Q&A: Mark Stoops breaks down Kentucky’s 45-42 loss to Tennessee. ‘No excuses.’
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Game day: Tennessee 45, No. 18 Kentucky 42
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Tennessee football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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It was a back-and-forth Saturday night at Kroger Field, with Kentucky and Tennessee trading big plays on offense and putting up little resistance on defense, a game that ended with a 45-42 victory for the Volunteers.
UK dropped to 6-3 on the season (4-3 in the SEC) and will face the struggling Vanderbilt Commodores next.
Kentucky quarterback Will Levis threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns, adding two rushing touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough for the Wildcats, whose defense surrendered 9.8 yards per play and two touchdowns of more than 70 yards in the game’s opening minutes.
Afterward, UK Coach Mark Stoops talked to reporters about the loss. Here’s everything Stoops had to say:
Opening statement: “OK. Absolutely incredible football game. Extremely disappointed for our players and our fans. Very difficult loss. Not sure I’ve been a part of one quite like that where we’re so good in so many ways and absolutely not good enough in so many different ways as well. So a lot of great things to build on offensively. Haven’t had production like that for some time. And it was so good to see. Defensively, obviously, we have some struggles. And we’ve got to get some things fixed. We are being put on an island on certain situations that we’re not winning enough. We’re not winning enough battles. You heard me talk about that for years. And a team like that puts an awful lot of stress on you sideline to sideline and then obviously with the vertical passing game. And we didn’t keep up with them. We didn’t tackle very good in space. And we didn’t cover very good.
“What I did like about our team as compared to last week when we traded jabs or shots or whatever you want to call it, when we took a punch, I loved the fact that our team responded and came right back. And defensively did come up with some stops. That gave us a chance. And we came up a few yards short again. Probably — I don’t know, maybe 10 yards for a field goal there. And give them credit, they are playing at an extremely high level in particular on the offensive side and had some tough matchups for us. And we’ve got to play better.”
Q. Mark, what happened — I mean, the secondary wasn’t giving up yards like this early in the season. I know you had injuries on defense but what exactly is ...
“I think it’s a variety of things. I think with some of the defensive linemen going down and being thin and inexperience. Again, no excuses. I mean, we will coach better and they’ll play better. As I told the team, we’ve been a part of so many games where we’ve played so good on one side of the ball, maybe defensively and just come up a little bit short on the other side. We’re a team. And we’ll stick together. So they’re all big boys. And we can all handle the criticism and, you know, the things that come with it. But there are injuries. There is some inexperience. Right now — (no microphone) — I mean, a boatload. And we’ve got to bring these guys along.”
End of the first half, can you just walk us through some of the decision making there?
“Yeah. I wish I’d have punted it. Huh? You know, that’s why I punt normally. But I didn’t. But I thought we’d convert. And I thought it was calculated, again, the way we were not playing great defense, trying to be aggressive, trying to get some points there at the end of the first half. At the worst-case scenario, I wanted to go in 21-21 because we were getting the ball to start the second half, and we’d been moving the ball very effective. And bad decision.”
Question about the missed face-mask call in that last drive and then the penalty against you.
“Number one, I don’t want to say anything about the missed call or any call, whether it was a missed call or not. But for myself, that’s still no excuse. I can’t do that. I can’t put that on our team in that situation. Thank God they bailed me out because we wouldn’t even have ran that play had we not been in that situation. That was only for desperation that type of play. So we got that back and got back to first down. Had our opportunity from there. So I appreciate the team bailing me out on that. But I can’t do that. And as far as, you know, the call or not call, things are going to happen. We have to overcome it and deal with it. I’m not going to sit here and give any headlines.”
Q. You mentioned the 10 yards there maybe for the field goal. You had the two timeouts. Didn’t hand the ball to Chris (Rodriguez).
“Fair criticism. We thought about that afterward. We talked about it. Once we — if we were converting, you know, if we converted that third or fourth, we were going to go to — we talked about trying to split a run there. Would have, could have, should have. Called a really good game and offensively played really well in a lot of ways.”
