Mark Stoops’ Monday Transcript

COACH STOOPS:  Still obviously very excited about this past week and the victory against South Carolina.  As Tony said, to come down from 14 in the fourth quarter shows a lot of toughness from our football team.

It’s good the way we’re winning, too.  Two weeks ago played great defense, maybe not as well offensively.  This past week played extremely good offense, and defense not as good as we have.

Special teams has been steady and I think that’s going to help us as we move forward.

Excited about this week’s challenge.  Todd Berry, ULM, will be very tough task for us.  They’re a team that’s used to playing in the Power 5 conferences.  They’ve won their fair share over the years and very well coached team.

So we just need to continue to worry about ourselves and continue to improve.  I think that’s the good thing.  There is an awful lot on this film from this past week that we can improve on, that we will improve on.  So looking forward and excited to move forward.

Q.  (Question regarding how special this win was for him as a head coach.)

COACH STOOPS:  It’s different.  It is special.  It is different when you’re the head coach.  As you said, been in a lot of great environments and big games, certainly felt that pressure before.

But as a head coach, it was special because, you know, the progress that we’ve made.  We know we’re better.  Our team knows we’re better, but until you go out there and win some of those big games, it’s hard to quantify it.

So I feel very good about where we’re headed and I feel good.  As I said in the postgame press conference, I feel good for our players and our fans and everybody in the organization.  It’s good to move forward.

Q.  They got a lot of guts.

COACH STOOPS:  Yeah, they do.

Oct 4, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats cornerback Fred Tiller (3) celebrates with fans after his team defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks at Commonwealth Stadium. Kentucky defeated South Carolina 45-38. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Q.  (Question regarding how he gets the team to refocus after all the excitement the team had after last weekend’s game.)

COACH STOOPS:  Yeah, we do a few things.  We’ll stay with the plan we do, but the message will be different.  Again you’ve heard me say it before, they’re going to hear enough good things from a lot of people and they’re excited, I’m good with that.

But they’re going to hear about some of the negative, too, because we knew it was going to be a big environment.  We stressed all week about taking care of the details in technique, not being too caught up in it where it hurts, and that showed.  They’re going to hear about that and see that.

That’s the good news.  There is a lot to correct from.  There is still a lot more in this team.  We can be a lot better and we’re going to continue to work extremely hard to improve.

Extremely proud of ’em.  I’ve said that, again, after the game and still feel that way.  Feel so proud of the effort and the toughness and the resolve of this team, and that says a lot about what we’re doing.

But with that being said, there is just so much more to improve on.

Q.  In the press conference after you had your biggest win, you were frustrated.  You used the word “angry” ‑‑

COACH STOOPS:  I calmed down a little bit (Laughter.)

Q.  Is that indicative of how much you know of the defense has to improve moving forward as games get tougher and tougher?

COACH STOOPS:  Yeah, we always learn.  There is always obstacles and challenges in each game that you have to overcome.  So the good news is there is a lot of things we can correct and they will get corrected.

Some of that would be coaching.  We need to coach better and put them in a better position, make quicker adjustments.

Some of it is players need to play better and some of it is the technique and the simple things we talked about as well.  So we’ll improve.