Mark Stoops calls in to KSR (Monday Show Thread)
Saturday was not a pretty day for the football team, which is facing some major criticism after its third straight rout. There are a lot of questions surrounding the program, and this morning, Mark Stoops will call in to the show to answer them. Tune in to hear Stoops address the situation heading into a crucial game against Vandy. An interesting start to a very interesting week for Kentucky football.
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128 Comments for Mark Stoops calls in to KSR (Monday Show Thread)
Do we win anymore games for the rest of the season? I was thinking we could beat Vandy… but Vegas knows all. I think we can beat Charlotte and maybe that help us beat Louisville.
Vandy will be tough. they have a good defense. but their offense is as bad as ours right now. it’ll be a close low scoring game. We can and should win it, but who knows. I still think that even if we lose, we’ll beat charlotte and be 5-6 heading into the louisville game which is where a lot of people predicted at the beginning of the year
I will take a 6-3 victory at this point.
Airball89 released another video:
The John Calipari Era V: The Return of The Empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlKCPyPYuDM&feature=em-subs_digest-g
They are always pretty good. I am STILL not over the Wisconsin loss. But we have a lot to look forward too.
Thanks, love those. Having this season start was a big step towards me getting over the loss last Spring, because we have another extremely likeable team. But I still don’t listen if someone starts talking about it on the radio, and it would take years before I’d watch any video or read any books about it, if ever.
It’s going to be a long week. When we tip off Friday I will feel better, but this is going to haunt me more than 92.
Could you find out from Stoops when the next players only meeting that we shouldn’t be concerned about is scheduled? Gosh, I hope the team gets on the same page again before the Vandy game.
Ask him if he thought Kaylee was offended because of the horrible performance on her b-day.
Kaylee deserves better.
Kaylee deserves me!
We are not as good as when we played ULL.
We are the same. Just playing better competition.
Well we’ve lost a loty of good players to injuries on both sides of the ball, boom and melvin for starters.
Boom cannot run through a wall of unblocked defenders. Definitely missing Melvin.
It is HOW we are playing (or not) and adjusting. Tackling is no better this week than it was in August. Agreed that we are playing better teams but we are not even competitive. I truly thought, earlier in the season that we would at least look like we belonged on the field in every game. The last three contests have not shown that my optimism was appropriate. We can win two more but it will take better coaching, playmaking and effort than what we have seen the past three weeks. …and WTH has happened to our kicking/punting game? As has been mentioned previously, HS kickers regularly are able to put the ball in the end – zone. Surely we have someone sitting on that bench with a functional leg.
Isn’t Melvin on the D-line?
“Tackling is no better this week than it was in August.”
This is the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else not named the offensive line. There is no reason our players should be HITTING the other players. Last time i checked, all of our defensive backs have two arms, but they refuse, time after time, to use them to properly tackle players. Yes, when you HIT a smaller player, they will usually fall down. But the teams we’ve played to this point have bigger players than us. when you HIT those guys, they bounce off and keep running while you fall down. Need to wrap up. until we wrap up, we’re going to continue to miss tackles.
Sorry dano, I see now that you were making two separate comments. Reading comprehension fail. I read better at the start of the season.
A reasonably athletic, well disciplined nickel, at 5’10”, 200 lbs can tackle 245 lb tight-end or RB. We have 300 lb guys unable to tackle a 185 lb guy that runs directly into him.
I am still ALLIN with this team and I think it’s great to see if Drew is a better in game QB I hope he seizes this opportunity and Towles backs him up next season. I also look at Vandy not being able to game plan against Drew. 7 wins would be great!
Coach Dawson, is that you?
Vandy game plan: Rush porous O-line, pressure QB. Repeat.
Matt, we should take a page out of Joker’s playbook and start Dorian Baker at QB. Solve two issues with one move.
Tthat also was against a team in TN 😀
Are we sure he can catch the snaps?
*laughs* Baker them the way we Roark’d UT!!!
dano, too funny…unfortunately.
Why start Towles? He either cannot or will not lead or perform. As least Barker has no history of O Line trauma that will impact his game.
No doubt this team is worse now than at the start of the year. 2 years in a row we’ve fallen apart as the season has gone on. Stoops needs to come clean and tell us what the problem is.
Too much dancing during practice and not enough work on fundamentals such as tackling. Rid the practice of dj’s.
