Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops talks about Alabama loss
By Paul Jordan
Oct 12, 2013; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Maxwell Smith(11) passes the ball against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Commonwealth Stadium. Alabama defeated Kentucky 48-7. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Q. With this game behind you and 12 days now until the next game, do you approach this with your team as a clean slate?
COACH STOOPS: I do. We’ve got to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to play better. That’s not acceptable no matter who we’re playing. We know how good Alabama is, but we could do some things better. We didn’t do our best tonight. That’s why I’m disappointed. When you’re playing the No. 1 team in the country, at least give them your best shot. Go toe to toe, and let the chips fall where they may. They’re a good team, and they do that to a lot of people. I’ve seen them do it to top-10 teams before as well. That’s what I told them. We’ve got to coach better. They’ve got to play better. We’ve got to hold ourselves and this program to a higher standard. We’ve got to play better. And we’ll do that. We’ll clean up our mistakes, and we will compete for the second half of this season. I expect our players to bounce back and prepare the right way and play hard.
Q. With a team like that, how small is the margin of error overall offensively?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, it’s tough. It’s tough sledding. There’s no way around it. There’s no way to hide. You’ve got to man up, and you’ve got to line up, and you’ve got to play, and you’ve got to execute the things you can execute. Get better as a program, and that’s how I want to approach it. I want them to just go play the game the right way. Play as hard as we can and be in the right spots and look like a good football team. We had a few here and there and all that, but overall it just wasn’t pretty.
Q. Mark, how much did it affect your game plan? You’d been giving Jalen most of the reps in practice. How much did that change when you had that switch from one to the other?
COACH STOOPS: It did hurt us. We did have some designed runs, and Jalen got most of the snaps throughout the week. So like I said, that’s a tough situation for Max to go into against that defense.
Q. Mark, are they just so physically tough, their talent, [ Indiscernible ] their culture, their numbers, what is it?
COACH STOOPS: You know, I did notice that throughout the week. I looked at their roster, and you guys could do the research on it exactly, but there’s quite a few older guys in there. That’s what you do when you have a great program like that. They sprinkle in young talent, and they do a great job, but those are some big boys that have been around for a while. You know they’re doing things right in that program, and they’re doing everything right. They’re lifting. They’re training. They’re recruiting. They’re developing the players they have. So it’s a great model to look at. But, yeah, I think those are some big boys. They’re some older guys, yeah.
Q. How did you come out of it not just with Jalen but the other guys? Several guys sat out part of the game.
COACH STOOPS: I think we’re pretty banged up, I do. I felt that. We’ve been in some big games for a while, and that ‑‑ yeah, that bunch, they beat us up pretty good.
Q. (Question regarding other injured players.)
COACH STOOPS: There’s so many guys, I hate to get into it right now, but we’re banged up.
Q. Mark, compared to the other three losses, what was different about tonight?
COACH STOOPS: Well, I think ‑‑ it’s tough now. It’s tough to be in that situation and to go through that. They make you feel that way. I played plenty of good teams. Back in the day, when we first started at Arizona so many years ago and USC was unbelievable, there’s a time when you’re out there that it’s not a good feeling. Let me tell you. There’s not any magical calls out there. That’s what I said going into it. That’s the plan. There’s nothing magical that you can call. That team has seen it all, and they execute things right. And that’s why I say you’ve got to go in there, line up the right way, do things the right way, and play them the best you can. That’s what we planned on doing, and I was disappointed at times we did that and a lot of times we didn’t. That’s just our execution. I think we can execute a little bit better.
Q. Did you notice any individual guys that looked like they were up to the challenge tonight? Obviously, collectively, they weren’t, but individually?
COACH STOOPS: It’s hard for me to say right now. I was disappointed in our overall effort.
Q. Coach, you look back on these last four games, is your record kind of deceiving about your progress and where you guys are right now as a team?
COACH STOOPS: I think we’re making progress, but I don’t think anybody cares, you know what I mean? The record is what it is. I think I like this group. I think we ‑‑ we were uphill against a great team all night tonight. I’m a little bit frustrated. I’ll wait and get back to work tomorrow and get these guys in position to compete and fight and get better the rest of the way through. I think we have been doing that. Frustrating night tonight. But, again, give them credit. They can do that to a lot of people.