Six Things Mark Stoops Said After The Loss

Mark Stoops was disappointed that Kentucky Football couldn’t find any points in the Music City Bowl as the loss to Iowa snapped a four-game win streak in bowls and the nation’s longest win streak versus non-conference opponents. Still, he was optimistic before leaving Nashville by what he saw out of true freshman quarterback Destin Wade against one of the best defenses in the country, and by his own defense’s effort in holding Iowa to 206 total yards and only one scoring drive in the game.

For Stoops’ comments on both sides of the ball and more from the loss, here’s a round-up of his quotes from the Nissan Stadium podium. These are six comments that stood out from that postgame discussion before he signed off from the 2022 season.

“Obviously, very disappointed in this defeat”

Stoops opened up his postgame press conference by expressing his disappointment in how Kentucky came out on the wrong end of the final game of 2022, followed by a nod to Iowa for winning the fight.

“I want to start by recognizing and congratulating Iowa,” Stoops said in defeat. “They played a very good game. Both of us were down some players and a bit short-handed, and they did what they had to do to win the football game.

“Getting us in bad field position, they played very good defense. We knew that going into it, that they’re a very good defensive team.”

He added, “I think Iowa won today by being Iowa, and credit them. I say that with a compliment.”

“They put us behind the eight-ball early”

In a game with very low expectations for the scoring column, it was lost when Iowa scored back-to-back touchdowns in a matter of seconds in the second quarter. First, the two-throw drive from good field position off a Kentucky punt for the game’s only offensive touchdown, only for Kentucky’s Destin Wade to give Iowa another touchdown with a pick-6 on the game’s very next snap.

“They played better than us in special teams and certain areas early, and they put us behind the eight-ball,” Stoops said. “Defensively, I thought we played really good for the majority of the game, but by being backed up early, it helped them have a short drive and set up their one offensive touchdown. And really, you know, we’re playing a bit of catch-up from that point on.”

“Very proud of Destin… Destin was put in a tough situation today”

With Destin Wade sitting beside him in the postgame press conference, Stoops said he is proud of his freshman quarterback after Wade’s first-ever minutes as Kentucky’s QB. Wade threw the ball 30 times against Iowa’s lockdown defense with those two crucial turnovers, but overall Stoops was pleased with how Wade handled the moment, given the unique and difficult circumstances.

“I wanted to let Destin play,” Stoops explained giving Wade the starting nod and leaving him in through mistakes. “I wanted to see the future and what it looks like and give him an opportunity to just go out there and play ball and play it with the confines of our offense and our system and down a coordinator. You know, he was put in a tough situation. He will learn from it without a doubt, and we look forward to that and his growth.”

Stoops also took the blame for a third-down call that put Wade in a tough spot. “The 3rd-and-1, you know, I’ll put that on me. I won’t put that on Destin. I probably should have ran the ball there and got out of the half. One once we got that, it kind of put us in a really bad spot.”

“There will be a lot of armchair quarterbacks that sit back and critique this guy”

More from Stoops on Destin Wade; he again emphasized the difficulty in playing quarterback for the first time on short prep and against Iowa’s defense.

“I saw a young man that has a bright future,” said Stoops. “Destin was put in a tough situation today. So there will be a lot of armchair quarterbacks that sit back and want to critique this guy, but I tell you right now, let them go back there and play against that defense and see how easy that is.

“It’s a tough row to hoe. Believe me, we know that going into it. It’s a tough spot, but he manned up and did some good things.”

Tough row to hoe. I like that one.

“We felt like we had to spread it out a bit”

Regarding those 30 pass attempts for the newcomer, Stoops said it was part of the game plan with Chris Rodriguez and other running backs gone from the backfield.

“We felt like we had to spread it out a bit,” he said. “Iowa, if you watch them — we weren’t quite the
same team we were a year ago. They are still very physical and very tough up front, so hitting in big sets and playing smash-mouth with them I think was going to be a tough spot.

“But, yeah, we did feel like we had to spread him out a bit and use his legs, use some quarterback run game, which gave us some good plays.”

“The defensive guys I thought played pretty darn solid all day”

Enough about the offense. Mark Stoops’ defense held Iowa to one score and he was very pleased with that group’s effort, especially with some young names filling in for veteran absences. One of those bright, young fill-ins was Trevin Wallace, who was seated to Stoops’ left when Stoops said, “Defensively, Trevin and the defensive guys I thought played pretty darn solid all day. Played really hard.

“Trevin and some guys right in the middle that have some experience now that are ready to explode and be really big-team players. So I feel like we have a lot of good pieces in place, and we just have to get back to work.”

One of the bright young stars who didn’t get a look on defense was Destin Wade’s brother, Keaten, who didn’t get his chance because the defense was playing too well.

“You go eight three-and-outs, it’s hard to rotate guys,” Stoops explained.

Hear it all below, including comments from Wade, Wallace and more.