Mark Stoops expects response following South Carolina loss, but 'we have to go prove it'

Is Kentucky ready to move past its embarrassing loss to South Carolina and make a statement against the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs? Mark Stoops believes so, but only the Wildcats can prove that once the ball is kicked inside Kroger Field on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

It was tough getting back to the football offices on Sunday and hitting play on the game tape, knowing the results wouldn’t be pretty. The UK head coach struggled to put into words what exactly went wrong in the 31-6 loss last week, a complete shock after a good week of practice and what appeared to be a prepared locker room.

It gave the team plenty to work with this week, but you’d prefer it not come ahead of the No. 1 team in college football coming to town.

“There was so much for us to improve on this week. For us, there was a lot to do, obviously, and a lot to address. We had to make improvements, bottom line,” Stoops said. “Make improvements in all areas, in particular self-induced penalties and turnovers. Much to do, and I feel like we did that. Our players, we have their full attention this week.

“Hopefully that carries over. Obviously, we play a great team in Georgia and we’re excited about that opportunity. I feel like we made some steps.”

What did he learn after reviewing the film? They were mostly self-inflicted errors — all correctable, especially with time. The team spent far too much time worrying about executing before the snap they couldn’t take care of business in live ball situations.

Comfort comes with experience and the hope is South Carolina gave Kentucky everything it needed to learn in the bloodbath.

“Just control the things we can control, improve in the areas we need to,” Stoops said. “Every week there are always little nuances, new wrinkles. Really, the big thing was challenging them to come in early in the week with a focus and know the gameplan and hone in on it. Be precise. We can’t grow if we’re worried about pre-snap. We do a lot pre-snap, we can’t be so consumed with that to the point we can’t execute. I thought that was an issue last week and we’ll improve as the year goes on and they get more comfortable.

“You go through spring and then camp, and it’s a lot of the basics. A lot of things they’re used to. Then you throw in wrinkles and you’ve got to be able to put that on top of it, you have to have the capacity to handle all of that. We’ll get better.”

Will that growth come in time for Georgia? Thats the goal, obviously, but Stoops also thought his team was prepared going into South Carolina.

It’s on his players to execute when the lights come on late Saturday evening at Kroger Field.

“I hope so. I mean, I think you know how I coach and want our teams to look and play,” he said. “I try different things to make sure that they understand that. This is this year’s team, it’s our team, and I believe we’ll respond that I anticipate they will. But, you know, we have to go play. We have to go prove it.”