KSR's top takeaways from this week's Mark Stoops Show

While Mark Stoops typically speaks to the media a few times per week during the season, the Kentucky head coach usually uses his weekly call-in radio show on Monday evenings to kick back and relax a bit. During the hour-long show with Tom Leach, Stoops opens up about his team’s performance from the previous week, previews their upcoming opponent, and answers questions via phone and social media from the Big Blue Nation.

Following Kentucky’s road loss at Georgia, Stoops used this evening’s edition of the call-in show to discuss what went wrong, break down specific play calls, and preview the bye week, among other topics.

Here are the top takeaways from the Mark Stoops Show this evening:

Three days of practice this week

With no game this week due to the bye week, Kentucky had practice off Monday, with players only having to go through film work and team meetings before returning Tuesday.

“We’ll practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,” Stoops said. “Normally, Thursday is our walkthrough day, so we’ll still get three good days of work, more work than usual (with a full practice Thursday). Then they will have the weekend to get their legs up underneath them and get a little break that they definitely need.”

Georgia tape was “frustrating,” but he remains encouraged

After going over the tape, Mark Stoops came away a bit frustrated. Despite plenty of good to help keep Kentucky in the game against Georgia, there were too many mistakes to keep the Wildcats from pulling off the upset.

Still, though, it was a performance that reassured him that his program is closing the gap.

“It’s kind of frustrating, to be honest with you,” he said. “You look at so many good things and then you look at the areas where we’re falling short. You get frustrated and disappointed, but all in all, you come away encouraged because you know physically we can match up.

“We have to. That’s a fantastic football team. Make no bones about it, they deserve the respect they get, that’s a very good team. Any mistakes you make are magnified when you’re playing teams like that”

He also pointed out a statistic that jumps out at him: Kentucky held Georgia to 19 plays of two yards or less, but also allowed 19 plays over 10 yards.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “… We can’t make those kind of mistakes.”

Injury updates on Izayah Cummings, Josh Ali and Marquan McCall

What’s the latest on Kentucky’s biggest injuries on both sides of the football?

As Stoops confirmed during the postgame press conference, tight end Izayah Cummings is dealing with an arm injury.

“He got hurt,” he said Monday. “I don’t know. You know, he was banged up and today he was in a sling. He’s banged up, so we’ll see.”

As for Josh Ali, Stoops says the standout receiver is inching closer to a return after suffering a leg injury against Florida.

“I hope (he’s back against Mississippi State), I hope so,” he said. “He’s getting closer.”

Marquan McCall’s situation is less clear.

“We’ll see,” Stoops said.

Georgia is worthy of its ranking

When asked about which aspect of the Georgia defense disrupted Kentucky’s offensive gameplan the most, Stoops said you can pick your poison.

“Take your pick,” he said. “Take your pick. Arguably one of the best front sevens that I’ve ever seen. They’re quite impressive. Their front seven is absolutely dominant. And by the way, their secondary’s pretty good, too.”

This is coming from a person who coached some of the most elite defenses in recent memory at Miami (FL) and Florida State.

“I’ve been around some pretty impressive defenses,” he said. “I think when I left Florida State, we were number one in the country in yards per play. Maybe two years in row, the last two years. I’ll tell you what, I don’t think we look like that. We could go back to the 2001 National Championship year in Miami, that was pretty impressive, too. But again, I’m not sure we looked like that. That front seven is dominant.”

Mike Drennen is a playmaker

The touches aren’t there yet for Mike Drennen, but Mark Stoops still has high hopes for the dynamic playmaker out of Ohio. And he expects those plays to come at running back.

When asked if Drennen would be moved back to wide receiver with Jutahn McClain back in the lineup, Stoops said the sophomore athlete asked to move to running back in the first place. Despite the lack of reps now, the UK head coach believes Drennen will have his shot at some point.

“It’s always a tough call, especially when you’re not getting the amount of plays that you want,” he said. “Heck, look at Georgia and the playmakers they have. There’s only one football, you know? With Michael, he asked to move back to running back and we were good with it because he’s very good with the football in his hands. He is a good, very good football player. We love him and we’re glad he’s on our team, want him to continue to mature and come along and continue to do the good things he’s doing.

“… Michael Drennen is a heck of a football player.”

Stoops wants to hear from the SEC

Will Stoops get an explanation about his failed challenge attempt, one that clearly showed Georgia short on third down? He’s hoping so.

He understands the SEC is busy dealing with, um, other things — looking at you, Tennessee — but he’d love to speak with them at their earliest convenience.

“That’s the spot I can’t understand,” he said. “I can’t comment on what they tell me, but I haven’t gotten a response back yet. They’ve probably been a little busy, but you know, I don’t understand. It was short, you know? I think anybody can see that. I really don’t understand, but we’ll see what they say. They’re going to just say it wasn’t clear, but anyway.”

There is no controversy on the late timeout

Mark Stoops received criticism from Georgia fans for his decision to call a timeout with three seconds left in the game to set up one final touchdown attempt. If you ask the UK head coach, though, there’s no controversy in his decision to put late points on the board.

“I can’t understand why I get a question about the late score,” he said. “I don’t know. Don’t ask me why. Folks, I want to score. Good enough reason, why not? You guys broke our backs on a 20-play drive against the number one defense in the country. And we want to score. In what world would somebody think that was a controversy?

“I have ultimate respect for George’s defense and Kirby (Smart), but let’s not kid ourselves: they try to stop every play and we try to score every play. That’s just how the game goes.”

He also added that final scores are crucial for voting in the polls and the bowl selection process. A 30-13 final score looks a whole lot prettier than 30-7, and if that’s what separates his team from another, he’s going to try.

And to be blunt, he really doesn’t understand why it’s a conversation.

“They look at the final score, it does matter. They keep score. It matters, it all matters,” he said. “So for somebody to even write about it — you know, they had really good players in there, too. Hey, by the way, they were trying pretty hard to stop us. They were starters. I mean, damn, it was hard sledding. I give him credit, I have ultimate respect.

“But I mean, that’s a stupid question. I mean, why did you try to score? Well, because I wanted to. We wanted to score more points.”

No more moral victories

Kentucky did a lot of things right and competed against the best of the best, but there are no more moral victories in Lexington. At the end of the day, Stoops wants a win, no matter the competition.

“We’re far past moral victories,” he said. “We’re disappointed in the outcome. Yeah, we’re proud of our team and our coaches, because I know they’re putting everything into it. But as the head coach, I just want us to execute to the best of our ability every week. That’s where we’ve got to get back to the drawing boards on a few places.”

Mom stays in touch (and provides critiques)

To close out the show, Mark Stoops told a story about his mother’s tradition of calling every Saturday before kickoff, something she’s done with him and his brothers their entire coaching careers.

When things aren’t going well with their teams, she’s quick to let them know.

“She will make those calls every week,” Stoops said. “Whenever we’re not doing good, she’s gonna slip that in. She is right there with BBN. All the frustrations early in the year, like when we weren’t holding onto the football, she’d let me have it. There’ll be other times, like, ‘Why aren’t you getting the tight end the ball more? I like those safe sideline passes.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I like them too and I work on it.’

“She’s a beauty. She’s awesome, but yeah, she’s dialed in.”