Mark Stoops’ Monday Pre-Louisville Cardinals transcript
By Paul Jordan
Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
- You mentioned Parker, a fantastic player. What are your corners going to have to do to contain him?
COACH STOOPS: Well, I think we’ve got to compete certainly better than we’ve been the past couple of weeks. We’ve got to compete at a much higher level. We’ve got to be conscious of where he’s at. We’ve got to have guys underneath. If it’s zoned coverages or different things, getting to their spots, getting under him, so we can affect him a little bit. And, again, I think that’s where any offense that has the balance and can run and pass and put you in that situation where they can put him in some one‑on‑ones because they can run the ball. So once again, once we read the play action or boots and certain things, trying to get people under him to help.
- Are your corners healthy?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, we were banged up pretty good. We’re in good shape now. We’ll be better. We’ll see what this weekend did for them. They should be out there this week ready to go.
- You had a rivalry game against Tennessee. This one’s Louisville. I know the players are excited but how fired up are you to play a rivalry game?
COACH STOOPS: I think the whole staff and everybody’s excited about it. We’ve talked about that right after the last game. It’s a beautiful thing, as we have this opportunity in front of us to get the sixth victory against a big rival. A lot of people would believe in this state that it’s the most important game of the year.
So it’s important and it’s exciting.
- Do you believe in it?
COACH STOOPS: I think every game is important. I really do.
- Do you put any more importance on this game?
COACH STOOPS: No, I don’t. No. Like I just said, I think all of them are important. We all know how difficult they are to come by. So I think each one is very important to us. Just winning, when you win, it obviously builds that confidence within your team. That is what’s difficult when you’re playing the schedule that we play. The players need to feel that success. I think that’s why it was great to get off to that start that we did. But anytime you’ve lost a certain number of games in a row, that doubt is obviously going to creep up into your mind, and that’s what we have to get out of there.
That’s why we had to have a great week of preparation, and go play with that great excitement and enthusiasm that we did in certain games.
- It’s often said that players are perhaps the best recruiters. Does the doubt in their mind seep through to recruits?
COACH STOOPS: No, I don’t worry about that one bit. We have a good group of players that enjoy playing here and have really worked hard and done the right things. I think you could ask them, I think they have full trust in what we’re doing. So I don’t worry about that at all on the recruiting front.
- In college football you rarely get the chance for a win‑or‑go‑home opportunity. Does that change the message to your team this week?
COACH STOOPS: To some extent, I guess. Just a simple change in the message. I think they all know what we’re playing for. They know that. There’s no point in hiding from it. But it’s not the only message, right? The message is to do what we constantly preach, and that is put the time and effort and focus into our preparation. It’s not just turning it on on game day. We’ve got to have a great week.
- Anybody else you’re worried about injury‑wise this week?
COACH STOOPS: I think Kyle Meadows will probably be a long shot to play.
- Looked like Denzil Ware tweeted he was injured over the weekend.
COACH STOOPS: He’s fine. He’s fine. He did Tweet that? I didn’t hear that. Freshmen.
- Do you have any guidelines you enforce on the guys?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, I tell them to not Tweet about injuries (laughter), amongst other things, amongst a lot of things. We bring in professionals with a full seminar on what to do and what not to do. It doesn’t always work, no. You need that seminar about once a week.