Coming off his first bowl appearance as head coach of Kentucky, Mark Stoops and his program have some real momentum heading into the summer.

Thanks to the progress shown by his program, UK gave Stoops a raise and an extension this offseason with opportunities to earn built in bonuses and extensions should the Wildcats achieve similar results in the future. It’s clear that the Kentucky administration foresees big things on the horizon, something Stoops did not shy away from during his Tuesday appearance on radio program The Cole Cubelic Show hosted by SEC Network sideline analyst Cole Cubelic.

Improving on last season’s 7-6 mark will likely depend on Kentucky starting the season off well, as UK opens on the road at Southern Miss, which beat the Wildcats last season, followed by a trip to a rising South Carolina program in Week 3 before hosting Florida in Week 4. The Gators have beaten Kentucky 30 consecutive matchups.

The Wildcats have a good recipe for navigating the early season tests, as Stoops’ team returns two experienced quarterbacks, a breakout running back and a veteran offensive line that was the strength of the offense last season.

During his recent segment on the Cole Cubelic Show, Stoops was asked about his quarterbacks, and if the current competition would go into the fall.

“Well, we’ll see. Drew (Barker) was not 100 percent for the spring, he got injured last year in the second game and was not quite 100 percent still coming off that back surgery,” Stoops said on the air. “We’ll see how this summer progresses for Drew, but certainly, it has to be an open competition. Drew was the starter coming out of last fall, and was doing some really good things, and unfortunately got injured. We are very proud of Stephen (Johnson), the way he came in and competed and put us in a position to win every game and got a heck of a lot better as the season went on.”

Johnson played very well in his first season with the team and he adds an extra dimension with his legs, however, Barker’s upside may prove to be so high that he forces Kentucky to play him in the fall. The Kentucky quarterback competition will certainly be an interesting battle to watch all offseason.

Stoops was also asked about last year’s breakout star, running back Benny Snell, and his role moving forward. While quick to praise Snell, the Kentucky coach quickly gave his offensive line credit for much of the offense’s success.

“Benny can handle more of the workload, he’s a big, strong guy, a downhill runner. He’s very mature for his age, going into his true sophomore year,” Stoops said. “Definitely feel really good about our run game and our running back position with Benny coming back, but it really starts with our offensive line. We had quite a few offensive linemen that rotated in a year ago. We only lost one player in Jon Toth, who was a heck of a football player for us, but we played about nine guys on the offensive line last year and we really feel like we’ll be seven, eight, maybe nine deep this year by the time the first game rolls around.”

Stoops also commented on the team’s offense in Year 2 under Eddie Gran.

“We’ll always look to tweak things to improve and get better,” Stoops admitted. “We are in here daily finding new ways to move the football, different ways to stop people, so we’re always striving to get better. The base package, the identity of who we are will stay the same, and we’ll just try and build off that.”