Mark Stoops' Press Conference Leftovers (The Not-As-Important Stuff)

It may be Labor Day where you are, but it’s not a three-day holiday weekend over at the Kentucky Football facility where Monday marked the beginning of Week 2 preparations for Mark Stoops and his team for their upcoming trip to Florida. As part of those preparations, Stoops took questions in his Monday afternoon press conference at Kroger Field to look back on the season-opening win versus Miami (OH) and ahead to the challenges in Gainesville this coming Saturday against the Gators and their newfound confidence.

Obviously, the biggest news from the conversation is the continued absence of Chris Rodriguez in the backfield and Stoops’ continued non-answer on the matter. “I don’t have anything I can report,” Stoops told reporters, while noting the decision and his public comments are beyond his control. “There are layers to this (and) I’ve been advised I cannot comment on it. It’s not that I’m not trying to hide things from you.”

Stoops also showed some confidence in the offensive line after a rough start to the season, plus reviews of Kentucky’s quarterback play and other positions around the field. You can find those stories and more in their own posts here on Kentucky-Sports-Radio-dot-com. In this space, I’ll recap Stoops’ smaller quotes and nuggets that are worth sharing but not worth their own columns and blog posts.

These are the leftovers from Monday’s pre-Florida press conference:

“It’s never quite as bad as it is, and never quite as good.”

Mark Stoops’ opening statement included one of his favorite lines: “It’s never quite as bad as it is, and never quite as good.”

Watch the whole thing here if you haven’t already. (Or keep reading to save time.)

Soft coverage mistakes versus Miami

After Kentucky’s defense allowed a 75-yard scoring drive on the opening possession of the season, Stoops admitted there were some soft coverages that Miami attacked in Saturday’s game.

“There were two or three that stand out to me that we were overly soft in coverage,” he said Monday. “Part of that is communication on whether we’re going to zone it or match it, and with the splits and the situation being the way it was, we should’ve been in a man call and could’ve challenged it better, and we didn’t. We’ll get some of that ironed out quickly, easily; and some if it is just player reps.”

Stoops also pointed out a lot of the good in the secondary, saying, “We challenged several passes and made some competitive plays in several situations.”

Florida’s secondary is experienced and talented

Looking ahead to Florida, Stoops spoke very highly of Anthony Richardson and said Kentucky will have to crank up its intensity to beat Florida in the Swamp. Stoops also complimented the Gators’ secondary, namely a former high school star he tried recruiting to Kentucky.

“Defensively, they have three of the four on the backend returning, very good football players. Guys with a lot of experience. Trey Dean, their free safety, I can’t believe he’s still playing. But no, he’s only a fifth-year, but he’s a good player. I remember recruiting him out of high school and just a very good player. Very experienced, very solid and got great length. So, they have a good group back there and their nickel has quite a bit of experience as well. So that group is very good and very talented.”

Excitement for La’Vell Wright

Though Stoops would rather have his full stable of running backs available on Saturday, he is excited to see La’Vell Wright in an increased role as the team’s backup to Kavosiey Smoke. Only a redshirt freshman, Wright carried the ball twice in his second-half relief duty against Miami, bringing his career total to 11 carries in five games appearances.

Stoops added that Wright dealt with an injury during fall camp but he’s back to health in time for his first appearance on the two-deep.

“We were excited to get La’vell going again,” said Stoops. “He’s another big, strong guy that can hit it up in there for some tough yards.”

Saturday’s standouts along the defensive line

When asked to name a defensive lineman who performed well in Saturday’s win, Stoops answered with redshirt sophomore Tre’vonn Rybka and redshirt freshman Kahil Saunders.

“Tre’vonn Rybka played better, and we need him to, and Kahlil did some good things,” he said. “We played that position by committee. There’s quite a few guys in there and they did their job.

“For the most part, we played the run game pretty stout,” Stoops continued. “We gave up some explosives with some things that we need to get ironed out, that we can; relatively simple fixes. We gave up a few runs. One of them was a communication issue. We got out of gap, out of position with a shift and a trade. It doesn’t usually bother us; in that particular call, we got in the wrong position and gave up a big run. We’ll get that ironed out.”

A funny story on Barion Brown

You may have noticed that on both of his kick returns, Barion Brown caught the ball over his head while backpedaling into the endzone. Stoops warned him the first time about bringing it out after an awkward catch, but Brown clearly didn’t listen.

“I told Barion after the first one, don’t ever catch the ball up there going backwards and bring it out. The next time,” Stoops laughed, “he catches it going back, he goes 100 yards.

“I said I told you not to do that. He thought I was serious. But he does have to learn, because this week, you catch that a yard or two deep going the wrong way, and we’ll be pinned inside the 20.” 

Stoops also said he knew Brown was gone when Brown turned the corner and hit the jets on Miami’s coverage.

“I felt like it was going to the house because the great ones, when they turn that corner in the open field like that, it’s all about the true speed and he has it.”

Did he just say Brown is one of the great ones?

We’ll hear more from Stoops coming up on his Monday night call-in show.