‘I’m gonna swing back.’ Everything Mark Stoops said after UK football beat Florida

A full transcript of Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops’ news conference after his Wildcats beat Florida 38-7.

Some questions have been modified for clarity and length.

Mark Stoops: Just a very good victory. Super proud of our football team. I’ve sat in here and told you that last Saturday at Auburn, but on Monday we talked about it, that the guys keep on working extremely hard. They care. They care about each other. I feel like we’re improving in certain areas, and it continues to show up. When mistakes happen, we’ve overcome it with the other side or another group or another person stepping up, and we talk about that. A lot. Because adversity’s gonna hit. How do you respond to it? How do we handle it? Our guys have done that. It starts with great effort, and it wasn’t always pretty out there tonight, but the effort was. I really appreciate that from our guys, because that’s where it starts — with the effort, with the physicality and the toughness, and I thought we played really good again in all three areas. Great team victory.

Q: You talked after the Tennessee fans about knowing how hard it is for the fans. How does it feel to get a home SEC win for these fans tonight?

Stoops: It’s important. I acknowledge that. I understand. These folks sacrifice an awful lot. And they care; they continue to show up and we’re gonna need them to continue to do that. We always acknowledge it and appreciate them. They have to save money. They travel long distances. They show up week in and week out. I’ve always acknowledged our responsibility to play well for them. And I promise you we give it great effort. And I like this team, and I think they do to, because they’re very tough and they care and they’re passionate for each other and to play well, and it was nice to get some rewards. We’re close a lot, but that doesn’t count when you’re a fan or media. So I understand that.

Q: Why didn’t this team implode? You’ve seen that a lot around the country.

Stoops: Just not what we’re gonna do, you know what I mean? We’re just not gonna do that. We’ve got really good leadership. I’ve said that over and over, and that’s not just coachspeak. They really genuinely are great young men, and they work really hard and they care. They care about the way they play. Tonight, again, it was a great moment in there, because mistakes were made — you fumble a punt return, interceptions or fumbles, different things — and the other side has to pick them up. And that’s what we’re gonna continue to do.

Q: I think on media day, Brad White said he felt like there was as much young defensive talent here as there had been since he’d been in the program. Are we starting to see some of that?

Stoops: Yeah, you’re seeing a lot of guys step up. On defense alone tonight, we were down Alex, Lovett, Sam Greene and Tavion for the majority of the night, and other guys stepped up, and that’s really good to see.

Q: What was the reasoning behind going tempo in the first quarter going into the second?

Stoops: We’ve done that a lot. Well, we’ve done it this year. It’s about — you can go fast, but you have to get first downs, right? And then you get plays and then you get them on their heels. And so we’ve tried it from time to time this year, and when you’re effective you can do that.

Q: Conversely, the third quarter was kind of a classic Stoops long drive.

Stoops: I thought that was an enormous drive to start the second half, and we really were physical in that drive. We mixed it up. We converted some third-downs throwing, I want to say, and we started throwing a little bit. But we were balanced and we were physical. And at that point, you’re trying to put yourself in a great position to win the game, right? And a long drive with seven points at the end of it was pretty important.

Q: What do you think about Seth McGowan’s progression all season?

Stoops: Seth is a really good football player, and he is a tough guy. He’s a tough guy to bring down. Once again, love the physicality that he plays with and the passion that he plays with. He has great vision. He catches the ball very good. He’s a good football player.

Q: How much did you redo the short-yardage package after that Texas game? It seems like you’ve been doing a lot of new wrinkles we haven’t seen before.

Stoops: We have. And going into that game, we had been good for the most part on short yardage. And wasn’t in that game. So you better look at it. You better evaluate it. These guys we play are pretty big and physical, so you better have some different wrinkles, and we’ve done that.

Q: Has anything about Cutter’s play surprised you?

Stoops: I wouldn’t say it’s fair to say it’s surprised me. I’m very pleased. He certainly has made really good jumps each and every week. Like last week, I thought that was a really impressive win, and I know the stats aren’t overwhelming or anything like that, but that’s what you’re gonna get in this league. You go on the road, it’s tough, and even at home against a very talented football team, tough yards out there. And he’s having fun. That doesn’t mean it’s easy and it’s all pretty all the time. You have to tough your way through it and grit it out, and he’s doing that. That’s what you have to love about him.

