Hear from Mark Stoops and Cutter Boley after Kentucky's win over Florida

Mark Stoops heard your critiques and responded with a home win over Florida on Saturday night, his third straight win over the Gators in Lexington. The win was also Kentucky‘s second in a row, snapping a home losing streak in the league after the Wildcats snapped the overall SEC losing streak a week ago at Auburn.

After the game, Stoops and his players were ecstatic, as you can imagine. Once they settled down after the locker room celebration, Stoops spoke first in the postgame press conference, saying he was proud of his players for how they responded to a slow start to 2025.

He was also happy to get a victory on home turf.

“These folks sacrifice an awful lot,” Stoops said of Kentucky fans. “They care and they continue to show up. We are going to need them to continue to do that.  We always acknowledge it and appreciate them. They have to save money, they travel long distances.  They show up week in and week out. I’ve always acknowledged our responsibility to play well for them.”

You can hear all of Stoops’ comments below, followed by more from Cutter Boley and several other members of the team.

Mark Stoops after Kentucky’s win over Florida

Cutter Boley and his teammates after the game

More postgame coverage is on the way on the KSR YouTube Channel. Subscribe today to see press conferences, interviews, Rapid Reaction, and more.

Transcript of Mark Stoops’ Comments

via UKAthletics.com:

MARK STOOPS: All right.  Just a very good victory.  Super proud of our football team.  I’ve sat in here and told you that last Saturday at Auburn.  On Monday, we talked about it, that the guys keep on working extremely hard. They care, they care about each other.  I feel like we are improving in certain areas and it continues to show up.  When mistakes happen, we’ve overcome it with the other side or other group or another person stepping up. And we talk about that a lot.  Adversities going to hit. How do you respond to it?  How do we handle it?  Our guys have done that.  You know, it starts with great effort and wasn’t always pretty out there tonight, but the effort was.  And I really appreciate that from our guys.  You know, that’s where it starts. With the effort and with the physicality and the toughness. Thought we played really good again in all three areas.  Great team victory.

Q Mark, you talked with us just a few weeks ago after the loss against Tennessee. You said, I know how hard it is with the fans right now with the way this is happening on this field.  What does it feel like for you and these players to get these fans an at home SEC victory tonight versus not being able to say that a few weeks ago? 

MARK STOOPS: It’s important. I acknowledge that. I understand.  These folks sacrifice an awful lot.  They care and they continue to show up. We are going to need them to continue to do that.  We always acknowledge it and appreciate them. They have to save money, they travel long distances.  They show up week in and week out.  I’ve always acknowledged our responsibility to play well for them. I promise you we give a great effort.  I like this team and I think they do too. They are very tough and they care and they are passionate for each other.  And to play well, it was nice to get some rewards.  We are close a lot, but that doesn’t count when you are a fan or media. I understand that.

Q Mark, when things were the darkest and most difficult, why didn’t the team implode?  It seems around the country we’ve seen that, why didn’t that happen? 

MARK STOOPS: It’s just not what we are going to do. You know what I mean? We are just not going to do that. We’ve got really good leadership, I’ve said that over and over. That’s not just coach B. They really generally are really great young men and they work really hard and they care.  They care about the way they play.  Tonight, again it was a great moment in there because mistakes were made.  Fumble a punt return, interceptions, fumbles, different things, the other side has to pick them up.  That’s what we are going to continue to do.

Q Mark, I think on media day Brad said a bunch of young defensive talent here or since he’s been here. Are we starting to see that with some of the guys making plays? 

MARK STOOPS: Yeah. You are seeing a lot of guys step up. On defense alone tonight, we were down, Alex, Lovett, Sam Greene, and Tavion.  For the majority of the night.  And other guys stepped up.  And that’s really good to see.

Q Mark, the first quarter when going into the second and Cutter – put your foot on the gas on the tempo.  What was the reasoning behind that decision and why were you comfortable going at a pace like that? 

MARK STOOPS: We’ve done a lot, well, we’ve done it this year.  It’s about, you know, you can go fast but you have to get first downs.  Then you get plays and then you get them on the heels. We tried it from time to time this year. When you are effective, you can do that.

Q Conversely, the third quarter kind of a classic Stoops immortalizing. What did you feel about the offensive line in response to that? 

MARK STOOPS: I thought that was an enormous drive to start the second half.  We really were physical in that drive.  We mixed it up and converted some third downs, throwing I want to say. We started throwing a little bit. We were balanced and we were physical.  At that point you are trying to put yourself in a great position to win the game, right?  In a long drive with seven points at the end of it was pretty important.

Q Mark, Seth every night –?

MARK STOOPS: Seth is a really good football player. He’s a tough guy, he’s a tough guy to bring down.  Just once again, loved the physicality that he plays with and the passion that he plays with and he has great vision and he catches the ball very good. He’s a good football player.

Q How much did you all kinda redo the short yardage package after that Texas game? It seems like there was a lot of different wrinkles that we had just not seen before. 

MARK STOOPS: We have. And again, going into that game we had been good for the most part on short yardage. It wasn’t in that game.  You better look at it and you better evaluate it.  You know, these guys we play are very big and physical.  So you better have some different wrinkles and we’ve done that.

Q Mark, anything about Cutter surprise you about not expecting to start off –?

MARK STOOPS: I wouldn’t say it is fair to say it surprised me, I’m very pleased.  You know, he certainly has made really good jumps each and every week.  Like last week, I thought that was a really impressive win.  I know the stats are not overwhelming or anything like that.  That’s what you are going to get in this league.  You go on the road, it’s tough. Even at home against a very talented football team. Tough yards out there.  He’s having fun.  That doesn’t mean it’s easy.  And it’s all pretty all the time.  You have to tough your way through it and grit it out.  You know, he’s doing that.  And that’s what you have to love about him.

Q Mark, when you came here, Kentucky hadn’t been Florida since 1986. You’ve now beaten them five times.  What does that mean for you?

MARK STOOPS: You know, as I acknowledge, when I first got here everybody would throw that on me and man, we had so much work to do.  Let me try to, you know what I mean, just get out on the ground.  So I was just worried about concentrating on getting our team right.  And then we had some really close games and again, I’ve acknowledged that one got a little heavy.  It is what it is, man.  Nobody’s going to feel sorry for you. Better swing your way out of it and you better have a good team and you better fight and claw and do what you have to do.  We had some tough ones where we came up short. Right?  It wasn’t fun.  Hopefully everybody enjoys it. You know the victories.  Because they are hard to come by and it’s a good talented football team and I’m proud of our guys.

Q Coach, what do you appreciate during the play calling?

MARK STOOPS: He had done a really nice job. In particular, we are really creating some space on third downs getting some talented guys off of us. Finding ways to create space, convert some third downs and we were physical.  There was a rhyme and reason for everything we had done.  Again, we were really effective on short yardage.  When we had to run the ball and everybody knew we were going to run the ball, we ran it, that’s important as well.

Q Mark, Brad said before the Auburn game last week they wanted to get the taste out of their mouth three points allowed against Auburn and seven obviously tonight. How has the defense, like you said, just really stepped up to take ownership to up their game? 

MARK STOOPS: You have to take accountability for it. And we did.  Everybody looked at their part and tried to improve. And there is no finger-pointing.  There’s things everybody could do better, and they have. You acknowledge it and you move on. As I said last week, the group has pride, and they care about the way they play. And we are playing very hard, but we are executing better too. We are more precise.

Q, You talk about young players growing into their rolls. Is that true for your offensive coordinator as well? 

MARK STOOPS: I wouldn’t say growing into it. He’s got plenty of experience with that.  I will say adapting to what we can do and putting our guys in good positions.  I appreciate what he’s done there. He’s worked really hard to find ways that would maximize our players talents.  As we see a young quarterback growing up before us, you know, guys are playing better.  We are making tough catches and doing some good things and so I think there is growth across the board.

Q Mark, -success at the quarterback position – freshman doing so well so early on. Just looking at the potential growth down the road? 

MARK STOOPS: You have no idea.  No, I mean, I believe in Cutter for a long time. You know, for many years.  Three or four years.  It’s just, I’m really proud of him, as I mentioned to the question earlier the growth that he’s making and improvement he’s making each and every week.  He gives everybody some hope.  It’s been good.

Q Mark, – 250 yards off seven completions and hear a year later – intercepted three times – how rewarding is it to see that bounce back?

MARK STOOPS: I’m always proud of our guys. Not directed at any given player.  That’s on us, not on him.  He’s a very talented player.  You know we’ve been playing good.  It’s was important to play well. It was the next opportunity for us, we are at home.  It was super important for us to play well. I’m proud of our coaches and I’m proud of our players.  They really attack it the right way.  Like I said, they are playing hard but we are executing and doing the little things better.

Q Those defensive injuries, do you think they are long-term things? 

MARK STOOPS: I don’t know, it will be a few weeks, I would think on most of them.

Q Since you made the quarterback change, you talked about Cutter has made growth every week and shown growth. So has the team. How much have they rallied around him and galvanize? 

MARK STOOPS: Again, I’ve said that, I’ve acknowledged that.  We are playing better. Guys are playing better around him, but definitely he has something to do with that. The way he is seeing things, the way he’s buying time, the vision that he has distributing the football, he’s making us better, and there is no question.

Q To go back to the question for a minute. All around the country, teams that have faced adversity have imploded.  We’ve seen teams that were to have thought to be in the national championship race just fall apart. How did you keep that from happening? 

MARK STOOPS: You know, that’s what we do. We have a great staff. The coaches have done a great job.  I care, you know what I mean?  I’ve worked hard with the team just in relationships and that goes way back into last winter, into the summer for each other. Everybody invest in each other.  They believe.  For me, it’s easy, you know that, I think you know me.  For me you swing I’m gonna swing back. That’s easy. But it’s not always easy to get everybody to do that. 150 people in our building to do that. And being on the same page and I’m proud of the group effort. The coaches, the players, everybody.  We are all in this together. There’s never been one bit, I think you’ve know that and you’ve covered me for a long time. There’s never been 1 inch of hesitancy from me.  There’s going to be no flinching, no worries, I work extremely hard and I care about this University.  The people have given me the opportunity, the fans, we are going to bang away and we are not going to stop.