WATCH: Mark Stoops' Press Conference After the Win over Murray State

You watched the Kentucky Wildcats take down Murray State at Kroger Field. Now hear what Mark Stoops had to say about the blowout win that’s going to give Big Blue Nation mixed emotions.

Yes, Kentucky covered the spread in the game after the bye week for the first time since 2017. No, they did not play a clean game of football. But true freshman quarterback Cutter Boley looked sharp in his first extended time under center for Kentucky. The Cats scored points on every drive he played.

There was some good and some bad. Mark Stoops leaned more on the good than the bad, especially the fact that many underclassmen got extended reps for the first time.

“That was a good game to get a lot of our players some reps, even early in the game, starting some guys that hadn’t gotten many snaps at all at the start of the game… It was sloppy at times, but also we did what we had to do for the majority of the game,” said Stoops.

Unfortunately, Stoops shared some not-so-good injury news, headlined by the loss of D’Eryk Jackson for the year. Hear what else the coach had to say about the strange football game by tuning into his postgame press conference.

Transcript

MARK STOOPS:   Are you guys ready?  All right, we will make this a little bit quick, right?  That was the longest game in the history of college football.  Welcome back.  I think everybody’s ready.  Welcome back.  So, I think that was a good game to get a lot of our players some reps as you saw even early in the game.  You know, starting some guys that hadn’t gotten any stats at all and started the game.  Then obviously, we rolled quite a few players through the game.  It was sloppy at times, also did what we had to do for the majority of the game.  Obviously, I think penalties, you know I think we only had four at the half.  One of them was a big one and was probably a 70 yard penalty.  So, it felt a little worse than it was.  In the second half, a lot of young guys, you know, it was nice to see us – I believe, Mitch and I was talking about, I think we scored every drive in the second half.  Is that accurate?  So, obviously it was good to see with Cutter in there under center and moving the team and operating and just getting some substantial playing time.  You know, again, I know people are going to get real excited about that, and I am too.  I told you all along, I thought he was a very special young man.  But I just want to thank Brock too, and he is one tough son of a gun.  He really didn’t get cleared to play this game until yesterday afternoon, like late afternoon.  Like, late afternoon.  And had to clear some more protocols to be cleared to play.  He’s just such a team guy, you know, a lot of people wouldn’t have done that.  Obviously, I’m out of those decision-making.  It is doctors and him telling me whether they’re cleared or not.  But just a lot of people wouldn’t do it.  You know, I commend him for that and just grinding through it and playing and he’s been doing that all year.  He’s a great young man as well.  So, I just want to talk about both of those guys.  And again, so many guys got some much needed reps, you know, on both sides of the ball.  I will open it up.  

Q Mark, you talked about the play of Cutter Boley and how you go into setting up.  What do you see – with this program?  

MARK STOOPS: I liked just everything about it.  Just the poise that he had, obviously, nothing rattled him at all.  He was very patient in the pocket.  I thought he moved when he had to.  You know, threw the ball very well and made good decisions.  So, yeah, definitely very excited.  

Q With Cutter and (Anthony) Brown-Stephens, there certainly was a connection out there, don’t they?  

MARK STOOPS:  Yeah, it was really good for AB too.  He’s a guy that, you know, just puts his head down and goes to work all the time and it was good to see him getting some touches, getting some touchdowns.  And Ja’Mori again, with another tough catch and touchdown as well in the first half.  

Q Both of those first two deep balls from Brock was like so underthrown, you had to wonder was that the health thing or something?  

MARK STOOPS:  It was late, they were late.  The second one in particular, he was late and he was off on his first work and I think probably tried to get some extra.  He knew if he was late throwing that, it just didn’t come out right, you know, so bad throw.  

Q Mark, you mentioned going into the game – that you had a lot of guys on defense, does Dumas-Johnson or D-Jack, are those expected to be extended absences?  

MARK STOOPS:  D-Jack is extended absences.  Yeah, he’s out for the year.  But Dumas-Johnson should be back next week.  And again, he’s another one that’s out there to get us to play him all the way through yesterday.  But he just wasn’t 100%, he just wasn’t quite right and so I couldn’t let him go out there and play.  

Q What about JJ?  

MARK STOOPS:  I hope he’s back as well.  I think JJ should be back; I think Barion should be back.  So, we’ll see.

Q You talked about Cutter– getting them minutes but there are plenty of other freshmen out there in the second half that put on a show.  Jamarion Wilcox, Willie Rodriguez, – they all played some good games today.  