Q: When you came here, Kentucky hadn’t beaten Florida since 1986. You’ve now beaten them five times. What does that mean for you?

Stoops: As I acknowledged, when I first got here, everybody would throw that on me, and man, we had so much work to do. And I’m like ‘Let me try to get out of the ground.’ So I was just worried about concentrating on getting our team right. And then we had some really close games, and I’ve acknowledged that that one got a little heavy. It is what it is, man. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for you. Better swing your way out of it. You better have a good team, and you better fight and claw and do what you have to do. And we had some tough ones where we came up short, right, and it wasn’t fun. But hopefully everybody enjoys the victories, because they’re hard to come by, and that’s a good, talented football team, and I’m proud of our guys. Q: What do you appreciate in Bush’s playcalling tonight?

Stoops: He’s done a really nice job. In particular, I thought we’re really creating some space on third downs and getting some talented guys off of us and finding ways to, again, create space, convert some third downs. We were physical. There was a rhyme and a reason for everything that we’ve done. Again we were really effective on short yardage, and when we had to run the ball and everybody knew we were gonna run the ball, we ran it. So that’s important as well.

Q: How has the defense stepped up and taken ownership?

Stoops: You have to take accountability for it. We did, and everybody looked at their part and tried to improve. There’s no finger-pointing. There’s things everybody could do better, and they have. You acknowledge it and you move on. As I said last week, the group has pride and they are about the way they play, and we’re playing very hard, but we’re executing better, too. We’re more precise.

Q: You talk about players growing into their roles. Is that true of your offensive coordinator as well?

Stoops: I wouldn’t say growing into it. He’s got plenty of experience with that. I will say adapting to what we can do and putting our guys in good position. I appreciate what he’s done there, and he’s worked really hard to find ways that would maximize our players’ talent. And as we see a young quarterback growing up before us, guys are playing better. We’re making tough catches and doing some good things. So I think there’s growth across the board.

Q: After bringing in some portal guys at quarterback, how refreshing is it to have a young guy doing well and just look at potential growth down the road?

Stoops: You have no idea. I’ve believed in Cutter for a long time. For many years. For three, four years. I’m really proud of him, as I mentioned to the question earlier, the growth that he’s making and the improvement that he’s making each and every week. Because it gives everybody some hope, and it’s been good.

Q: Lagway threw for 250 yards on seven completions and a year later you intercept him three times. How important is it to see that secondary bounce back?

Stoops: Well, always proud of our guys. Not directed at any given player. That’s on us, not on him, and he’s a very talented player. We’ve been playing good. It was important to play well. It was the next opportunity for us; we’re at home. And so it was super important for us to play well. And I’m proud of our coaches, proud of our players. They’ve really attacked it the right way. They’re playing hard, but we’re executing. We’re doing the little things better.

Q: Do you think the defensive injuries are long-term things?

Stoops: I don’t know. I don’t know. It’ll be a few weeks, I would think, on most of them.

Q: How much has the team rallied around Cutter or has he galvanized them?

Stoops: I’ve said that; I’ve acknowledged it. We’re playing better. Guys are playing better around him. But definitely he has something to do with that. The way he’s seeing things, the way he’s buying time, the vision that he has in distributing the football — he’s making us better. There’s no question.

Q: To go back, all around the country, teams that have faced adversity have imploded. How did you keep that from happening?

Stoops: I mean, that’s what we do. We have a great staff, and the coaches have done a great job. I care, you know what I mean? I’ve worked hard with the team just in relationships, and that goes way back into last winter, into the summer — for each other; everybody invest in each other. And they believe. For me, it’s easy. You know that. I think you know me. You swing, I’m gonna swing back. That’s easy. But it’s not always easy to get everybody to do that, 150 people in our building to do that and be on the same page. And I’m proud of the group effort. The coaches, the players, everybody, we’re all in this together. There’s never been one bit — I think you know that; you’ve covered me for a long time — there’s never been one inch of hesitancy from me. There’s gonna be no flinching, no worries. Gonna work extremely hard. I care about this university, the people who have given me this opportunity, the fans. We’re gonna bang away, and we’re not gonna stop.

This story was originally published November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM.