Everything Mark Stoops said after Kentucky football topped Tennessee Tech

A transcript of Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops’ press conference after the Wildcats’ 42-10 win over Tennessee Tech on Saturday at Kroger Field.

Some questions have been edited for length and clarity.

Mark Stoops: We had talked about it all the time to continue to play with great effort, continue to try to improve in the execution. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We just got to try to continue to worry about ourselves, continue to get better. I love this team’s attitude and effort, and really greatly appreciate the seniors playing for the last time in Kroger Field. Some of those guys have been around a long time, some of them are new, but all of them have had a great impact on our program, and they’ve shown great leadership, and I greatly appreciate them and their families being here today to celebrate a good victory. And now it’s on to the next, and we’ve been handling it very much with the mindset of one week at a time, one day at a time. Appreciate the effort, and them preparing and taking care of business. And now it’s on to the next opponent, and we’ll get back to work.

Q: What goes through a head coach’s mind when the starting quarterback lowers his pads and just decides to run over a guy?

Stoops: I mean, I was a little bit dumbfounded, and I said, ‘Did he score?’ and he scored. So you know what? That’s fun. You know, it’s fun. You do not want to see that. You know, we were just talking about that. We gotta teach them how to protect himself a little bit, but some of that is gonna kind of fire up your team. And for him to lower his shoulder and get in the end zone just shows another element to his game and what he’s willing to do for his team.

Q: Does it inspire the players that he’s doing what they’re asked to do?

Stoops: Without a doubt. No question. It would have been pretty easy to tiptoe out of bounds right there, but he decided to get it in, so good for him.

Q: You went tempo again, getting into a different pace. Some different things out there. What was going through your minds?

Stoops: You know, I think we talked about it in here last week. We had success with the tempo last week. We had done it throughout the year, maybe even if it’s just for a certain amount of plays; maybe not an entire drive or try to steal a few reps and get it going. I think, for sure, with us, we do a lot with personnel and subbing. When we were subbing, they were subbing. They were… trying to shorten the game. They were trying to shorten the game, and I’m not meaning that in any condescending way. It’s just, the game was going fast, and we wanted to get some plays in and operate.

So with us not subbing and going with some form of tempo, it let us get into a little bit of a rhythm and speed it up a little bit, try to get some scores and get some plays in. We still only had 66 plays. And I really wanted to try – the defense played really well. The drive at the end of the half kind of was aggravating because I’d like to pull away a little bit and get even younger quarterbacks (in the game). It was nice to see Brennan. I’m really bummed out — Stone was set to go in, and it’s our fault for not splitting that series, but we thought we could get a stop and get him back in there. So for us, getting some young guys some plays was important, and it’s invaluable to get those reps, and we’ll continue to work on them.

Q: When you see a quarterback make a throw like the one Cutter Boley made to Hardley Gilmore as a freshman, does that get you excited?

Stoops: Without question. It was (a) very predictable pass (situation), right? Second and extra long, and into a pretty strong breeze with defenders all over the place. And he threads it, and Hardley made a really nice catch and a great finish, but really impressive throw and the confidence that he has. And we’ve seen a lot of those, and, maybe they’ve been on the sidelines or over one defender, under another, and we’ve seen some exceptional throws. But over the middle like that, again, with the predictable pass, with them sinking back and playing coverage, impressive throw.

Q: How big was it for some of those defensive guys who are going to have to play lot down the stretch because or your injuries to sit out the fourth quarter?

Stoops: Yeah, without a doubt. Played quite a few guys defensively. It’s a bit harder offensively without complete separation, because the way this team can score, you just don’t ever (let up) until we got that last one. Makes it a little more difficult for mass substitutions on the offensive side.

Q: DJ Waller wasn’t dressed again. Nasir was out.

Stoops: DJ was — I mean, again, it’s frustrating; it’s aggravating. Disappointing for him. I mean, he practiced all week this week and just didn’t feel well enough to play.

Q: Is Nasir’s injury serious?

Stoops: We’re gonna see where we’re at with Nasir. If we could protect his redshirt, we will, but he was hurt. He was hurt this week.