Q. A lot of crazy stats in the box score. 99 plays, 600 yards. What was the first thing ...
“Yeah. That. I think it was obvious, you know, during the game, time of possession was kind of meaningless because we weren’t getting stops. And then when we did get a stop or two, we just — we’ve got to be good enough to go down and score right there at the end. And we were close. We were close. We were really, really close to getting it — finishing it off. And I love the way our team fought back on those.”
Q. (Izayah) Cummings had some big catches including at fourth-and-long. What do you think this does for his development?
“I’d hope for all — the entire offense that it continues to grow and have confidence from this and just a really good game. I mean, Will (Levis) threw some exceptional passes. Guys were making competitive catches. And we had — we had them off balance, which is what you’re looking for, that balance we’ve been talking about and being able to run, being physical in the run game, then throwing the ball. And so there’s a lot of good things, a lot to build on and keep on working at.”
Q. How much of the defensive struggles were caused by Tennessee’s tempo?
“I think it’s definitely a factor. With that, the way they go so fast that there’s — it’s extremely difficult to get any type of different style, different calls in. And it goes so fast that, you know, you’ve really got to be lined up, locked in, and getting the calls, and then executing them. But then you have to win. You have to win. Because they have good balance as well. They’re going to run it and run it effectively, but then put you in those one-on-one situations outside. And, again, I knew they were going to hit some, but we have to win some more. We have to win our fair share of one-on-ones.”
Q. In the run game, if they made it past just the first line, there wasn’t anybody for 20 yards. Can you just describe that phenomenon?
“A lot of it is because of those splits that they have, if you see how wide they are. So I think that’s a big piece of it is they stretch out, you know, both ways. And there’s a lot of room in there. It’s like Will did it a time or two to them today. And it’s even, I guess, more exaggerated against that style. That make sense? You’re all cleared out and you cover the shots, got you covered. And then you split them and there is some room in there, the quarterback. And when you have a quarterback run game or just him making plays with his legs, it’s tough.”
Q. This venue has treated you guys well. Obviously, this year, another great crowd here tonight. What is it about this game against Tennessee that seems to kind of deliver these big moments?
“We were trying to really deliver for them and have a great win from a great game. It really was a great game. And won’t feel like that to me, especially defensively. But we came up short. And, again, you have to give them credit. We have to play better and do some things better.”
Q. I know you like Will’s competitiveness, but do you get concerned with him going to the air so many times, jumping and kind of leaving himself vulnerable?
“I think he has a pretty good feel for that and is fairly calculated. I mean, it’s a physical game. I appreciate the way he lays it on the line for his team. And he really did some impressive things today with his legs and his arm.”
Q. What took him so long to get out of halftime?
“There was a little issue he was dealing with, injury. And so he was able to come out.”
Q. Mentioned how difficult it was to work against the simulated tempo. What ultimately was the difference when you got out there? Was it the one-on-one battles you just couldn’t win?
“Well, as I think I mentioned, it’s really impossible to simulate their offense. I mean, they do that all day, all the time and do it at a high level. So when you have scout guys looking at cards trying to run that tempo, it’s completely impossible to simulate that. We did go good against good, as I mentioned, to stress the urgency of getting lined up and just getting calls and the communication part of it. But it’s a different style. We’re competing against our offense, which we’re very familiar with, compared to somebody that you just see once a year. So, yeah, I think the tempo is definitely a challenge. And I think the one-on-one matchups were a challenge. We missed tackles.
“The first play of the game was just a simple bubble screen, but it’s so wide out there, you got one guy completely free. We’ve just got to make a tackle. You know, we’ve got to — again, certain teams, certain matchups, certain things are harder. I’ve got to bring these young guys along in the secondary. We’ve got to recruit. We’ve got to bring some guys in that can help us, too.”
Q. You told us not to worry about Chris. He rebounded nicely.
“Yeah. Exactly. And the same with Will. There’s going to be ups and downs. So it’s tough. Look around our league and we’re competing. We’re fighting. Like a lot of people. It’s tough. And those guys are really good players. And we have a lot of confidence in them. And Chris bounced back and had a great game and had some very physical runs in there and same with Will.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 12:46 AM.
