Mark Stoops: "I'm not interested in giving up anything"

Mark Stoops kicked off the final week of talking season by speaking to a few hundred passionate Kentucky football fans at the Louisville Alumni Association Kickoff Luncheon on Millionaire’s Row at Churchill Downs. Fresh off a second 10-win season in four years, there’s plenty of preseason hype surrounding the Top 25 team. Kentucky’s head coach doesn’t want to get caught up in the hype, but he isn’t counting any losses when he looks ahead to the 2022 season.

“The anticipation is there, the excitement is there. I have an unbelievable coaching staff, and we have a heck of a football team,” Mark Stoops said. “I really liked them, I like their mindset, I like the way they’re approaching practice, approaching the season. They’re very businesslike, there’s a great mixture of experience and youth.”

Stoops saw the businesslike approach Sunday night. Typically the Cats get the day off after a scrimmage. In order to give his players the day off for the first day of the fall semester, Stoops moved Monday’s practice to last night.

“They went straight to work. You know, we had great meetings, we cleaned up the scrimmage, watched the film, went out on the practice field and got unbelievable work done on a Sunday evening,” he said. “That’s this team and I love their their approach and the the mental capacity that they have and they’re submitting to the things that we need to do to be successful.”

Talk like that has folks ready to pick a 10 or 11-win season for the Wildcats in 2022. Mark Stoops is not counting on any losses.

“Number one, we go out to compete to prepare to win every game. People are like well, you know, we could go 10-2 — I’m not interested in giving up anything. We’re not out there to go lose any games. And that’s our approach. That’s how hard we work. That’s the players’ approach and the results will take care of themselves. That’s why we play the game. That’s why everybody loves this game. A lot of things happen throughout the season, but I can’t, again, I don’t want to be boring, but we can’t be consumed with that end result.”

Chris Rodriguez Decision Coming Next Week

Mark Stoops does not attend luncheons to create headlines. WAVE-3’s Kent Taylor, the emcee of the event, tried to make one by asking a question about Chris Rodriguez. Stoops did not bite.

“I am not prepared to comment on that at this time. We will address that the week of the game.”

Stoops joked, “Where’s Tom Leach?” All joking aside, prepare to hear the final verdict on C-Rod at Monday’s press conference at Kroger Field, scheduled to start at Noon EST.

The Tight Ends are Good

We often joke about the BBN’s affinity for Kentucky tight ends. This year Vince Marrow has enough depth and talent to satisfy the BBN’s tight end craving.

“If we get the Big Dog up here he can talk for an hour about his tight ends,” Stoops joked. “We all know that but truthfully, it really is a great group. Vince does a great job of recruiting across the board at all positions, but certainly take care of his position that he coaches and those guys have done a really good job.

“Without giving too much information away to our opponents, I think he’d be the first one to brag on them. They caught quite a few footballs in the first two scrimmage I want to say maybe 13 catches in scrimmage one and nine or 10 in scrimmage two. So those guys are producing, they’re making some plays. We feel like we’re deep at that position. They’re doing a real good job. It’s important in this offense.”

Mark Stoops has his Best Freshman Class Ever

Hyperbole is not a part of Mark Stoops’ repertoire. He prefers to pump the brakes on lofty expectations, but he’s also a realist. After a couple weeks in camp, it’s clear that the Cats have some special true freshmen.

“This class that we have right now — Vince and I haven’t talked about this but I imagine he’d say the same thing — I think this class, this group of freshmen we have on our campus right now is the best we’ve ever had, the most ready to contribute.”

Stoops expects to play six or seven true freshmen. Describing them as “no-brainers,” they are too good to keep off the field.

“Those guys go on the field and they’re electric. They make you more dynamic and more explosive right away.”