Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops News Conference Quotes
By Jason Marcum
Q. The Rivals.com rankings say this is the highest class you have had since they started ranking, and it’s getting you a lot of national attention. Does that matter? Rankings? Even just for momentum?
COACH STOOPS: I think that’s fair to say, I think it matters a little bit. I think if anything it says to the 2014 class that these guys are serious, they know what they’re doing and they’re going to make a great commitment to recruiting and gives you some credibility, I would say, with y’all and with the people and with the buzz out there. It’s an honest answer. Yeah, let’s not kid ourselves, you want to be higher than not be higher, right?
Q. When you look at the rankings and you see that the SEC has over 12-13 teams ahead of you, is that a daunting task to look ahead?
COACH STOOPS: That is when you start looking at it that way a little bit, yeah. It’s a real challenge but it’s a great credit to this league.
It’s a big reason why I’m here. I always felt like UK ‑‑ a lot of people asked me about why here, and why did you jump on this opportunity, and why did you seek this opportunity? I just felt there was great potential here. I felt there was a sleeping giant here that we can do great things and we will do great things.
It’s a big part of it, the league. If you want to be the best, you want to play against the best.
Q. Your name carries a lot of weight in the state of Ohio. Coach Vince Marrow’s does too …
COACH STOOPS: It does, a lot. Coach Marrow ‑‑ I’m glad you pronounced it well, because Vince and I went to school together and I still call him “Morrow,” and it’s actually “Marrow,” but, anyway, Vince does a fantastic job, and relationships is his specialty.
Just having a chance to spend time with Coach Marrow and traveling throughout the state and visiting prospects, to see him in his element, just spending time, building relationships with families is big. He does a tremendous job, he works extremely hard and it’s been a great asset to have him in his program.
Q. What did you want to see out of the Big Blue Nation?
COACH STOOPS: Consistency. Keep on doing what you’re doing. I appreciate it, it’s been helpful and I think we can always improve and take things to another level, right? So keep on pushing. I think our players, our prospects, our commitments have felt the BBN.
Q. On if Neal Brown being on staff gave credibility in recruiting …
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, very much so. He brings us tremendous credibility, again, a guy that’s done it. Especially within this state and really nationally, they have done a tremendous job on offense as a coordinator, and it’s helped. It’s certainly helped with Ryan Timmons, with Ryan being very familiar with the offense.
Again, Neal has done a great job building a relationship with that family, with Ryan and his mother, Melinda.
Q. On not signing any linebackers …
COACH STOOPS: It’s just how it played out. It is. A big part of our philosophy ‑‑ you know, you obviously need great linebackers, you need great everything. But putting a priority on the front, that we talked about earlier, was very important.
I felt like we needed more skill as well at the secondary position. I would like to have had maybe one but it didn’t work out that way and we will make some things work and we felt we had guys in the secondary that needed to move up, just athletically.
Q. On selling his defensive success …
COACH STOOPS: I don’t know if there was necessarily a specific point there other than to say that we’re going to be very good in everything that we do. Statistically I’m not sure what it was but we had the most three and outs when I was at Florida State than anybody in the country by far, so I know we present the offense with a lot of opportunities. So I would imagine that would be appealing but that’s just like ‑‑ you know, Tim mentioned that and Mitch mentioned that, everybody in this room realizes that you need to be good defensively to win consistently.
Q. On Bud Dupree staying at linebacker …
COACH STOOPS: Possibly. He’s so versatile, he’s such a good football player that I know wherever we settle in with that he’s going to have a big role in this defense. From what I’ve seen he’s impressive and he’s a guy we need to feature in the defense.
Q. I haven’t heard anybody mention the kicker. That can win or lose games, ‑‑
COACH STOOPS: Austin (MacGinnis). Yeah, you’re right, strong leg, great person, fun to be around. He’s a tough kid, a guy that wants to be in the mix. He doesn’t want to be treated off by himself, he wants to be right in there with the rest of his team lifting and running and training so very excited about Austin.
Q. Can you talk about the offensive line now?
COACH STOOPS: Individually? Justin Day, again, just a great size, tremendous athlete, great size. We list him here at 6‑8, 305 and that was somebody we watched right away and watching the film we were encouraged with what we saw, that he was committed and excited about keeping Justin.
Nick Haynes is a guy we just started working a couple of weeks ago and just had a chance to watch him and get caught up with him on film, and again, we brought him in here just this past week, and extremely impressed with his athletic ability, again, great size, a guy that’s very versatile. We feel that he could play some center as well as guard. Excited about him.
Kyle Meadows, tremendous all‑around player, extremely athletic. He’s the guy you’re looking for at tackle, very long, he will get stronger. He needs to put on weight and get stronger between now and the fall but tremendous upside with him.
Ramsey Meyers, again, another guy we’re excited about, had chance to evaluate his film when we got here, and Coach Brown and Coach Schlarman were excited about keeping him and that commitment.
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