WATCH: Mark Stoops recaps Kentucky's 41-6 win over Ohio

Kentucky moved back to .500 and totaled almost 500 yards of offense in the 41-6 win over Ohio, but Mark Stoops still found plenty to nitpick in his postgame press conference. While Stoops had plenty of praise for his team, he kept coming back to the things they need to continue to work on before going back to SEC play at No. 5 Ole Miss next week.

“It’s good to get back in the win column,” Stoops said. “Obviously, today was far from perfect. Many mistakes out there, but a lot to get corrected. I think it was important to play a lot of guys. There are players that work extremely hard. A lot of young guys got in there tonight, and I think that’s extremely important. The first half, I wish we could have gotten a few more points, gotten some guys a few more snaps, but we pulled away late.”

Stoops acknowledged he wanted to kick a field goal at the end of the first half to go up 20-0 but second-guessed himself, which led to Brock Vandagriff being sacked and the clock running out. As that play showed, pass protection is still an issue, which is one reason why Gavin Wimsatt got playing time throughout. The Cats did have some explosive plays on offense, which Stoops said was an “improvement.” A lot of those belonged to Dane Key, who had a big day with 7 catches for 145 yards, both career highs.

When it comes to defense, Stoops drew some laughs when talking about JJ Weaver’s fumble recovery in the second quarter. Ohio was on Kentucky’s five-yard line when quarterback Nick Poulos lost the ball on a quarterback keeper. Weaver scooped it up and had the whole field in front of him to run it back but stumbled at the 20-yard line, which set up Demie Sumo-Karngbaye for a touchdown on the next drive. It was the first fumble Kentucky recovered after forcing seven this season, one on the same drive that was overturned upon review.

“Yeah, that was, it was really good. It took us a while to get that fumble. It’s still — I mean, I just had to shake my head as it was going through. I was like, really? But it was good. It was important at that moment too, to buck up and keep them out of the end zone and get that turnover and give us decent field position to get back on the field.”

Hear more from Stoops below. He even dropped a curse word towards the end!

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