Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mark Stoops’ Monday Transcript

Oct 4, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats running back Jojo Kemp (3) runs the ball against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the second half at Commonwealth Stadium. Kentucky defeated South Carolina 45-38. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

1. Surprised with all those backs as explosive as they are at times that it hasn’t been ‑‑

COACH STOOPS:  Like I said, it’s been good at times.  Wasn’t so good last week, and you have to give credit to LSU for that.  They beat us.  They played more physical than us and didn’t give us much room.

1. (Question regarding Mississippi State having a high number of sacks.)

COACH STOOPS:  Well, they have an incredible front seven, number one, and number two, they’ve been ahead quite a bit and scoring some points, so teams are going to have to take some chances and maybe drop back and pass more than they want to.

1. Like you mentioned, LSU secondary did a good job.  Did Patrick (Towles) not have a chance because of that?  Were there things that Patrick could do better?

COACH STOOPS:  Certainly Patrick can play better and needs to play better.  We missed some opportunities and that’s going to happen.  Again, not to make an excuse for Patrick because he doesn’t need me to do that, but there are going to be some times where maybe they’re covered, then maybe they’re open and we miss them, either way it’s not good.

So when you are off and not playing your best, again, it’s going to get magnified against a great team, especially on the road down there at LSU.

1. In a game like that when you get an opportunity you have to take that.

COACH STOOPS:  You have to make those throws, yeah, you do, and we gotta catch them and get open and all those things and we definitely were not at our best.