Watch Mark Stoops' Monday press conference for his reaction to Kentucky's loss to South Carolina

On Monday, Mark Stoops held a press conference on campus, a weekly tradition during the college football season. This week, though, Stoops had to answer for Kentucky‘s disappointing loss to South Carolina, considered one of, if not the biggest letdown, of Stoops’ time as head coach of the Wildcats. The conversation began with Stoops’ longest opening statement in recent memory.

“We got out of rhythm,” Stoops explained while tipping his cap to the game the Gamecocks played in Lexington. He thought Kentucky played hard, he said after watching the game on tape. But didn’t play winning football. “We better turn the page quickly but we gotta own that first,” he added.

“Give credit to South Carolina. They affected us. They played very good. They played better than us. And that’s the bottom line: they played very good, especially defensively. Offensively, they did a really good job as well.”

Moving on, Stoops still has faith in his offensive line coach, Eric Wolford, even though the offensive line was Kentucky’s most glaring weakness in the loss. Stoops met with veteran captain Eli Cox, the team’s starting center, on Sunday for a player opinion on what went so wrong with that group. When asked on Monday if any offensive lineman played well, Stoops replied, “Not really.”

Stoops didn’t put much of the blame on Brock Vandagriff in his Monday comments, saying, “We didn’t give him a chance half the time. We can’t put that on him.”

He also called out penalties and preparation as driving forces behind the disappointing outcome. Hear the entire Q&A for yourself below.

Mark Stoops on the loss to South Carolina and hosting No. 1 Georgia

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.