Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops Transcript

COACH STOOPS:  Good victory, once again, going back to ULM.  Proud of the guys.  Obviously we’d like to start better.  We gotta work on that and get off to a better start.  A little flat, but give ULM credit.  I thought they had some good schemes and played very well early.

It was good to see our team have the ability to make big plays on both sides of the ball.  So overall, good team victory.

Really excited and looking forward to the great challenge of going to LSU this week.  Typical LSU team, extremely physical, well‑coached team.  We’ll have our hands full, but again, looking forward to it.  It’ll be a great challenge and a great opportunity.

Q.  (Question regarding fan noise on Saturday vs. LSU and how it could affect the offense.)

COACH STOOPS:  We’ll do what we do on the road.  Same communication that we used in the swamp (at Florida), you know.  So of course, you know, each of these challenges going on the road in the SEC, it’s going to be loud and all that, so we gotta deal with it.  We’ll be okay.

Q.  (Question regarding how he felt the linebackers responded on Saturday.)

COACH STOOPS:  We were better.  We were much better.  I really was proud of Khalid (Henderson).  I thought he played his best game.  He really improved.  Josh (Forrest) played better against the run as well.

Like I’ve said over and over, Josh does some things very well, but overall as a unit, they took great pride in trying to improve, and obviously that’s going to ‑‑ we’re going to need a great week of preparation this week, because it’s a different challenge this week.

You know, they (LSU) run the ball extremely well.  They’re extremely physical.  You know, with the emergence of their freshman tailback, (Leonard) Fournette he’s a physical guy, and of course, Kenny Hilliard, their senior.  They got some good backs.  Very big, very physical.  Their whole line does a great job, so we’ll have our hands full this week.

Q.  Is this one of the cases where you fight fire with fire and be more physical?

COACH STOOPS:  We need to do a lot of things better.  As coaching staff (we have to) do a better job of putting them in position to be successful and so scheme-wise, we have to be good and on point.  And we need to continue to play great technique up front and we’re going to need improved play from the linebackers and we’re going to need great support from our secondary as well.  So it’s always team defense.

You know, obviously starts up front with the technique of the D line and the linebackers.  So it’s a combination of things that we’re ‑‑ you know, they keep you off balance.  They know what they’re doing.  They can run the ball a lot of different ways, and it’s not just about brute brawn.  They’re big and physical, but they also know what they’re doing.

Q.  (Question regarding UK winning games even though they have not played their best and if penalties are a concern.)

COACH STOOPS:  Well, I think that’s part of it.  You know, we’ve talked about it.  We have not played our best.  That is the good news.  I think there’s an awful lot of room for improvement in all phases.  We can coach better.  Guys can play better.  We can be more disciplined with penalties.  So that’s what we’re looking to continue to get better and improve.  So we’ll continue to work on that with penalties. When you have an aggressive team there’s going to be some penalties, too.  So we will work on that and continue to work on discipline, but we do want an aggressive team.