‘It’s not acceptable.’ What Mark Stoops said after UK football’s loss to Tennessee

Everything Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops said after the Wildcats’ 56-34 loss to Tennessee on Saturday at Kroger Field:

Mark Stoops

Very difficult loss, very tough loss. They really took it to us. We had not a lot of answers. Tough matchup for us right now, and give them credit. They are extremely explosive. Very, very talented and not a strength of ours right now with the injuries and the position we’re in, but no excuses. They are very good, and they took it to us and we didn’t have answers. It’s tough. They put you in binds. They can run the ball; they can throw it; and the way they spread you out, they put you in one-on-one situations, and you have to be able to cover them. And we simply did not cover them today. I was pleased with the offense. Obviously we cannot turn the ball over and give them 14 points to a team that already scores at a high rate and (is) as explosive as they are. We cannot have the turnovers. But I was very pleased with the way Cutter (Boley) played, and with the way he’s playing, it’s making the receivers better. You saw the freshmen emerge again today with DJ (Miller). That was good to see. Guys fought. We couldn’t keep up, and give them credit.

Q: You’ve acknowledged in the past week the pressure on you from some fans outside. What’s your pitch as to why it might not be as bleak as it seems in the moment right now? Stoops: Well, I understand. It’s a results business, and the results have not been there. For me, I can’t get caught up and worried about all that. I’m frustrated. I hurt for our team. I hurt for the fans. There’s a lot of people who invest a lot, including all of us. I understand that. The fans and anybody else has every right to be frustrated, mad, whatever it is. But for myself, I hurt for the team. We’ve invested a lot. Again, I think we are getting better in certain areas, but it was a tough matchup for us tonight. And again, I give them a lot of credit. They’re very, very explosive offensively. So we didn’t play good enough, and they had a lot to do with that.

Q: Other than Cutter, are there things you see that can get better? Do you fear this is at the point of no return?

Stoops:... For us, it’s been a long time — back-to-back games (with) 25, 26 first downs, whatever; close to 500 yards, five touchdowns. I mean, we hadn’t seen that for a while. Yeah, that makes me very optimistic. Defensively, I can’t make any excuses. I don’t want a million darts at me. I understand it’s not acceptable. It’s a tough matchup for us right now. Let’s just leave it at that.

Q: What do you feel like you can count on from this team? The defense was obviously really good last week, struggled this week. What do you feel like you know you’re gonna get?

Stoops: That’s exactly what I just told the team. That last week we show up offensively and defensively and special teams have some errors. And they have something to do with that. The players that were playing (for Texas) have something to do with that. Tonight, defensively it was tough. They have something to do with that. They’re very good. We weren’t up to the challenge. I know our guys are fighting and playing hard, and we’re making improvement in an area that it’s been a while — offensively, where we are making some serious improvement with a quarterback, and that’s encouraging.

Q: Talk about DJ Miller; you do have some young guys stepping up.

Stoops: Yeah, it was really good to see DJ — five targets, five catches, 120 yards and two touchdowns. That’s encouraging, because the quarterback, receiver, explosive guy, it’s been a while. So it’s good to see that.

Q: How close was Seth McGowan to being able to go?

Stoops: He tried like heck. I mean, he’s just so tough and wants it so bad. He went out there and took some hits and he was trying to. He just didn’t feel comfortable with securing the ball and the strength in it.

Q: It looked like Willie Rodriguez and Hardley Gilmore both inured down the stretch. Are you concerned those are significant injuries?

Stoops: I don’t know. I think Willie — both of them reaggravated injuries they had.

Q: You talked about the secondary being a strength of this unit. How does it go from that to this?

Stoops: Yeah, I did. I said it had a chance to be a strength of the team, and we had to stay healthy, and we haven’t stayed healthy. I can’t make excuses. I got a guy that’s out there, Terhyon (Nichols), who’s playing through injury and the kid’s out there against some elite guys and not at full strength and he has to go. And I appreciate him. It hasn’t been good enough. They can score and make a lot of people look that way, and we weren’t up to the challenge.

Q: Why did you go for two on the one touchdown?

Stoops: That’s what the analytics book said. I thought it was stupid, too, quite honestly That’s what the analytics book said. And when I had time to reevaluate afterwards, I said, ‘That’s a stupid book.’ That’s what it said.

Q: What was your feeling watching the play with the multiple fumbles?

Stoops: Disbelief.

Q: To your point about Cutter improving, what could his ceiling be?

Stoops: Who knows what his ceiling is? He’s only a redshirt freshman. What’s that, his third start? Fourth start? So, pretty impressive against some very good defenses. Very happy with that. And as you can see, when he’s playing at that level, it makes everybody better. The tight ends are catching the ball, the receivers are making very nice catches and explosive plays. The number of plays goes up again, 73. Getting touches, getting first downs, moving the ball. Created some explosives tonight; was great to see.

Q: How deflating was it to get within seven and give up the touchdown before the half?

Stoops: That was very frustrating. Very discouraging. We’re trying to protect guys at times. As you could see, when you didn’t, they would run right by us sometimes. So with that protection opens up some other things, and it hurt us on that play through the middle. That whole sequence, we can play better. They made plays.

Q: Steven Soles was a late scratch. Was that an injury thing? Stoops: I’ll update that next week. Yes, it’s related to his health.

This story was originally published October 26, 2025 at 12:32 AM.