Stoops Post-WKU Press Conference Wrap Up

Aug 31, 2013; Nashville, TN, USA; Western Kentucky Hilltoppers head coach Bobby Petrino and Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops talk prior to the game at LP Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

The first game of the Stoops era has passed, resulting in the Kentucky record reading 0-1. Today Stoops addressed the media in his weekly press conference, his first one after a game as a head coach and his first one after a loss. Stoops does a lot of things, but sugar coating is evidently not one of them.

Players made available at today’s conference were RB Raymond Sanders, WR Demarco Robinson, LB Avery Williamson and DE Za’Darius Smith. When a press conference’s opening words are “I’m very disappointed in the loss and the way we preformed…” you can assume it wasn’t a great game.

The Takeaways:

• Defense was the main issue

Stoops said: “It was d-lineman trying to do too much, it was poor pursuit at the second level with the linebacker position on things that we worked extremely hard at and it was poor position and poor reaction on the secondary. So it was everybody.”

“We have not been playing winning football at linebacker. We need to improve.”

On the secondary “Not good enough. It was a team loss, but the secondary was not good enough.”

Avery Williamson agreed that defense was an issue saying: “We worked hard at stopping the run all of camp and I feel like we could have dominated much better. We got to fake gaps better, they weren’t killing us up front, it was just guys not doing their right assignments.”

He also said being physical was a problem and at times he felt that he himself was not being physical enough. Williamson also said that missed tackles were probably the most disappointing thing for him.

• Overconfidence was a problem

Both Williamson and Stoops cited over confidence and over-hype as a problem

• Players are reverting back to old habits

Stoops said: “I saw some people going back to some poor habits, I should have done a better job. When things go bad players just want to go out there and make big plays. That’s NEVER a good thing. When things go bad you go back to fundamentals and the details, and we lost sight of small details on both sides of the ball and for that I accept that responsibility…guys mean well but that doesn’t mean they’re doing well.” He reiterated “Team concept”

He also said, “I think we need to drastically improve at all positions. We rat-trapped back to extremely poor habits.” And “That’s where I need to improve and the team needs to improve, not to flinch when bad things happen”

• Montgomery was sick

With such a lack of experience at WR and the way coaches raved about true-freshman Alex Montgomery all throughout camp it may be surprising that he didn’t see too much playing time. Stoops informed us that Montgomery was “very very sick” the day before and day of the game and expects him to become more of a factor as he gets healthy again.

What to expect

• Position changes

Some changes have been made to the depth chart. Maxwell Smith is listed as the starting quarterback and was confirmed by Stoops although it is likely that Whitlow will still see field time. Zach West is listed as the #1 LG and Zach Meyers is listed as #1 under center followed by Max Godby. At WR Demarco Robinson is listed as a #1 with Jeff Badet behind him. Ryan Timmons moves up as a #1 WR ahead of Daryl Collins, with Ronnie Shields listed as third. Javess Blue stays at #1, but Alex Montgomery pushes up to #2 spot leaving AJ Legree at 3^rd team. Joe Mansour is still listed as the #1 kicker. Kory Brown, although leaving Nashville in a boot (set for x-rays today per roommate Avery Williamson) is still listed as #1 SLB and at WLB TraVaughn Paschal moves up to #1 ahead of Khalid Henderson. Nate Willis (who has a mild sprain per Williamson) is still listed as #1 CB ahead of Eric Simmons. Fred Tiller also listed as a #1 CB followed by Jaleel Hytchye; Cody Quinn (injured during camp) was listed as #1 last week, completely removed from depth chart.  Blake McClain is listed as the #1 nickel followed by Marcus McWilson- both true freshmen. Stoops also noted that backup long snapper Kyle Budde would be out for the season and would require surgery.

Positives

• Miami gave up 5 passing TD’s to Marshall Saturday

This means the air raid is likely to come out in full force. With Smith starting I see lots of downfield passing to be done on Saturday.

• Even though UK gave up 487 yards to WKU, this has happened to a Stoops defense before

It was brought up that the last time a Stoops defense gave up 487 yards (given up to WKU) it was at FSU (same exact number) in his second game against his brother at Oklahoma. That turned out all right in the end.

• They are aware of where they are at

Stoops knows there is a long road ahead: “There’s no easy formula, there’s no easy switch or magical scheme on either side of the ball that we can do over night. We just have to work”

“It’s a quick trip, people are going to jump off this bandwagon quick…we are back to work. We know we have to improve.”

“We know where we’re at…we have a long way to go. Anybody who doesn’t understand that has got some issues that we need to sit down and talk about. “

Williamson agreed: “Fans were really excited, I hope they still are. But we just got to worry about the team.”

All the players agreed that this would be a process and they knew what they were getting into with this season, including high fan expectations.

Stoops continued saying throughout that he was anxious that they were ready to get back out there today and work, and they knew win or loss it was a long road ahead but he seemed positive as did all the players today. Attitudes were disappointed, but optimistic.

I will be at post-practice media Tuesday-Thursday as usual providing updates leading up to Saturday’s game vs Miami (OH).