Everything Mark Stoops said after Kentucky’s 30-23 loss to Ole Miss

Everything Mark Stoops said after his Kentucky football team lost 30-23 to No. 20 Ole Miss on Saturday at Kroger Field:

Mark Stoops: You know, going into it, that they are a handful. They are tough to stop. Very explosive. We got off to a great start. Gave ourselves an opportunity and did many good things. But, you know, certainly we all will look at a lot of negatives and a lot of things we need to get fixed and get cleaned up. You know, quite frankly, some of them are inexcusable. You know, it’s on us. I love the fight of this team and I love how hard they play. We need to be competitive in every snap and there are areas where I still need us to improve in that area and there’s other areas where guys were super scrappy and very competitive and made a lot of good plays. It’s early in the year and we have a lot of football ahead of us, that’s a good thing. And I like this team. I like the way they fight and scrap and we will improve.

Q: Mark, can you talk about the organizational issues that you guys had in the first half where you had to burn your timeouts?

Stoops: Yeah, it was really inexcusable to be totally honest with you. There are things where we are trying to get the best personnel we can with certain plays and certain things. You know, we got to be better. We’ve just got to function better. There were issues that we thought we had our communication on the sideline and with the quarterback here and there with the communication device. But there is no excuse for it. Not all of it. That’s on us. Put it all together and it was messy. You know, operationally we have been very smooth. I think we are trying to do too much with matching personnel and changing some people out. We talked about that at halftime. Cleaned that up. That really pissed me off and we had a discussion with the offensive staff and got that rectified.

Q: How much of that... if you would’ve kicked a field goal there you wouldn’t have gone for those fourth downs...

Stoops: Yeah, I agree. In hindsight, a lot of the field goals I would have loved to have gotten three, that was a messy series. And even late the three, you know I can second-guess myself now and I think you all would second-guess me if I kicked it. Neither here nor there. I think analytics would tell me to go for it and I was studying it carefully on the sidelines. Wanted to be aggressive. You know, in hindsight I think the first one now that we didn’t get it, I would’ve liked to have kicked it. You know we had it backed up and got a quick stop and got the ball right back and drove back down and we gave ourselves chances. But yeah, I think the three at the end of the half would have been nice as well.

Q: Zach Calzada?

Stoops: What’s that, Zack? He was hurt; I don’t know the extent but we were in the heat of the moment there. I’m not sure.

Q: Regardless of Zach’s status, do you have to consider a quarterback situation?

Stoops: Certainly, let’s just look at the way it is. He’s banged up. I don’t know to the extent, I would think he would more than likely miss Monday or Tuesday, I would think. But I want to see Cutter and yeah, I want to see him, yes.

Q: Mark, after Ty Bryant’s two interceptions you got the lead 10-0 and had them on fourth and one — they pull a surprise and go for the deep ball; can you just talk about that play?

Stoops: Well, it is disappointing because we worked that play. We worked that exact play. You know, it’s us trying to do too much and you hear me talking about other coaches, just bad eyes and trying to do things you are not responsible for.

Q: Mark, would you like to see the passing game go downfield more than rely on the screens and short passes...?

Stoops: I mean yeah, we always do. You know in the last game we didn’t complete very many but we had five shots down the field and today we had our shots as well. I want to say the first play of the second half we had an opportunity. He took the tight end and got maybe seven yards but I thought we had the post for a big gainer. It was called there, it’s called throughout the game but you don’t always see it.

Q: What did you think about how your defense kept up with Ole Miss’ tempo?

Stoops: I thought we handled that part of it very well. Operationally really well. Operationally we got off to a good start and we were disruptive and changing looks. You know, we were too soft in coverages giving them some easy access throws, you know, there is areas where we need to tighten up there. Not having DJ Waller, who got injured Wednesday in practice, obviously affected us as well.

Q: Seth (McGowan) and Kendrick (Law) seemed to provide some sparks on offense, how can we see them implemented more, touching the ball more?

Stoops: We had some plays and some touches and screens that you mentioned and some other things and Kendrick trying to get touches and going. And Seth, we saw some really explosiveness out of him today. Big play capability and we will continue to work both of those guys and I think it’s a nice combination with Dante as well. I think the run game was effective, again, going into it. You know them, and Pete Golding on the defensive side, the personnel that they have and it’s a tough defense as well. I thought they really played well. It made it difficult for us. We had some success in running the ball. Too many three and outs again and missed opportunities.

Q: You are always striving for balance but do you want about in (the running backs’) hands more particularly after that quarter where Seth really got going?

