Mark Stoops joins College GameDay ahead of Tennessee game

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Before Kirk Herbstreit flies to Knoxville to call the primetime game between Kentucky and Tennessee on ESPN, he was asking Mark Stoops questions from the College GameDay set in Jackson, Ms. For the second time in October, the Kentucky head coach was interviewed on the four-letter network’s pregame program. Herbstreit asked his pal Stoops how his team is feeling after getting a week off the field.

“I think it was important for us to get the bye week. Seven straight weeks is difficult with how physical it is and the guys were a little bit beat up and playing a team that’s very fast, both with the tempo and the speed of their players,” said Stoops.

“It was good for our guys to get healthy, get their legs up underneath us and get a great plan in place to go play aggressive and play our style. You touched on it — we’re not going to change because we’re playing a team like Tennessee and how fast they go. We are who we are. We have to stay true to our identity. We just have to be a great version of ourselves tonight and and do what we do.”

The Wildcats will not change their style, even though it varies wildly from Tennessee’s. The Wildcats rank sixth nationally in time of possession, compared to No. 122 for the Vols’ top-ranked scoring offense.

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“Yeah, it’s difficult. I think the first thing when you’re talking about Tennessee, you obviously have to be able to handle the tempo. They go extremely fast. I think a sense of urgency, getting lined up, getting communication and executing a call. You can’t beat yourself. It starts with just getting the proper call and everybody doing their job and they make it very stressful with how fast they go,” Mark Stoops told the College GameDay crew.

“I think the second thing is trying to limit some explosive plays. You know they’re going to hit some, you know they’re gonna go fast, create some big windows and bring a lot of explosiveness, so you got to be able to slow those down as well.”

The Kentucky defense has held its opponents to just six pass plays of 30+ yards, ranked 14th nationally. Tennessee has 27 of those pass plays, the most in the nation. The SEC Network’s Jordan Rogers believes that is the key to success for Mark Stoops’ Wildcats Saturday night. Kickoff is at 7 pm ET on ESPN.