Mark Stoops on Roster Construction: "We did as good as we could."

Kentucky got picked apart by the Tennessee offense. Even though it’s become an annual tradition in the one-sided rivalry, Mark Stoops attributed the porous performance to injuries in the secondary, where they allowed 396 yards and three touchdowns.

Of course, that did not tell the whole story. Stoops reiterated multiple times that he didn’t want to use injuries as an excuse. He also noted that Tennessee has some difference-makers, and their scheme stresses defenses. But, back to the injury part.

Ahead of the season, Mark Stoops believed the secondary could be a strength of the defense because he felt that they had three starting-caliber cornerbacks. When Terhyon Nichols went to the sideline against the Vols, he became the second defection from that group, joining DJ Waller.

Kentucky has asked multiple players to step in their place. Nasir Addison, a junior who’s primarily played on special teams, logged 20 snaps on Saturday. At one point earlier in the season, they threw in true freshman Grant Grayton after Maryland transfer Kevis Thomas got picked on. It led me to ask if this development has forced Stoops to reconsider his roster-building strategy.

“Definitely,” Stoops replied. “We have some, some young guys at that position, that have played well for us, that you want to continue to bring along and develop. But, to your point, I mean, you need a solid two-deep there at that position. You need four or five guys. And a lot of times, you could rotate a guy. He may be your nickel once in a while as well. So, I think, yeah, it is definitely year to year.”

Stoops says Kentucky is Better, Just Not in the Win-Loss Column

Kentucky had to add 50 new players to its roster, and 26 of them are transfers. Cornerback was clearly a need, one they addressed and missed on, but it was not at the top of the priority list. The Cats invested in the trenches and at wide receiver, and Stoops believes they did an exceptional job addressing some of those areas with the available budget.

“I think you can see, I hope you can, and everybody can see, that we are most definitely better in certain areas. I understand we’re not complete. And you look at our record, and I’m not naive to that, but we are definitely better and making strides. (Revenue-sharing) definitely helped. So we’re far better. Record may not indicate that, but you see the progress, you see the young guys, and so we did as good as we could,” Stoops said.

“Definitely, for this last year, for this team, we had more resources and I’m grateful for it. I wish the results would be better, but I know we are better, but you’re not going to do it in one year either. You know, you still have to build a roster over the course of at least two or three. Yes, you look at it, you evaluate it every year, and you hopefully just patch a couple holes. You don’t have to patch all of the holes.”

Even though Stoops believes it takes a couple of years of roster rebuilds to drastically make changes in the win-loss column, rivals beg to differ. Indiana is on the verge of making its second-straight CFP in each of Curt Cignetti’s first two seasons. Louisville went to the ACC Championship Game in Jeff Brohm’s first season with a roster that was primarily made up of transfer portal players.

High School Recruits Stand Out

There are plenty of questions about how Kentucky used the transfer portal to build this roster, but you can at least commend the Cats on how they’ve identified talent from the high school ranks over the last two years.

Redshirt freshman Jason Patterson led the team in receptions with seven for 44 yards, and carried the ball for 51 yards against Tennessee. Cutter Boley has broken UK freshman passing records in consecutive games, and against Tennessee, true freshman DJ Miller caught five passes for 120 yards and two scores in just his second college football game.

“It’s tough, right? You sit here and say, ‘Hey, we need you to go win against Tennessee or Auburn.’ And as freshmen, they definitely could supplement. When you’re counting on a lot of them to help you do that, it’s difficult, right?

“But these guys have stepped up. We’re better because of them. We feel like we have a good group of both freshmen and redshirt freshmen or sophomores, the second-year guys, we feel like we have some good players in both of those classes.”