The only way Towles puts a jolt in his team is if he takes off his helmet and clubs his OLine and receivers like baby seals.
Our defense played fairly well, they were just gassed in the second half.
In all fairness to the players, Stoops should also be asked about his OC & DC and their performances.
Position coaches too for that matter.
There is a drops virus in the receiving corp, and it has infected Conrad.
They ate so shocked when ine of Tolwes’ passes actually meets them, they get stunned and drop the ball. That’s what’s up.
It doesn’t matter who we play at quarterback. Our offensive line can not block and our receivers can drop passes with either QB.
I’ve been trying to say this all year. no one listens. no one cares. they just expect the unreasonable. make a change, any change, even one unrelated to the actual problem at hand, and expect better results.
Agree. Since it doesn’t matter, I’d like to see Drew get some practice.
And it also helps when your qb can accurately throw a football.
Jay, I care man…and agree. Either Manning brother would be destroyed in our current system.
you have people that don’t know what they’re talking about, “oh the qb sucks and can’t make an accurate pass, blah blah” but ignore the fact that 9 times out of 10, he’s got 2 defenders in his face less than 3 seconds after the snap. no one will find success with that kind of pressure.
Jdub you are right. Baker dropped Barkers first pass.
Oh, Jay? It doesn’t help when your qb can throw an accurate pass?
listen short dong … explain to me how against teams that couldn’t rush towles (ULL, South Carolina, EKU) he could hit moving targets 25-40 yards down field. But now all of a sudden, he can’t seem to hit receivers 5 -10 yards away. BECAUSE HE DOESN’T HAVE TIME. towles is pretty accurate when he’s not being chased around the field. if you can’t see that then i have no answers for you. you clearly do not watch enough football to have any clue what you’re talking about.
The drops from receivers started after a few games when receivers figured out Pat couldn’t throw the ball into the back of a dump truck. And they gave up. And our O line sucks. A grandma in a wheelchair could cause Swindle to get another damned holding call. It all sucks. Including Pat…including Pat. It just does. And he is the leader of that mess, so hes the focal point. That’s just how it is.
Jay, you post too much and don’t know what you are talking about. Pat holds the ball too long. He’s slow to make reads. Now, shut up until you can add something of merit.
The drops did NOT start after a few games dude. Baker dropped his very first target in the first game of the season.
Don’t know what i’m talking about ? I’ve played and watched and forgotten more about football than you’ll ever know. so move along tough guy… if you think holding the ball for 2-3 seconds is “hold[ing] the ball too long,” then you my friend are the one that doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Ah, the J-Dub and Jaybrat club sticking up for each other and blindly following. You two suck. A receiver will occasionally drop a pass. They really started dropping them after escaping ULL and that terrible second half at South Carolina.
Brat, you would probably piss your pants to be on a football field. You sissy.
You know, I’m not wasting the time. You two have a good day. Maybe go share some of that vast storehouse of football knowledge with our coaches. God knows they could use the help.
Towles had at least 5 completions for over 25 yards in the first game alone. Use whatever logic you can to explain how the inaccurate quarterback that you suggest towles is can make those passes, but can’t hit a receiver 5 yards away. what is the mystery?
great… he finally realized he can no longer fight wisdom and facts so he results in name calling. congratulations guy, you sir are the bigger person for “walking away”
If you can’t have a civil argument without resorting to unwarranted personal attacks, then please leave and never come back.
No, I stopped because I remembered that there is no arguing with a fool. Or fools, in this case. As for personal attacks, I think brat started that. So, I’ll just avoid you two jackasses in the future. There’s no arguing with a fool!
you weren’t arguing … you were making false statements and when confronted with facts disputing said false statements, refused to provide evidence to back yourself up.
Eveything I said was true. Pat can’t pass, you don’t know football, our O line is terrible, and the receivers have lost faith in Pat. You sound like KSR CSI…lol. Evidence. Lol. Only you and jdub think otherwise. Jdub asserts that no other ab could do better. Really? How would we know? It’s not like we have anything to go on. No one else gets significant snaps. I think you and jdub are the same person. Just a different user name.
“I think you and jdub are the same person. Just a different user name.”
– well, you’re wrong.
“Jdub asserts that no other [q]b could do better. Really? How would we know?”
