Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops’ Monday Transcript

Oct 18, 2014; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers safety Jalen Mills (28) breaks up a pass intended for Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver T.V. Williams (82) in the second half at Tiger Stadium. LSU defeated Kentucky 41-3. Mandatory Credit: Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports

1. Is the gist of what you’re saying you feel like a lot of things went wrong and when you went back and looked at it you didn’t feel like you were dominated as much at it would appear

COACH STOOPS:  Yeah, that’s fair to say.  I don’t think we were physically dominated on the field and, again, they ran the ball for 300 yards, you’re not generally going to win a lot of games when teams run for 300 yards.  We know that’s not acceptable but there are a lot of good, physical plays in there by our defensive guys.  But when you make mistakes, they’re magnified.  Mistakes are going to cost you games, they’re going to cost you on the road at LSU, making mistakes we did early in that game, it’s going to cost and you it’s going to be magnified.  It gets out of control at that point.

We can’t have that and we’ve got to coach ’em better and be more disciplined across the board.

1. Re: similarities of LSU cornerbacks and Mississippi State cornerbacks?

COACH STOOPS:  They’re different, a different style of play and they’re just different guys.

1. What does the film show about special teams?  Was there any common theme?

COACH STOOPS:  Well, there’s mistakes.  There’s mistakes that can and will be corrected.  We’ve all made our mistakes this year, offensively, defensively, special teams.  Again, they’re magnified against a very talented team on the road, and when you open the game that way, it doesn’t set the tone.  That’s not what you want.  So they’re magnified but they’re things that can and will be fixed.  The punt return, same thing.  A little unfortunate that we hit it so good ‑‑ he kicked it so well, outkicked his coverage a little bit.  We had guys down there, we had, honestly, five or six guys clean and we’ve got to do a better job of closing that gap, spreading the net and getting him down.  Once you get a talented guy started and give him some space, bad things are going to happen to us.

So those are things that we can get fixed and will.  We all take responsibility for that, and we’ll make the corrections and we’ll move on.

1. What happened on that opening kick‑off?  Were you meaning to kick it short?

COACH STOOPS:  That’s something that in hindsight we would do differently.  (Laughter.)  So, you know, I told you that at one of my news conferences, anybody that tells you they wouldn’t do it differently in hindsight is lying.  (Laughter.)

It was poor execution and poor call and we didn’t kick it where we were supposed to, either.  So what we were supposed to do on the kick wasn’t there.  Therefore, it magnified it.  So, sure, we would do it differently.  That’s one instance where we were too cute there.  Again, I take that responsibility.  We take that and we move on.  The rest of it is just fundamental things.

1. Mark, going into the year we thought Mississippi State was going to be a decent team but are you surprised they’re coming in ‑‑ if we said they were No. 1 coming in this weekend, would you believe that?

COACH STOOPS:  I wouldn’t have put (any) thought into that, I would have no idea.  I would be going on a limb and I don’t like to do that.  If you look at their quarterback and their team it’s not a real big surprise.  They’re a very talented football team.  You could tell they had a lot of confidence coming into the season just by the way they carried themselves at SEC Media (Days), just listening to them with their quarterback and leadership.  Dan (Coach Dan Mullen) is in sixth year in the process and they have a good‑looking team.  I noticed that a year ago.  I noticed how big they were and how long and just, you know, they’re developed.  They do a great job of coaching, and good things are ‑‑ it’s coming together for them.

They’re playing red hot and it starts with their quarterback.  He’s as talented of a guy as there is in the country.  He can run it, he can throw it.  He’s making great decisions and their offense puts stress on you.  Like I said at the beginning of the statement, they’re well coached, they put stress on you across the board.