Mark Stoops sends message to Kentucky fans that could be panicking

Kentucky‘s 44-6 loss to Tennessee this weekend sucked much of the remaining wind out of the Wildcats’ sails but Mark Stoops isn’t panicking. He shared why he doesn’t believe fans should panic either with four games remaining on the 2022 regular season schedule.

“I understand not being happy and the frustration, that’s fans, that’s good fans,” Stoops said. “There’s some passionate fan bases, we just saw one too and they haven’t always been happy, ours hasn’t always been happy. There’s going to be good and there’s going to be bad… We’re all in this together, we accept that and we own it but we still need them.

“Anyone that’s going to jump off that quick… Frustration, yes. But come back and cheer again. You can throw darts at me after the next one but just keep on being fans. I appreciate it, they’ve been awesome this year.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

Stoops also noted that the criticism doesn’t ‘deter him,’ saying, “Nobody needs to be harder on us than us.”

The Wildcats were poised to go toe-to-toe with Georgia for the SEC East this season but with three conference losses going into Week 10, the momentum has ground to a halt. Stoops takes his squad into battle versus Missouri and Vanderbilt before they get the opportunity to topple the Bulldogs on Nov. 19. If Kentucky loses to Georgia and beats Louisville, they’ll finish the regular season with an 8-4 record, which is a step back from a season ago.

Stoops: ‘That was very aggravating’

Stoops believed Kentucky had the recipe to beat Tennessee. However, ultimately, the Wildcats giving up several huge plays did them in.

“That was very aggravating,” Stoops said, regarding Tennessee’s backbreaking big plays against the Wildcats defense. “They put stress on you, we know that. It’s really hard to sit here and get beat the way we did, sit here and say you did some good things. That’s a punchline waiting to happen for y’all. But there were some good stops, there really were. You have to play great as a team. We didn’t move the ball, we didn’t get first downs, we didn’t score. Special teams, we gave up a punt return late, but we were backed up, we couldn’t get first downs to get it out of there. We were fighting and doing some good things, and there were some that they hit on us that we worked the heck out of.

“We were fighting. Making them work for yards. Then the two big explosives were something that we worked hard on, and had a good idea. Doesn’t make it any easier, not putting any blame on anyone or a particular player, that’s on all of us, but it hurt because we understand what’s coming there.”

On3’s Steve Samra contributed to this report.