– because the underlying problem is our crappy offensive line and receivers dropping balls. changing quarterbacks will result in the same thing, a line that can’t block and receivers that can’t catch balls.
“Eve[r]ything I said was true. Pat can’t pass”
– That’s not a fact, that’s an opinion. And I’ve given you a half dozen chances to explain why it is that “Pat can’t pass” but for some reason was able to make plenty of plays for 25+ yards. Yet, you have failed to give ANY explanation for that much less a reasonable one.
Wrong again, brat/dub. Look up Pats completion percentage last game..8.5%. How’s that for you? He lost the O line and receivers confidence. That’s how a change COULD help. Again, we don’t really know. Nobody has benn given a real chance. And you don’t know football.
How many minutes has Barker played in the last two games (that he played)? Barker has already been sacked and was injured and had to sit out a game, and Baker dropped two of his passes in not a lot of minutes. My point was, unless our offensive line and receivers play better we will continue to lose games, regardless of who the QB is. Ask yourself this, if the only change you make was switching Barker for Towles, would we have won more games? I don’t think that we would have. In fact, I don’t think that we would have had a few of the come from behind wins that we did get without Towles.
For the record, I am not saying that Towles doesn’t have his issues. Sometimes he holds on to the ball too long and takes sacks he shouldn’t. (Although I think he’s improved at throwing the ball away in the last few games.) He also locks in on one receiver too much. However, I cut Towles some slack on accuracy when he’s usually throwing after having been flushed from the pocket. I don’t expect perfect throws when running from three defenders. We also get way too many holding and false start penalties. Our offense has lots of problems, and there is plenty of blame to go around. I just don’t think QB is the worst or most pressing issue.
Also, it is impossible for jay and I to be the same person. You can only have one login, and your screen name is permanent.
No, you can get as many logins as you have email accounts. That’s all you need. And you know that. Always comment on the same articles, at the same time. Say the same thing…you are both. You use the two try to validate your points of view. I’m used to people not agreeing with what I say, in life. Until months/years later.
“I’m used to people not agreeing with what I say.”
Yet you don’t think that two different people can disagree with you?
Long dong…you have no idea what you are talking about. JDub and jaybrat are not the same person.
Our O-line couldn’t protect Tom Brady and our receivers couldn’t catch his passes…that does NOT excuse Towles’ shortcomings though. You deserve that much credit. You also deserve every ad hominem that you have received here.
Catmonkey, you would be persona #3. I was just waiting for you to join your schizo selves. And I think I said the o line sucks. I’d make Meadows, Myers, and Swindle leave and never come back, if I could. The receivers I give a pass. I do. The balls Towles gives them earn that credit from me. It’s either 30 ft over their heads and to the right, or if its actually catchable, they will get murderered for having to stop and catch to make said catch.
Our offensive line has been BAD for years. When EKU and Lafayette can spend all day in our backfield, we are screwed. Towles is suffering from UKOLD which has no cure.
Brett Saberhagen
We have had a bad offensive line for 60 years.
AND, no we have not gotten better since the beginning of the year.
QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION:
Is the play calling truly bad, or are our players failing to execute properly? For example: several times on Saturday we’d need seven yards for a first down, the receiver would go about five yards on their route and catch the pass, get hit, and not get the first down. Was is a crappy play call, or did the receiver not run their route correctly?
I ask because I know there are people on here who know a lot more about football than I do. I am trying to educate myself on the finer points.
I don’t know more about football, but I think if we just had decent fundamentals, we’d be fine. Tackle, block, throw and catch well, and the play calls will be fine.
It’s a tough question with a lot of answers. short answer is “it’s a little of both”
If the play call was simply to run 5 yards and catch the ball then make a defender miss while running 2 more. then it was a bad call, because our players aren’t good enough to “make a defender miss” with any consistency*
If the call was to run 5 yards and catch the ball then run 2 more while someone is blocking for you, but the blocker was out of position, it was poor execution on the blocker’s part
If the play was to throw for 7 yards and the receiver had to turn around and get the ball, it was poor execution on the quarterback.
* our players aren’t good enough to do anything consistently.
Swap out the yardage amounts in my first scenario, and that happened repeatedly on Saturday. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this and had any opinion on the subject.