Stoops: Bush and I talked about it on the headset. It’s a double-edged sword. I just sat there and everybody thinks I control the offense or call plays, which I, zero-zero percent. You know, after it, he and I talked about it — it pisses us both off because in hindsight we should just pound it, pound it, pound it when we got the turnover got the second one and got it to the 14, we both second-guessing afterwards. I don’t say anything because I don’t want to hinder us from improving and being aggressive.

Q: Mark, on the Cutter drive had third and nine at the 29, ran a fake pitch and kept — what was your thought process on that?

Stoops: I can’t remember the play. I’m sure we were just trying to hit a power play, you know a fake play and on third and long sometimes you can hit them with the power in the quarterback run and try to pop one.

Q: Mark, it seemed like the defense played well on a lot of plays, but chunk plays hurt you.

Stoops: For sure. You know that going and playing them that they thrive off of explosives. And I really think we did a really good job for the majority of plays and then you take however many explosives they have and it’s the difference in the game. You know that’s kind of who they are. I think the play that we mentioned on fourth and 1 really ticks us off because we worked it and you can have a man on a man there. We covered the flat perfect and there’s no excuse. We have to cover the two deep balls, you know. We were off and that’s a huge play right there. And very much playable for us. Not to say that a 50-50 ball wouldn’t go their way but we should have a man on a man.

Q: How do you sense your tackling, particularly in the secondary?

Stoops: You know, there’s a lot going on in my head right now. I don’t feel like, you know, I mean I guess if you’re talking the corners, on the perimeter it hasn’t been good and to me they been too soft. It’s a double-edged sword and they get uptight and they did get behind us a couple times. I think the corner position has stood out to me as being below average at times this year both for the first game and second game and our safeties have generally been good. We did lose leverage late in the four-minute drill with some of our guys, and that’s inexcusable as well. You know, there are some things we can easily get fixed, but we lost some leverage late in the game.

Q: There were a couple of times when it felt like the game was getting away from you. You fought back, you got a tie ballgame at the 30-yard line with a chance to do something in the fourth quarter. Are there some big picture positives to take away from that?

Stoops: Absolutely, I definitely think so. We have a lot of moving pieces. A lot of new guys and new people. I like this team and it’s a tough loss. This is a team that everybody predicts to be a playoff team and I have a ton of respect for Landon and his staff and his team. They are very good. We had many opportunities and did a lot of good things. You know, whatever you can get on me for that or whatever, but we have a long season. I want to continue to build this team up and make sure they keep their heads high and just work to get better. There’s things we can all improve on.

Q: Mark, it seems like you have some pieces on the offensive side of the ball. What do you think has been missing with from that unit from the first two to be more consist?

Stoops: I think it’s easy to point out the pass game. You knew that the pass rush was going to improve today and harass Zach and whoever was in there quarterback. You know, they did that. But we still had some time. I felt like the timing of some of that. There were some throws that were there. I feel like our vision has to be better at quarterback and get the ball out of his hands. Because there were some things that were there. Not easy and not like they were going to be contested. But there were some plays where we’ve got to get rid of the ball.

Q: Is that a play calling thing or is that a player?

Stoops: No, because the plays were there. And again, not easy and not wide open or things of that nature. When you drop back and pass you got to throw the ball. And some of it was there. Listen, it’s not easy. Those are big guys coming at them and you don’t know what the vision’s like and what his windows are like. As we are looking at it, because I was interested in that and Bush was looking at that. I was looking at that after in between series, and there were some opportunities there that we got to be more efficient.

Q: Mark, are you a little surprised your guys weren’t able to get more pressure on the quarterback...?

Stoops: It is, but the way they go, a lot of their play passes and a lot of their things — they had the fourth down that we already talked about — but most of their explosives I would imagine is around the first or second down. Just playing them, that’s where they are going to be. Third down we were 3 for 13 success rate. You know what I mean? That’s pretty good against that team. I would imagine those explosives were first and second down. That’s tough, you have to get your feet in the ground and they kind of live off that. You know that going into it we try our best. Being down DJ didn’t help us. Coach White tries protecting in a way, rolling, and that gave up one of the shots on second down with a tight end through the middle. Trying to roll and protect the corner and give up the tight end seam. It’s a weakness in the coverage that we went to. It’s a cat and mouse game and it’s tough. They put you in some binds. Again, I thought our defense did some really good things. They are going to score a lot more than 30 in most of their gains.

Q: Mark, do you think DJ’s injury is long term?

Stoops: I’m not sure. I hope he will be back if not this week certainly after the bye.