Mark Stoops wants Brock Vandagriff to play his game, not be a 'superhero'

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Brock Vandagriff‘s long-awaited debut as a collegiate starter is almost here. After three years at Georgia (where he watched the Bulldogs win national titles in 2021 and 2022 as a backup), it’s finally his time to shine. The former five-star high school recruit will take Kroger Field as QB1 on Saturday night against Southern Miss.

Expectations for Vandagriff are all over the place going into Kentucky’s season opener. Some fans are understandably cautious after what happened last season with Devin Leary running the show. But Leary was no five-star prospect. Vandagriff has also seen first-hand what a high-level winning program looks like and how it operates. Expectations will still be tempered, but there are plenty of reasons to be excited.

The reality is we won’t know until we know. It’s the simplest — and most obvious — summation. It’s also the right one. Luckily, we don’t have to wait much longer to find out. No one is more eager to finally get on the field than Vandagriff either. He said earlier this week that he can’t sleep ahead of gamedays because of how excited he gets. Emotions will be all over the place. There will be enough pregame nerves to go around for everyone.

Head coach Mark Stoops, who joked during Thursday’s press conference that he hopes his quarterback receives plenty of rest tonight, just wants to see Vandagriff get in live reps against real competition. He doesn’t need Vandagriff gunning for a 500-yard performance against an inferior opponent in Week 1. Kentucky has too much talent around him for that to be a necessity.

What Stoops wants is for Vandagriff to settle in quickly, play his game, and execute the calls from new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan — to prove to everyone that he can lead this team to a successful season against a challenging schedule.

“He just needs to go out there and be him and play. We have a lot of confidence in him, we have a lot of good players around him,” Stoops said about Vandagriff on Thursday. “As I’ve mentioned, we don’t need anyone to go out there and be a superhero. We have good players. Play within themselves and do your job. If he does that — and that’s what he has done in the past, even with limited reps, he’s been very successful at that. And that’s what we expect him to do.”

That’s what Vandagriff should do, too. He’s been labeled as calm, cool, and collected since arriving on campus. The phone belt clip told us everything we needed to know. All Vandagriff does is focus on football. Now it’s time to see it translate onto the field.

“(Vandagriff is) not interested in anything except sitting up there in the office and watching tape and evaluating us,” Stoops added. “That’s what he’s interested in. Playing football and, of course, if he gets any time in the offseason he’s gonna go fish or hunt. That’s about it.”

Kickoff on Saturday against Southern Miss is set for 7:55 p.m. EST on the SEC Network. The Brock Vandagriff era at Kentucky is almost here.