right there, to stop them seven, eight times. It’s brutally hard. If I’m not mistaken, there was another pre-snap penalty down there that helped us, one or two. Once again, thank you to the fans for affecting the play. I thought Brad and the defense played unbelievably hard. We mixed it up. We went zero a couple plays in a row when we had to. We held up in coverage. We got pressure. We played some zone. We mixed things up. It’s one heck of a stop.
Q. We talked last week about the defense making those big stops after turnovers. It happened again tonight, and returned it for a touchdown. What does that say about the mentality of that group?
I mean, really special. What more can you say? I mean, tonight was special. That was a thing of beauty defensively. I mean, we gave up some yards. Again, that’s hard. You know what I mean? We got to pick our spots. We could do some things better, but overall, just to have that desire, the heart, the guts to stand up and getting seven, eight stops at the end is amazing, especially when we were struggling at that point. Momentum for our offense had turned a little bit. Long drive, three-and-out, that’s tough. We go right back in there and still have the capacity, still have the desire, still have the conditioning to make those stops against Florida seven, eight plays in a row on the goal line. I mean, it’s incredible. It’s a credit to our team.
Q. Question about Jones’ pass breakup on the final play …
Well, he’s played really well. Gives us some maturity in there. He’s made some really athletic plays, tipping the ball, getting the pick, big play. That was him at the end?
Q. There were eight false start penalties on Florida. Have you ever heard this place as loud?
That’s incredible. That’s a fantastic stat. Thanks again. Thank you. That’s pretty awesome (smiling). No, I can’t remember. I’m sure that’s frustrating on their end. But I credit our crowd, a home-field advantage. It was really nice to deliver for the fans because we’ve had things teed up before. I know how it gets, it’s hard, we play in a tough league. To have it teed up, have a sellout, to come and deliver, and play like that, I’m happy, really am.
Q. You talked a lot about knocking down doors. Does this feel any different?
It’s just the next one. I’m sure you’ll tell me about some more (laughter).
Q. Will Levis made one of the biggest plays when he picked up the fumbled snap. What does that tell you about him?
Again, I think he’s just going to get better and better. I think he gets so amped up. We had to boot, then the next play he throws the pick. I thought he was a little amped up, missed a couple throws there. I know he’ll put it together, I really do. He cares too much. He’s very talented. We’re going to get better. I know at times Liam and Will and the offense get frustrated, but we’re going to get there. I’m very confident. They just got to stay the course and keep their head up and stay positive and keep that belief system high because we’re doing the right things.
On the freshman who got the recovery touchdown (Trevin Wallace) …
That’s what we saw. He’s an unbelievable athlete. I mean, he got that ball, there was no stopping him now. He’s a freaky athlete. I mean, he was gone. It didn’t surprise me.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 11:05 PM.
