Mark Stoops challenges Kentucky to respond, bounce back after blowout loss

Kentucky has lost three of its last four games after a 4-0 start to the season that had the Wildcats briefly ranked as high as No. 7 nationally. Saturday’s 44-6 dismantling by Tennessee was demoralizing, but it leaves the Wildcats no choice but to respond and bounce back, coach Mark Stoops said.

That’s something he’s emphasized with his team this week while trying to set an example inside the facilities.

“We have to. There’s no ifs, ands or buts,” Stoops said. “You have to put it behind you. We always address things and look at things and self-evaluate and try to get better, win or lose. That’s not going to change. There are different approaches. Again, I will talk to the team about that. It is what it is.”

Stoops admitted he was in a bit of a funk following the disastrous showing against the Volunteers.

He skulked for a bit, couldn’t seem to get enough coffee to shake out of his daze. Eventually, as he was hitting ‘a wall,’ a team doctor walked in late Sunday night and checked on him, urging him to ‘get back in the fight.’

Boom. Stoops knew what he had to do.

“I feel surprisingly jacked up and great. Why?” he relayed. “Because you have to be. Yeah, I felt like crap all night Saturday night and all day Sunday. But today I’m frickin’ jacked up, ready to go.”

Can Kentucky respond and bounce back?

There’s no telling yet how the Wildcats will handle the latest bit of adversity. Starting quarterback Will Levis has been beaten up over the last few weeks and Kentucky has dropped three of its last four.

Talk of a run at the SEC East is gone.

Saturday’s loss will probably the most difficult yet to bounce back from. It’s hard to find many silver linings in a 44-6 defeat. Worse, the schedule doesn’t exactly set up great for a quick fix.

Following a late trip to Knoxville, another road trip to Missouri is on tap this weekend.

“We’re playing the early game, we got back late Saturday,” Stoops said. “But so what? It is what it is. The situation is what it is. So we’re going to pick it up. We’re going to work, we’re going to punch the clock this week.”

A noon ET kickoff at Missouri looms. The last trip the Wildcats took there ended in a humbling 20-10 defeat.

“NFL bad beats. SEC bad beats. I mean, what do you just fold the tent?” Stoops said. “Do you just give up after some tough losses? I mean there’s five teams in the SEC with a better record than us. And there’s some elite. I mean, elite. As good as anybody in the country. Our players understand that nobody’s going to give us anything, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. You’ve got to get back to work. That’s the only way around it.

“I said it after the two losses, going into Mississippi State our team responded. But we have to go play well because this team is playing well and they’ve bounced back from some tough losses and really have done a good job. And we have to respond to that. The last time we went up there I didn’t like our approach and we got our butts kicked.”