Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops Transcript

Oct 11, 2014; Gainesville, FL, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Les Miles prior to the game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Q.  The hostile environment, are there things you can do to sort of prepare for that?

COACH STOOPS:  I really don’t think there is.  Crowd noise is not going to simulate what it’s like down there at 7:30 kickoff.  The good news is we’ve been to a hostile environment, and hopefully as I commented last week, I think we grew from that game, and hopefully we can take something away from it again, because if we execute and do what we’re capable of, you know, they can’t get down there and play.

But I love the atmosphere.  I’ve been down there before.  They are passionate fans, and it’s a hostile environment, and that’s why we play.  That’s why we coach.  We want to continue to win games to put ourselves in position to play in big games.  So this will be a great challenge.

Q.  You had a slow start offensively.  Anything go wrong?

COACH STOOPS:  Yeah.  It was a variety of things just like we talked about before.  It was always one guy.  You know, that’s the good news because we talk about being flat and whatever.  There’s no excuses.  They performed better than we did.  But it was one guy.  It was a breakdown here or there, and those are things that we gotta get fixed.

Q.  Is it good or bad, though, that a lot of your players admitted that being flat was an issue?  Are you glad they understood that?

COACH STOOPS:  You’re always glad to get through with a victory.  I said it in a press conference last week, I believe, but you can talk till you’re blue in the face.  You can put all kind of examples in front of them.  We try to prepare them the best we can, and hopefully they learn something from it.

It’s not just emotion either.  You don’t just turn emotion on on Saturday.  It’s about the week, and I know I talk about that all the time, but it’s so true.  They’ve gotta walk in our building today with a great attitude about them and a strong mindset to have a great week of preparation to put ourselves in position to win a game.

Q.  Halfway through this season, how would you evaluate the first half?

COACH STOOPS:  Progress.  We’re making progress.  And I think there’s still a lot more in our tank.  There’s a lot more we could do better.

Q.  Boom made a long return at the start of the game.  Overall can you talk about the return game?

COACH STOOPS:  No, I think we’ve been solid.  I really do.  I think we’ve been solid across the board on special teams and our return game.

You know, we had a muff here and there of a punt return; that’s an individual decision that we got corrected.  But overall I’m really proud of our team’s effort on special teams.  I’ve gotten some comments and some compliments of the way our teams are playing, and special teams is a big indicator, because you have to be unselfish to play special teams, and they don’t get a lot of credit all the time, and I think our guys are playing very hard, and I think that’s a credit to Coach (Craig) Naivar, and he’s very passionate about what he does, and our players really love playing for him and they played very hard and they’ve been unselfish.

Q.  How surprised are you at the leadership you’re getting from either younger guys or transfers?

COACH STOOPS:  I think the tone is set by our older guys.  I don’t think they get enough credit for what they’re doing to try to change the culture in our locker room.  They’ve really been good, and they’ve been a pleasure to coach.  Our older guys have really kind of set the tone, and you know, are constantly working to continue to improve and be an unselfish team and a team that is doing the right things.  We’re not perfect, but there’s a bunch of guys that are working extremely hard and doing a lot of good things.