Blake Bone has been consistently good in several games about getting to the first down marker, then making a cut to catch a pass, essentially making sure that he’ll get the first down if he catches the pass.
Honestly, I was busy fixing a broken garage door during most of the second half. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to get into specific details of the game.
I am not sure the receivers are confident Towles can be accurate more than 5 yards down the field.
Towles is good at throwing the deep ball though.
J-Dub, what games were you watching that Pat threw the long ball well, and on target? Consistently? I’ve seen every game this season and haven’t see it.
in the first two games, towles had the best percentage of completions/attempts in the sec if im not mistaken. and a pretty good percentage nationally…
in down field plays that is… not overall percentage
Towles has hit long passes in every game this season. He struggles with the middle throws. We have had lots of explosive plays for long yardage.
No we haven’t. Our offense is rated pretty low. There have been a couple of plays, sure. Not lots.
From KSR a little over a month ago: “Here’s an odd but encouraging stat: UK has the sixth most explosive offense in college football, with 10.1% of their plays going for at least 20 yards.”
http://kentuckysportsradio.com/football-2/uk-has-the-6th-most-explosive-offense-in-college-football/
You are wrong, and here are the numbers to back that up.
That was over a month ago….what is it now? Huh, Brat/Dub?
Those are the most recent numbers that I was able to quickly find. It still makes you wrong about Towles not being able to throw long passes.
So you’re saying it’s MORE plausible that towles had one of the most explosive offenses a month ago, (and the numbers prove that), but NOW he sucks…. NOW he sucks. isn’t it MORE likely that our offensive line is the main issue? and the offensive line was always bad, but playing lesser talent.. which is why we skated by lesser teams.
Why am i even asking. i’ve asked you several times and you’ve refused to answer every time.
No, I was hinting to larger sample size…duh.
ONE QUESTION for STOOPS: Does he believe the players are playing to their potential?
I cannot believe that they are. I believe Baker, Bone and our TE have great ability and for some reason are underachieving. This seems to be true at most positions. The devil though, is in the details.
This is frustrating, that is frustrating, and at the end of the day, it is frustrating.
There is no organization. I’m afraid that Stoops is not a good/great manager of the team
WOAH!
Not a lot of answers in that.
Can Dumbledore cast a spell on the Offense? Or, can Towles get Hermione to help like he did in the early movies.
I usually feel confident after hearing from Stoops, but today all I can do is wait and see. Get 2 more wins and go to a bowl, fine. Don’t and this is a train wreck. Who knows how it will play out.
He needs to call every Monday!!!!! That was amazing!!!!!
Wow…Coach is being really defensive. I don’t think he addressed any of the problems at all. Just excuse after excuse. Terrible. Own up to the bad coaching/playing and what you’re going to do to improve. He was all over the place.
The only coaches in the state who drive the bus over their players and assistants are in Louisville. I would imagine he is angry at what the film shows, and will deal with it internally.
HE FIRES ME UP!!!!!!! GO CATS!!!!!!!
Seemed like he avoided directly answering a lot of the questions to me. Like, “How dare you, a peon, question the organizational ability of your head coach!”
I thought he was trying really hard not to throw any players under the bus. Which I am okay with.
As disappointed as I am, I almost bailed on Brooks after 3 years. Then the changes began to show on the field.
Who would have thought we were going into GA and beating them at the beginning of the year? I think it is more the WAY we played than the result.
Agreed. I wrote similar sentiments above. At the start of the season I was not deeply into a pipe dream that involved us beating GA in Athens. I could live with a 46-31 loss a lot better though.
If sentiment is any indicator, we are at about the same place we were when fans were wanting to show Rich Brooks the door, then they turned the corner. I think Stoops will turn the corner this week. It just feels that way to me.
Completely agree. Right after we lost to LSU 49-0, we were in the same spot. Then, beat Clemson in the MC bowl, and had a decent ride until the Curse of the Joker took over.
Matt never asked him how the team felt about ruining Kaylees birthday.
Lots of Kool-aid drinkers still on here. Drinking in what Stoops says and believing in a 7 win season is rampant. Matt asked nothing but softball questions and never asked if coaching changes will be made at end of year, didn’t ask why player development is non existent, didn’t even ask why Timmons still receives punts. Typical liberal afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings he so adores regardless of the need.