Q: How good was Kendrick Law today?

Stoops: Amazing. You know, really impressive. I just grabbed his stats, as I was talking with Mitch in my office before I came right in here, but I didn’t even really realize that Cutter was 18 for 21. And Kendrick, I’m not sure there was an incompletion his way. I don’t know. You guys may know.

Q: He was 11 for 11 on targets.

Stoops: Oh, yeah? There you go. Thanks. But the one on the sideline was really impressive, where Cutter – we were trying to take a shot; he came back to Kendrick in the flat, right on our sidelines. Kendrick made an impressive catch, and then the run he had was unbelievably physical. I think some of you were down in that left side, but it was violent. I mean, he’s a strong dude.

Q: How do you feel about the wide receiver room down the stretch and how they’re playing?

Stoops: I’m impressed with the way they’re playing. They’ve been settling in the past two, three, four weeks, and just really impressed. I think more and more guys are stepping up. We can count on a pretty good nucleus of these guys right now. And they’ve been pretty consistent and they’ve been unselfish. They’ve been blocking on the perimeter. They’re doing a lot of good things.

Q: In 2021, somebody asked you what it was like to get the sixth win and be bowl eligible and you said, ‘We’re at the point in this program where that’s nice, but we have bigger goals.’ What does it mean to have the chance to get back to that?

Stoops: I’m sure at the time I did say that, but I also always acknowledged the importance of it, because you can’t ever take that for granted. Look at our league. It’s brutal. And during that stretch, I want to say – you take COVID out of there, and we went 10 (wins), eight, 10. We were averaging 9-point-whatever (wins) per year. I mean, we were on a good roll. And, we’re trying to get back to that point, but you never take things for granted. It’s difficult. And we’re worried about right now, this week, and going 1-0 again. I know that’s coachspeak, but it’s the truth. It’s important.

Q: Do you like stepping out of conference late in the season?

Stoops: Well, I mean, we haven’t had a bye for a while. So I think it’s also important. We play a ton of one-score games. Like, we need to get some guys some snaps, some reps, and we can’t control any of that, but we don’t get to play any — what do they call them, preseason games or whatever, scrimmages. We don’t get to do any of that. So it’s always good. We play Kentucky all the time. So that hurts, just as a whole. With NCAA wise, that’s a whole ‘nother story. We have a lot of issues, (and) that’s probably way down the totem pole, but I think it’s important to be able to play some people, and we don’t ever get to do that. And now we’re going nine conference games next year. That makes a lot of sense. So it is what it is. Line them up. I think having this game here helps rather than another SEC game if that answers your question.

Q: There were a couple of drops, but what did you see from Brennan late?

Stoops: It was good just to get him in there. Him and Stone, we, we think both of them are really good quarterbacks. I’m really bummed Stone didn’t get in there today. That’s the only thing that I’ve kind of aggravated with this (game) right now. So he’s making progress.

Q: Do you favor converting the spring game into a scrimmage?

Stoops: I’m not really advocating. I know some people brought that up or whatever. I’d rather have it in the fall. I’d rather be able to practice against some teams or do something in the fall like pro teams do.

Q: How much sweeter does senior day and celebrating with families make a win?

Stoops: It’s very important. It’s very important. And some of these guys have been with us through so many good things, bad things, everywhere in between. You can look at a guy like Jordan Lovett, and having to see his family out there today broke my heart, you know what I mean? Because he can’t finish the season out on the field, and he’s given everything to his program. He’s a remarkable young man, along with so many others. And just a little thank you. Our administration, our people, do a really good job. They had a really nice breakfast this morning, spent time with them, acknowledge them, and thank them, and we just show as much appreciation as we can.

Q: How do you keep the momentum going?

Stoops: It’s just the next opportunity, and we’re really focused on that. I challenged the guys in there because they have brought it up, like, ‘OK guys, let’s keep this in perspective. Let’s be ready to go Monday.’ And that’s the mentality we have to, continue with.

This story was originally published November 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM.