Kentucky Football has a 4th-and-1 Mentality in 2025

Each year at SEC Media Days, teams use the platform to share a motto that is intended to encapsulate the team’s guiding principles that will help them succeed in the upcoming season. Mark Stoops discussed a lot of things on Thursday, but there was one clear message he’s sharing with his team: Kentucky is attacking each day with a fourth-and-one mentality.

“For us, we have to take the mindset into this year the same way we attack the offseason. As football coaches, we use this term a lot, but for us it was like a fourth-and-one mentality, that moment in a fourth-and-one situation demands urgency, unity and execution,” Stoops said at the podium on the SEC Network.

“We obviously needed to have a strong offseason. Every rep, every lift, every team meeting, no matter what we’re doing, we have to embrace that challenge. I greatly appreciate the focus and the relentless commitment that these players have had to each other.”

Even if it is a bit of a cliche in the sport, for the Wildcats to succeed, they have to win within razor-thin margins. That’s exactly what they did when they went on the road and upset No. 6 Ole Miss. When the game was on the line and the odds were stacked against them, Kentucky made winning plays.

Josh Kattus made one of those winning plays. The tight end’s job was to block through the whistle. A fumble flew through the air, and he was at the right place at the right time to secure the game-winning touchdown.

When the preseason media polls are released on Friday afternoon, Kentucky will be picked to finish near the bottom of the league. They will be an underdog in almost every game, a role they relish.

“I wouldn’t want to be any other place right now. I know, obviously there’s a lot of people overlooking us, but we love that. We’re embracing it,” said Kattus.

“We’re showing up every day, and we’re working with that fourth-and-one mindset, attacking the weight room, attacking the film room, attacking the field work. That’s what we love about it. (The new transfers) are super pumped. We got a lot of talented players on our team, and so we’re all very excited.”

Kentucky Sticking to Four Core Values

Following a disappointing 4-8 season, you must address what led to that disaster, then quickly move forward with corrections. A big piece of that puzzle was drastically changing the roster. As new players arrive, it’s the experienced veterans’ responsibility to ensure everyone is bought in to the core values that serve as the foundation of Mark Stoops’ program.

“Obviously, the year didn’t go as we planned to do it, but we’re looking to move forward. We start 0-0 this season. We have 50 new guys coming in from the transfer portal, so they don’t know much about that. They know about the culture and what we’re trying to do this year,” Kattus told the SEC Network.

“As a leader on the team, I got together with some of the guys and we’re looking to do the best we can this year. We want to win SEC titles, we want to win National Championships here at Kentucky, and we’re going to do that by holding each other accountable to Coach Stoops’ standard. Our core values are attitude, toughness, discipline, and pride. We’re trying to live those out every day.”

Mark Stoops will deploy a new-look football team in 2025 that is striving to play with the attitude and toughness that made the Wildcats winners in the SEC.

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