Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops Transcript
By Paul Jordan
Oct 11, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Patrick Towles (14) celebrates with teammates after throwing a touchdown pass against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks in the first half at Commonwealth Stadium. Kentucky defeated Louisiana-Monroe 48-14. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Q. How did Patrick (Towles) grade out on the film?
COACH STOOPS: Patrick did some good things. I thought we took care of the football better in this game, outside of Jojo’s pass. So I thought Patrick really did some good things, and you know, maybe wasn’t flashy and all that, but really threw the ball well when he had to and really had some good throws. We were off a little bit at times, too, whether it be a receiver or high throw here or there, so we weren’t perfect, but he did some good things.
Q. Good decisions?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, I liked his decisions, yeah.
Q. (Question regarding Jojo Kemp’s pass.)
COACH STOOPS: Gotta keep him honest. (laughter) We’re working two or three more this week.
Q. (Question regarding if Patrick Towles has the “game manger” label.)
COACH STOOPS: Well, I think if you’re going to play quarterback, you better embrace that tag because there’s times when, you know, they may be covering you. You may call for more runs. You gotta protect the football and play defense. Game changes all the time. It very rarely goes according to script.
But with that being said, I think Neal’s done a nice job, and certainly I try to, of instilling a bunch of confidence in him. We believe in his ability and we want him to go out there and throw, and there’s going to be moments when he’s gotta go win us a game, too. It goes with the territory of playing quarterback.
Q. (Question regarding if Patrick likes getting labeled as a “game manager”.)
COACH STOOPS: I don’t know. I don’t know what he thinks about that. I’m not going to ask him. I know he’s going to have to throw the ball well for us to win some games. And this week it’s not going to be easy, and he has to be more than a manager in this game. His talent has to show and he’s gotta play confident and he’s gotta throw the ball and he’s gotta play aggressive.
Q. (Question regarding Boom Williams comments postgame about owning up to making a mistake and letting his team down a few weeks ago.)
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, I did not pay attention to what he said. I didn’t see it or hear it. Sorry to offend you guys like that, but I can’t ‑‑ (laughter). I can’t read the good stuff because I know you’re going to get me when it goes bad. Believe me. So I don’t.
But I do want him to own up to his mistakes, and that’s what we try to do. Again, we’re far from perfect, but we’re going to hold guys accountable. We did some things amongst the team that holds that accountability at a pretty high level where they had to address the team and talk to the team and not just, hey, I’m sorry or any of that. They came into a team meeting and sat and addressed it with their teammates. So I think, how they are dealt with by their peers is as strong as anything. And we’re trying to teach them some lessons. They’re good kids that made a mistake and I’m glad we’ve put it behind us now and hopefully we’ll learn from it.
Q. On that subject, Mike Douglas said he thought this team was different from the standpoint that guys can get on other guys and they take it the right way, like hey, you can do a better job doing this, I saw you doing that where in the past maybe guys didn’t take it the right way. What’s behind that?
COACH STOOPS: Well, there’s no place to hide. There’s accountability at a high level, and we’ve gotta continue to push that higher and higher and that’s what we’re preaching more. We want more, whether it be more effort, more accountability. You know, and players’ self-awareness, too. The players gotta understand they can’t be naive, and that’s what helps with some of the things we’re doing, whether it be peer evaluations and different things. We don’t want to create a culture where they can hide anywhere.
Q. You talk about managing emotions and the maturation process. Is there a pretty fine line between that? When you talk to them about that?
COACH STOOPS: I’m sorry. Start the beginning of that question.
Q. When you talk about managing your emotions, you’re pretty fiery on the sidelines so have you talked to your players, does it help keep it in check?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, and again, you know, there’s a balance there. There’s a fine line. We want to be intense, and you know, play with great emotion and great passion, but we have to keep that in control.
You know, I’m certainly not perfect in that area. I told you, I think it was after the South Carolina game, (Jordan) Swindle, he said, “Coach, you got too much juice’ (laughter), which means calm down. So we always tease each other about having good energy and having good juice in practice. He told me, smiled at me during the game and said, “coach, too much juice” (laughter).
But I think there’s a balance for all of us, and that’s the great thing about sports and that’s the great thing about college football. You gotta go out there and play, and there’s times to be poised and there’s time to be enthusiastic and energetic and all that. You gotta have great emotion and great passion or we’re going to have a difficult time winning some games in this league.
Q. What’s the closest you’ve come to losing your emotion on the sidelines?
COACH STOOPS: I’ve been pretty good. I do make a conscious effort to make sure things are in control, and again, I think your team is a reflection of you as well. So there’s times to be passionate and there’s times to be calm, and I’m by no means perfect at any of those, just I am who I am. I think you all know that by now. I really can’t be any other way.
Q. (Question regarding if he has a “get-back coach” to keep him off the field.)
COACH STOOPS: Yeah. We got some stories about that. (Laughter). Coach (Coery) Edmond and I go way back, back to Arizona. And he had that job at Arizona, and he will not do that here. He’s done with that (laughter). So we got some other guys.
Q. (Question regarding team chemistry and player-coach respect in the locker room.)
COACH STOOPS: Yeah. We have an open relationship. I think there’s great respect amongst the coaching staff and the team, and we’re all in this together, and so I think we have ‑‑ we have a good bond in our locker room and within our program right now.
Q. You talked about managing that juice, big game. Win on the line. Is that a challenge to kind of manage that?
COACH STOOPS: It is. It always is. Like we talked about last week is if we want the opportunity to play in big games, then you gotta take care of your business, and last week taking care of that business to move on and play in a big game like this one. So for me getting them excited to play this game shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Q. You mentioned the leadership program a little bit. How much has that helped you get through?
COACH STOOPS: It’s helped a bunch. I think it’s helped us all give us some structure and how we manage this situation and communicate about it and hold accountability to all of us in the program.
Q. (Question regarding UK-Miss. State in two weeks being on CBS and what that means for the program.)
COACH STOOPS: You know, that’s great. Obviously I’m not going to get ahead of myself. But every time you win in this league, you’re going to put yourself in position for a bigger game.
So I think it’s a compliment to our team what we’ve done to this point, and every game gets bigger and we have a huge one at LSU this week, and that’s what’s on our mind.