Stoops: "A very deflating defeat. They kicked our butts."

As you can imagine, Mark Stoops was disappointed in Kentucky’s effort down in Starkville. He arrived to his postgame press conference completely dejected and defeated following a two-touchdown loss to Mississippi State out of Kentucky’s bye week.

“It’s been a while since we’ve played a game like that,” Stoops said in his opening remarks. “So, not a very good feeling. They beat us in all phases.”

Stoops acknowledged Mississippi State won the physicality and intensity battles, and expressed his disappointment in Kentucky’s inability to match the Bulldogs’ effort.

“Felt like we got pushed around,” Stoops admitted. “We weren’t able to run the ball. They ran the ball. They made competitive plays, out-coached us, outplayed us in every area. So, overall, just a very deflating defeat.

“They kicked our butts.”

Why the letdown game now?

Stoops and his coaching staff thought Kentucky’s letdown games were behind them, a lesson learned in the close-call against Chattanooga in Week 3 of this season. The Wildcats entered that game as a 32-point favorite over the FCS opponent and trailed early in the fourth quarter. They weren’t supposed to have another letdown performance again, especially not out of a bye week.

So how did it happen now?

“I really don’t know,” Stoops told the Courier-Journal’s Jon Hale, who asked if the overall performance felt similar to that Chattanooga game. “It’s hard to put my finger on it. I felt like we had good preparation. I think, you have to give them credit. They were very physical. We knew that coming into it. You look at their defense and the way they mix it up, the way they put pressure on you, I knew that coming into it. And they did.

“For us, on the other side of the ball for us, defensively, it didn’t seem like we made one competitive play, at least down the field. Some of our guys up front maybe did some good things but anytime they throw it as efficiently as they did, they ran it enough to keep us off-balance, they moved the chains… When you give up four turnovers, when you turn the ball over like that against an offense like this and on the road, you got no shot.

“Overall, no good across the board.”

Moving forward: Back to work

As Stoops noted in his first postgame comment, it’s been a while since Kentucky Football walked out of a stadium as disappointed in themselves as they were leaving Davis Wade. He wants to see them return to the attitude he injected into the program; if not, he will find players who will.

“We have to address it,” Stoops said of the poor effort. “It’s not a good feeling. I don’t want to have a football team like this and I don’t think these guys want to play that way. That’s not who we’re going to be, it’s not going to be our identity, and we’ll get back to work and get it fixed and make sure we’ve got the right guys out on the field that want to continue to play like we play.”

Back to work they go.