Mark Stoops made his team restart practice after 'big fight': 'It kind of pissed me off'

mark-stoops-kentucky-practice-fight-fall-camp-bobby-bones-interview — Mark Stoops at Kentucky Football Fan Day, via Aaron Perkins, KSR

Kentucky finally kicks off the season on Saturday vs. Toledo. It can’t come soon enough for the players, who grew so tired of hitting each other in fall camp that they turned on one another, drawing the ire of Mark Stoops.

During an appearance on Bobby Bones’ 25 Whistles podcast, Stoops said there was a “big fight” in practice last week, which made him so mad that he forced his guys to start all over again and go as long as the rules allowed.

“About a week ago, right at the end of camp, we had one of those hot days, and guys were just on each other’s nerves, and we had a big fight right at the end of practice, and it kind of pissed me off. Blew the whistle and teed it up, and started practice completely over again.”

“We have to be more disciplined,” Stoops added. “Fights are going to happen in camp, but the way this one happened, I just kind of had enough and wanted to kind of set down the law for them.”

Throughout the summer, Stoops has made it clear that he knows last season wasn’t good enough. He was even more frank in his remarks to Bones, telling him that a big reason he’s looking forward to Saturday’s opener vs. Toledo is to get the taste of last year out of his mouth.

“I really can’t wait to go out there and take the field here this Saturday. We’ve put a lot of work in, and we needed to — you know, I wasn’t very happy, very proud of the team last year. We’ve been very consistent and had a very good program for a long time in a difficult league, and I just wasn’t pleased. We failed to meet our standard last year and didn’t play very good.

“So we’ve put a lot of work into it, through the winter and building this team and selecting the right teammates and developing them through the offseason. And so we put the work in. Now it’s time to go play. It’s time to go execute our plan, and I can’t wait to see them play, but I have high expectations for this team.”

Speaking of that team, Stoops praised two of the newcomers on offense, quarterback Zach Calzada and wide receiver Kendrick Law. Neither of those players will succeed without an improved offensive line. Stoops said he took the offensive line’s struggles last season personally and believes they’ve taken a big step forward.

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“We’ve had a great tradition of being really strong in the offensive line and being a very physical football team. Again, I think we fell short of that last year, and that’s my job, to get that fixed. And I think we’ve put in a lot of work. I have a lot of confidence in these guys. I know they care. I know they work extremely hard and are very passionate about what they do, and I hope you see great improvement from that group this year as well.”

Check out the entire interview below. Stoops comes on around the 18-minute mark.

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Golfing with John Michael Montgomery

Bones is most known as a country music radio host and personality. We know Stoops was good friends with the late, great Toby Keith. Turns out he’s also friends with Nicholasville’s own John Michael Montgomery; the two are golfing buddies.

“John Michael happens to be a really good friend of mine. In the early days — I’ve been here 13 years — we played golf in the offseason a lot. He used to be in a standard group that we’d have a little money game at our local course, and John Michael’s still a part of that. I haven’t played with him as much lately.”

Stoops said he puts his golf clubs away in July to focus on football (according to AL.com, Stoops has only played seven times this year, all in May). When he is on the links, he said Montgomery is a good partner to have.

“John Michael is actually a good golfer. He’s got a good swing. Just like any of us who play recreational golf, we’re going to go through some good days and bad days, so when John Michael’s in a good position there, he’s a good partner to have, that’s for sure. And just like any of us, there are days when you know, you want somebody else.”

You may recall that Montgomery talked about golfing during his appearance on KSR earlier this summer to promote his farewell concert at Rupp Arena in December. Coincidentally, Montgomery narrated this University of Kentucky commercial that was just released today.