Kentucky sophomore tailback and Deland, Florida native Jojo Kemp riled up some folks in Gainesville earlier this week when he said “it’s going to be fun walking out with a victory and rubbing it in their faces,” referring to this weekend’s showdown between UK and Florida.

Kemp was referring to a few of his high school teammates who now play for Florida when he made those comments, and he did not likely intend for his comments to become bulletin board material for the Gators.

Nevertheless, when UK head coach Mark Stoops got wind of Kemp’s comments, he was less than pleased. Stoops did not aim to hide his disappointment when asked about the comments during Wednesday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference:

I was furious. The thing is – I was outraged; I talked to him about it – but the thing is, he was trying to make light of some friends that he has on this program. But like I told him yesterday, ‘You think they’re gonna hear all that? They’re gonna hear the last five seconds of what you said.’ And I know the great pride of the players in that locker room at Florida. I’ve been all through Florida. I’ve been at Miami, been at South Florida and been at Florida State. I know personally quite a few of those players and the pride that they have, and one thing: it’s not very smart to try to challenge their pride before you play them. Believe me, I know them. And so I don’t think that was very smart. It’s not something that I teach. It’s not how we talk. And really, if you listen to his whole conversation, he was quite humble and really handled himself the right way until the end. But again, that’s just not very smart on our part, and we’ll get that fixed.

It seems Stoops has stuck to his guns regarding the culture he is aiming to instill in the UK program. His statement Wednesday indicates he understands Kemp was not aiming to fire up the Gators intentionally, and Stoops had to expect mistakes like this from a young team early in his tenure as head coach.

However, the coach’s lack of patience for Kemp’s comments is proof of the high standard at which he holds his program. The way Stoops handles mistakes of this nature in his second year at Kentucky will lay a foundation for how his players behave in years to come.

The Wildcats will seek to put Kemp’s comments behind them before Saturday night’s kickoff in the Swamp, as UK seeks its first win over Florida since the 1980’s, before Kemp or any of his teammates were even born.