Mark Stoops says Kentucky in "strong position" to reach vaccination goal

The Southeastern Conference has stated that once teams are 85% vaccinated, they will no longer have to be tested regularly for COVID-19 or wear masks inside team facilities. Kentucky’s not there yet, but Mark Stoops is confident they’ll make it.

“We are in a good strong position,” Stoops said at Media Day. “I feel like we’ll reach the goal. But that’s a touchy subject.”

Earlier this week, Kentucky’s star running back Chris Rodriguez admitted he was reluctant to get the vaccine, but ultimately did it “for the team.” Stoops told reporters today he and the staff are providing players with education about the vaccine, but not pressuring them into a decision.

“I addressed it with the team. We’re very open and honest and communicate often about a lot of things, and that is an individual choice. We’ll continue to educate them, and everybody will do what’s best for them or what they feel most comfortable. But I do feel like we’ll reach the goal that the league has set.”

On Kentucky Sports Radio, Stoops emphasized the importance of reaching the league’s goal. At SEC Media Days, Commissioner Greg Sankey said six of the conference’s 14 teams have 80% of their players vaccinated so far. He also said the league will not postpone or makeup games due to COVID-19. If a team has an outbreak and can’t play because too many players are in quarantine, they will have to forfeit.

“It’s important,” Stoops said of reaching the vaccination goal. “It’s very important. We would like to function as normal as possible, but I do feel like we’ll hit that 80%. I definitely do. That’s an individual choice. We educate our players but that’s going to be their individual choice. We’re not pushing any of that on anybody. We educate them, we have people talk to them and they have to make an individual decision on that.”