KentuckyOne Health Anywhere Care Wants 10 Things Mark Stoops Said On KSR

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AnywhereCare_7200_300dpi_600x600_v2 KentuckyOne Health Anywhere Care at home, at the office and everywhere. Anywhere Care is a 24/7 service that lets you see or talk live to a primary care provider by phone or video chat… even from the comfort of your own couch. Click here to learn more or get care now. **** Unable to hear Mark Stoops' hourlong interview with Kentucky Sports Radio this morning? Don't worry, I got you. Below you'll find the highlights of the show and the podcast so you can listen whenever you have time.   "Much more consistent." Stoops said he was very pleased with how efficient the offense looked under new coordinator Shannon Dawson. The offensive looked better at every position despite dealing with a coaching change and the adjustments that come with having a new boss. "If you were pleased with what you saw last year, wait until you see them this year." Speaking about the running backs, Stoops raved about the improvement from an already good stable of backs from last season. "They really have a chance to be some dynamic backs," he said. "Boom is special." "You have to have wide receivers that can make plays down the field and we're starting to develop that." After hyping up his backfield, Stoops moved on to the wide receivers, another position he believes will see an increase in productivity next season. "Absolutely seeing improvement from the wide receivers," he said. Though he was without two of his biggest contributors, Ryan Timmons and Dorian Baker, this spring, Stoops loved what he saw from Blake Bone, Garrett Johnson, Thaddeus Snodgrass and the two players returning from injury, Jeff Badet and Alexander Montgomery. "He's absolutely our most prolific receiver right now. He has been fantastic." That's Garrett Johnson he's talking about, the star of last season's game at Florida as a true freshman. Johnson caught six passes for two touchdowns in the heartbreaking loss, his only two touchdowns of the season. Stoops said Johnson has had a great spring and has really grown up. Expect a big year from him in the slot. "I was really blown away by how nice the whole stadium is going to be." Stoops admitted he had nothing to do with the renovation of Commonwealth Stadium, and he saw it for the first time on Monday. He had seen pictures and diagrams leading up to the construction, but after walking through how it stands now and seeing the actual space, he was blown away by the job UK did with the upgrades. "I feel much better about things." Stoops inherited a pretty bad football team (and that's being kind) when he first arrived in Lexington two and a half years ago. Now he feels much better about his personnel and he believes "they've gotten out of the hole," as he put it. There's still a long way to go before they accomplish what they hope to accomplish, but things are much better than they were on Day 1 when he took the job. "I plan on winning every game." When asked if Kentucky will finally reach the six-win mark in 2015, Stoops declined to answer the six-win question because he and his staff set out to win every game, not just six. "Why would I say we need to win six because then I'm giving up on six more," he said. Of course, it's very unlikely Kentucky will win every game, but Stoops has the right attitude toward approaching each of the 12 games on the schedule: plan and scheme and focus to win all of them. "We go to compete to win every game." "There were three, four, five plays in that game, we make any one of them, we win." Ugh, the Louisville game. "I feel very good about quarterback." Don't tell Stoops the old adage of "If you have two quarterbacks you have one." He doesn't believe it. Stoops really believes he can win with either Patrick Towles or Drew Barker. Regarding Drew Barker, Stoops said, "He had a great spring. There were certain days where he lit it up and was the quarterback we recruited. He's got a bright future." "We need the people in the stands." 135 days till kickoff...   Listen to the entire Stoops interview below:

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2024-04-23