Kentucky football looking to get back to "player-led" mindset

In a word, Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops was “pissed” about how his team waltzed through the last several days of spring practice. Player entitlement, a lack of leadership, and poor work ethics have turned his blood into a boil, which he laid out for everyone to hear during Saturday’s post-practice interview with the media.

“I’m a little pissed off today,” Stoops said. “I don’t have a lot to say today. I’m a little frustrated, a little disappointed, a little pissed to be totally honest with you. It’s been lackluster the past couple of days.”

While it’s still early in the process, Stoops clearly isn’t pleased with what he’s seen ahead of the 2023 season this fall. But this is what spring practice is for — establishing expectations and working through offseason issues. Having so many new faces from the transfer portal in key positions certainly isn’t helping either. A brand new quarterback, new running back, and turnover on the offensive line and on defense were inevitably going to bring some hiccups, but there seems to be even more at this stage than Coach Stoops anticipated.

But what appeared to make Stoops the most infuriated on Saturday was the lack of overall leadership he’s seeing from the top down. His best groups during his time in Lexington have been successful because of the on-field leaders stepping up. Being “player-led” is a major Stoops-ism, but that just isn’t the case right now with this group.

“I like to be a player-led team, but we’re not,” he added. “So we got to step in. We as a coaching staff better lead, because this group can’t.”

“It’s day-by-day man. We’re right in it. We’re in the thick of it. It’s a new team, we’re cultivating our team right now and learning — spring ball is about fundamentals and discipline and toughness and the basics and we can’t do that.”

It didn’t take long for Kentucky players to receive the message, either. Shortly after Stoops (briefly) vented to the media, transfer quarterback Devin Leary came out to take responsibility for the poor practice effort. In a way, he believes Stoops’ comments will light a fire under the team. It starts with someone like Leary taking strides as a leader, even if he’s only been on campus for about two months.

“I think it’s personal to the whole team,” Leary said Saturday. “Coach Stoops is challenging us that we need to step it up. What he’s seeing out there is not good enough and like I said, I’m a new guy, but at the same time I need to emerge and I still need to step it up for everyone. Guys walk away after a practice like that and after the way Coach Stoops dismissed us, kind of pissed off in a way. We got to be better. The older guys are telling the younger guys ‘hey we got to step it up’ and the younger guys that are playing are saying the same thing, ‘hey we all need to get on the same page’. I think in a way, everyone took it personally.”

“I truly think the great teams are player-led, not coach-led. That’s what Coach Stoops is basically telling us is that every single day it can’t be the coaches that want it more than the players. It’s got to be players that step it up and rally everyone else together. It’s a challenge that you’ve got to take on but if we want to get to that next step, it’s got to be a challenge that we overcome.”

This year’s group is coming in young compared to past Kentucky teams. The majority of last season’s leaders — Will Levis, Chris Rodriguez, Jacquez Jones, Jordan Wright, DeAndre Square — are headed to the NFL. While Kentucky went out and reloaded with plenty of transfer portal talent, several of them are still new to the program. The youngsters from last season who learned from the upperclassmen now have to step into those same roles. Even some of the veterans are still learning how to fill that void.

“With me, I’ve been here for like four years,” Senior OLB JJ Weaver said Saturday. “So I’m trying to break my shell because we had DeAndre Square on defense, we had (Jacquez). I’ve been here so I know the leadership that needs to be done. I’m working on it every day. We just young, you know? People pout, people do everything, we just got to grow up.”

Weaver added that, if it comes to it, the perceived leaders on this team will need to start calling players out if they aren’t performing up to expectations. Accountability matters. It’s a long process, and there’s plenty of time to correct these issues. But Stoops has made it clear that something has to change sooner rather than later.