Most on here probably believed in Santa Claus until they were 16…
kool-aid drinker? nah, but i’d rather listen to anybody with optimism than someone (you) that week after week after week has thrown every coach, player and fan under the bus. debbie downer to the 10th degree. just shut up already. we get it. you hate this coaching staff and team. you never again have to comment on this blog. we all understand your feelings. but please do me a favor… if you wins two more games and goes bowling and proves you wrong, will you please go jump off a bridge?
We need a heavy dose of Chester.
Pretty shocked that he said that he’s referencing other schools “practice scripts” to get his team ready.
Yeah that’s not something you really want to make known “i’m having trouble so i’m going to get help from other coaches” then why are we paying YOU millions of dollars if you’re just getting help. not a smart thing to admit to.
Matt Jones pitching soft balls is not an “interview”, it is simply cranking up the Blue Smoke…I heard NOTHING to improve my mood or outlook on the remaining season today.
Said the same thing nothing to see here just move along.
Matt…per your question to coach about organization, watched the Bama-LSU game and saw a play similar to the play the CATS were so disorganized in. In that situation, Bama had 19 players on the field waiting on LSU to decide on their play, once LSU sent their players on, 8 Bama players ran off the field. They were ready BEFORE LSU was! THAT is organized!
I still think we’ll get there! GO CATS!!
I thought the questions were good, right up to where Stoops blew his lid. Apparently, his idea of organization, team improvement, are vastly different from every other coach in the college football. I do appreciate his one statement, and maybe I am reading too much into it at this time, when he basically said this team is just not built to play strong against good competition yet. Perhaps I did not read as much into as I should have. I was thinking by his response to the questions, he was pretty sure we were going to get waxed on each of the last 4 games.
I think we have won our last SEC game. I do not think we will beat Louisville, this year or anytime in the near future. This team just is not capable, We have too many holes in coaching, on offense, defense and special teams. So coach as you had asked of your fans, “Come on, give me a break.” I guess we are asking the same of you, give us a break, do your job and win games.
After this interview, I am not confident in Coach Stoops either. I do indeed Like the guy, but no improvement in three years, does not make me think there will be in 5 years, especially if we end up 5-7, or worse, with the schedule we had this year.
I still think we beat UofL to end the season though not nearly with as much confidence as I had after the first five games. I have to think ( even if it is ridiculous homer-think) that the final game at home, against a hated rival, gives us some esoteric/mysterious advantage. I would appreciate any donation of recently harvested KY ‘s finest, so I will at least have an excuse for such ridiculous thoughts.
^^ Ridiculous homer-think.
Redundant comment as it is referenced within my post. Reading comprehension is your friend, BigBlue. A second grader could infer from my comment that I don’t really believe it, but wish I could.
What did some of you expect from the interview? For Stoops to identify specific coaches and players by name? Then, tell everyone what he was doing to change it?
How in heaven’s name can anyone see this team in a bowl game when they have not played a good game one single time this year unless you count Missouri who is just so bad the players do not even want to play anymore. Look at each game and UK could be 1-8 right now and then how would the Kool-aid drinkers feel right now. Come on people the wheels on this bus are gone and not going anywhere.
In other news the BB Cats take on an NCAA tournament team in Albany this Friday. Gotta wonder how this team plays against a zone defense which I am sure will come sooner than later. No one is gonna run with them for sure. Albany is a guard heavy team with not much inside scoring so should be a fun game to watch.
A pooj punt sounds a bit adult-oriented to me.
Pooch punt Matt. You’ve never heard of that? http://www.sportingcharts.com/dictionary/nfl/pooch-punt.aspx
It wasn’t a punt it was a kick off.
Uh, no shite-Sherlock????
Is that like Pitino’s spooj shot?
Holy moly. No wonder we have the Big Blue Smoke Machines in full effect around here! Our site’s founder feeds us all kinds of “football knowledge,” and doesn’t know what a pooch punt is??? Aye-yigh-yigh…
He was making fun of the caller’s inability to speak proper English. Duh.
The fact that the basketball team plays it’s first regular season game this week, but all us fans are concerned with the lack of success for the football team tells me everything I need to know. To have us still interested in football after our recent slide says a lot. The early season wins gave us that hope. Hope that we haven’t had before. Normally, we wouldn’t care enough about football right now to even be upset. Although at a slow pace, football is changing for us.