Mark Stoops reveals his message to recruits amid struggles

A rough stretch for Kentucky took another turn last week as the Wildcats fell to Vanderbilt last week. They’ve now lost four of their last six games after starting the year 4-0, and questions are mounting.

As far as recruiting goes, Mark Stoops said he isn’t seeing any effects from his team’s recent struggles.

Stoops told reporters there are multiple factors in Kentucky’s rough patch, but he’s not making excuses. He said there are ways to make improvements after the season, and recruiting is a big part of that.

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“They know,” Stoops said. “They can see things, they watch it. I’m not sitting here saying I have my head in the sand. I accept it, I shoulder it and we look at things. We’ll get better and we can make adjustments. That doesn’t always have to be with personnel. … We have smart, good coaches in here and there are things we can do. And there are things we do do well. We need to execute better. We have a really good, experienced, talented quarterback and we have some really young guys in certain positions.

“Again, I’m not comfortable talking about excuses. There are no excuses. But you go through things, you get caught. There are reasons why we get caught a little thin at offensive line. We’ve gone through some real life stuff that has been hard for years. Change doesn’t help, either, with a guy coming and leaving, you know what I mean? We got put in this position, it’s my job to get it fixed. There are some things that we can fix and will get fixed. That’s where the portal and things of that nature can help you, to where when we took over 10 years ago, those things weren’t there.”

Mark Stoops clarifies coaching changes comments following Vanderbilt loss

After rising to No. 7 in the AP Poll Kentucky has lost four of six games, including the most recent to Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Wildcats are reeling, to the point coach Mark Stoops is being asked about coaching changes already.

On the program’s official postgame radio show, Stoops clarified an answer he gave local reporters immediately after the loss about whether he’d make any offensive coaching changes.

“They said in season,” Stoops said of the reporter’s question. “They said like, right now. That’s not what I’m going to do, no, no. I don’t want to say anything right now because people take it and run with it. If I say maybe, they’ll say I am.”