Watch Mark Stoops' postgame press conference after Kentucky's loss to Tennessee

Mark Stoops’ postgame press conference was brief after Kentucky’s loss to Tennessee on Saturday night. Looking defeated, Stoops took questions for eight minutes about the loss to the Vols before they turned out the lights on Kroger Field for the night.

He opened his comments saying, “Very difficult loss, very tough loss.  They really took it to us.  We had not a lot of answers.  Tough matchup for us right now and giving them credit.  They are extremely explosive.  Very, very talented.  Not a strength of ours right now with the injuries and position we are in. But, no excuses, they are very good and they took it to us and we didn’t have answers. It’s tough.”

From there, Stoops complimented the offense and Cutter Boley’s big game, aside from the turnovers. “Obviously, we cannot turn the ball over and give them 14 points to a team that already scores at a high rate and as explosive as they are, we cannot have the turnovers.  I was very, again, pleased with the way Cutter played and with the way he’s playing is making the receivers better.”

He also went into detail about the defensive letdown, the two-point try, Seth McGowan’s status, and more from the 56-34 defeat in the rivalry game. Hear all of his comments below.

Mark Stoops after the loss to Tennessee

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Transcript of Stoops’ comments

Provided by UK Athletics:

Q The last UK quarterback to throw for five touchdowns was Andre Woodson against Tennessee in 2007.

MARK STOOPS: Thanks, Tony. Very difficult loss, very tough loss.  They really took it to us.  We had not a lot of answers.  Tough matchup for us right now and giving them credit.  They are extremely explosive.  Very, very talented.  Not a strength of ours right now with the injuries and position we are in. But, no excuses, they are very good and they took it to us and we didn’t have answers. It’s tough.  They put you in binds.  They can run the ball, they can throw it.  The way they spread you out, they put you in one-on-one situations and you have to be able to cover them and we simply did not cover them today.  And I was pleased with the offense.  Obviously, we cannot turn the ball over and give them 14 points to a team that already scores at a high rate and as explosive as they are, we cannot have the turnovers.  I was very, again, pleased with the way Cutter played and with the way he’s playing is making the receivers better. I saw the freshmen emerge again today with DJ, that was good to see. Guys fought and couldn’t keep up and give them credit.

Q Mark, you acknowledged last week a couple of times the pressure on you from some fans outside. What is your pitches of why it might not seem as bleak as it seems in the moment right now? 

MARK STOOPS: I understand, it’s a results business.  The results have not been there. For me, I can’t get caught up and worried about all of that.  I get frustrated. I hurt for our team, I hurt for our fans.  There’s a lot of people that invest a lot. Including all of us.  I understand that.  But the fans, and anybody else has every right to be frustrated, mad, whatever it is.  But for myself, I hurt for the team and we’ve invested a lot.  I think we are getting better in certain areas.  It was a tough matchup for us tonight and again, I give them a lot of credit.  They are very explosive offensively.  You know, we didn’t play good enough and they had a lot to do with that.

Q Mark, other than Cutter, are there things you see that it can get better?  Do you fear this is the point of no return? 

MARK STOOPS: I mean, yeah. Again, for us it’s been a long time. Again, back to back games, 25, 26 first downs or whatever, close to 500 yards, 5 touchdowns. I mean, we haven’t seen that for a while. Yeah, that makes me very optimistic.  Defensively, you know, I can’t make any excuses. I don’t want to million darts at me. I understand it’s not acceptable.  It’s a tough matchup for us right now, we will just leave it at that.

Q Mark, what do you feel like you can count on from this team. The defense was obviously really good last week. Not as strong, when do you think that you end all you are going to get?

MARK STOOPS: That’s exactly what I just told the team. Again, last week we show up offensively and defensively and special-teams have some errors.  And again, they had something to do with that.  The players that were playing have something to do with that. Tonight, defensively it was tough, they have something to do with that. They are very good and we were not up to the challenge.  I know our guys are fighting and playing hard and we are making improvements in an area that’s been a while offensively where we are making some serious improvement with a quarterback and that’s encouraging.

Q Talk about DJ Miller.  You did have some young guys stepping up. 

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, it was really good to see DJ. 5 targets, 5 catches. 120 yards and 2 touchdowns.  That’s encouraging. Because again, the quarterback receiver explosive guy, it’s been a while, so that’s good to see that.

Q Game time, how close was Seth being able to go today?

MARK STOOPS: He tried like heck.  He’s just so tough and wants it so bad.  He went out there and took some hits and he was trying to, he just didn’t feel comfortable with securing the ball.

Q Mark, Willie and Hardley both got injured down the stretch. Are you concerned that those are significant injuries?

MARK STOOPS: I don’t know, I think Willie, both re-aggravated injuries they had?

Q Mark, in preseason you talk about the secondary being the strength of the unit.  How does it go from that to this? 

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I did, I said it had a chance to be the strength of the team. We had to stay healthy and we haven’t stayed healthy. Again, I can’t make excuses. I got a guy out there, Terhyon is playing through injury and the kids out there against some elite guys not at full strength and he has to go and I appreciate him.  It hasn’t been good enough. They could score and make a lot of people look that way and we weren’t up to the challenge.

Q Obviously it didn’t matter in the end, why did you go for 2 in the one touchdown? 

MARK STOOPS: That it was stupid too. Quite honestly. But that’s what the analytics said. When I had time to reevaluate afterwards I said, yeah, that’s a stupid ball. That’s what it said.

Q Mark, what was your feeling watching the play with the multiple fumbles? 

MARK STOOPS: Disbelief.

Q To your point about Cutter improving. What could the ceiling be now that he seems to have a lot and each week it’s getting better and better? 

MARK STOOPS: I mean, who knows what his ceiling is, right?  He’s only a redshirt freshman.  Is it his third start for us? Pretty impressive against some very good defenses.  And so, very happy with that and as you can see when he’s playing at that level it makes everybody better. The tight ends are catching the ball, the receivers are making very nice catches and explosive plays.  Just trying to see the exact stats but the number of plays goes up again 73.  Getting touches and getting first downs, moving the ball, creating some explosives tonight was great to see.

Q -at the end of the half struggles at the end?

MARK STOOPS: That was very frustrating.  Very discouraging. You know, we are trying to protect guys at times, as you can see, when you didn’t they run right by us sometimes. With that protection opens up some other things and it hurt us on that play through the middle.  That is certainly one, that whole sequence we could have played better.  And they made plays.

Q We saw a late scratch from Steven Soles, are you nervous about the injury thing, what is going on there? 

MARK STOOPS: I will update that next week, yes, it is related to his health.