Entering Year 11 at Kentucky, Nothing "Feels Routine" for Stoops Before Kickoff
Mark Stoops is entering his eleventh season in Lexington. No other Kentucky football coach has ever been able to say that until now. Even though there is a routine that comes with the start of a new season, nothing ever feels routine.
“It’s always different, it really is. It’s always an exciting time. It picks up, you get wandering, know what I mean? I have a hard time sleeping anyway, but last night was definitely a little different,” he said at his first game week press conference of the 2023 season.
“Just knowing this routine, getting back into the Monday press conference, radio show tonight, the prep, the messaging with the team. It feels good getting in the game week. It never feels routine and each and every year. It’s a different challenge and a different excitement level, different anxiety level, whatever you want to call it, but it’s time to go.”
Kentucky has 13 returning starters on this year’s depth chart. The coaching nucleus behind Kentucky’s 10-win 2021 season — Brad White, Liam Coen, Vince Marrow — is back on the sideline. Even though the Big Blue Nation is familiar with many faces on this year’s team, the Kentucky football team is evolving. Even though Liam Coen is using the same principles from his first stint in Lexington, the offense will not look like a carbon copy of what we saw in 2021.
“I think you’ll be able to see some some differences,” said Stoops. “We all change and evolve and grow weekly and yearly, certainly in this profession. I mean, you have to. Whether it’s the way you’re presenting plays, the way you’re setting it up. You have to grow. There’ll be certain things that you will see that you’ve seen before, and there’ll be some new things as well. And a lot of times there’s changes that y’all would have no clue that there’s changes. It’s how we target things, where we’re going, what we’re doing, you know what I mean? So there’s, there’s a lot to it.”
Stoops Points of Emphasis for Offense, Defense
Even though Mark Stoops knows his team pretty well, the season-opener is always filled with unknowns. Without preseason games in college football, coaches are never sure how their teams will respond under the bright lights until they’re turned on for the first time. The biggest question mark typically surrounds arguably the most important facet of the game, tackling the opponent.
“Tackling, a lot of it has to do with position on the football. If we’re in the right spot, you’re not getting fooled so to speak, and guys playing out of control and not where they need to be and not containing the football, not leveraging the football and letting guys run wild, then you’ll see good clean tackling,” said Stoops.
“You may see a mess or two because it is early and it happens. You play against other players that are talented that make people miss. But overall good structure, good defense helps a lot on that.”
While Kentucky’s head coach acknowledged the various schematic challenged Ball State may pose in the opener, Stoops is focused on his team. Offensively, that means executing from the huddle till the whistle is blown.
“Early in game one you just want to look clean. I know that’s pretty broad based right there. That can entail a lot, but taking care of the football first and foremost. We can’t go into a game like this and turn the ball over and be sloppy with the football. We have to protect the football and take care of that. You’re looking for the operation, pre-snap penalties, anything like that. We’re on it all the time with the play clock, trying to be smooth and getting things out. But we are a pro-style, just not trying to take up the whole play clock every play as well. We want to get a rhythm and get going and play with some tempo. I think just the operation is really important for us.”
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