MARK STOOPS:  They really did.  Yeah, they really did.  I think those are guys that we had a lot of confidence in.  Some of the guys you mentioned right there.  Willie, you know, Hardley is a guy that, you know, if he wasn’t hurt you would have seen him a lot earlier in the year.  The injury earlier in the season set him back a little bit.  But, good player, defensively a lot of good young guys out there as well.  So, just needed the reps, you know.  There is nothing like game reps.  In the third quarter we had a bunch of young guys out there and they were doing some unbalanced and some creative things.  You know, for our guys it was really good work because there’s nothing like those game reps and seeing things for the first time against different calls.  I was just glad to see them get some good reps.  

Q Mark, I know you’ve been holding Jamarion accountable, but he’s kind of a star in the making now.  He shined again, how is he continuing to shine?  

MARK STOOPS:  He’s no different than anybody.  He’s never, I mean, he’s no different than any player on our team.  Jamarion’s always been really, you know, good attitude, really positive and everything.  It’s just there’s a lot to the offense.  Just learning every little facet of it and out of those things.  And sometimes, you know, he’s grown.  There is no denying that running ability.  No doubt about it.  I was joking with him on the sideline.  At one point, I think he was averaging 12 yards per run and they called back – I don’t know how long that one was he had.  

Q 73.  

MARK STOOPS:  73?  Yeah, that would have been a pretty good average.  

Q Moving his feet it seems like.  Like he goes downhill.  

MARK STOOPS:  Yeah, he’s a talented runner.  I teach him that.

Q What you saw from Cutter, is that kind of been par for the course in practice too?  And like, what kind of work would you like to see him?  

MARK STOOPS:  There is no replacing that, like getting out there on the game field and playing snaps.  Because, you know, playing against opponents where they are not anticipating.  You know, when they go against our defense every year, every day, you know, you kind of get used to some things.  Game reps, there is no replacing game reps.  It was just really good to see them go out there and just, like I said, the comfort level, going through his progressions, his throws, his poise in the pocket, it was good.  

Q Mark, I know you are really excited for Cutter’s future.  What would you say to anybody you’ve seen today, oh, just throwing him out there for the last two games or whatever?  

MARK STOOPS:  Listen, every day in our building we have to evaluate every player.  But I have so much respect and admiration for Brock and what he’s done.  Like I said, the fact that he got out there and played, you know, what he went through to get cleared and go play that game says a lot about him.  But, yeah, we evaluate things all the time and we talked about after the bye, coming back, you know, regrouping and really trying to finish this last third of the season.  We have a big one next week.  Another great opportunity.  

Q Cutter got that experience down in Florida. I know it wasn’t great for anybody, at least played in a hostile environment.  Does that make you more comfortable to throw them out there at Texas?  

MARK STOOPS:  Yeah, I think for us it was a matter of during the bye, Brock wasn’t 100%.  We had an opportunity to get him a lot of reps, so put him in a position to be successful.  That environment that I talked about, you know, in that position was tough to throw him into.  But again, I said it right afterwards, you could tell just by watching the one game that it wasn’t going to faze him.  I know him and I know his personality and that wasn’t going to rattle him.  If anything, it would spark him to be, you know, as he told me.  Don’t worry about it.  Next time I’m in there I will be ready to go.  So, I know this is a different situation being at home against a one double A team.  You know, he’s just got that type of personality.  

Q Regardless of the competition, what does it do to get a win?  

MARK STOOPS: You know, obviously we were long overdue.  We needed a victory and our team has been good I thought, as I mentioned coming off of the bye.  Trying to physically and mentally heal up a little bit. We were able to play this game without playing guys at 50%, 60%, you know, 70% trying to get out there and play.  We tried to keep anybody that was totally cleared played.  If they were not cleared and ready, then we did not play them.  So, hopefully that will help us down the stretch with two big games.  

Q Hardley Gilmore had couple of big plays.  Compared to all the passes he’s caught this season; he’s gone through big yardage.  What do you have to say about what he brought to the lineup and do you see him playing a bigger role in the near future?  

MARK STOOPS:  Yeah, I think we’ve mentioned that Hardley has some ability and he’s a quality player.  We’ve talked about it for a while.  And again, the injury, he was out for whatever it was, six, seven weeks set him back.  But he’s been working his way back into the role.  What also I love about him is he plays so hard.  He plays very physical and very hard.  

Q What was it like to see Josaih Hayes get out there and play?  

MARK STOOPS:  I really like that.  I like seeing him out there.  That’s a tough injury to come back from, as you know. He’s been working hard and it was really good to see him. 

Q Does he have another year?  

MARK STOOPS:  Yes.  All right, thank you all.  

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