Kentucky is trying to bounce back from a historic 63-3 loss at Alabama with arguably the second-best team in the SEC on tap this week in Florida.

The Wildcats dealt with the loss of offensive line coach John Schlarman and attended his funeral and memorial service on Monday. Then later in the week, they had several positive COVID-19 tests and subsequent contact tracing that knocked a slew of players out of the game.

“Hopefully we’ll bounce back and respond, we need to,” coach Mark Stoops said Monday at his regular press conference. “Did not want to go down and play the way we did, but the outcome was what it was. We need to change that outcome here this week with our preparation and the way we play.”

Stoops didn’t disclose details about the updated COVID-19 results, but said the Wildcats want to play and they’ll be at the game.

“There’s nobody going to give up around here,” Stoops said. “… we’ve been through difficult times before. We will get through this.”

Stoops added that Kentucky needs to hit the reset button against Florida and get back to the way they’re capable of. What are they playing for this week and beyond?

“It’s a difficult question, I really don’t know how to answer your question to be totally honest with you,” Stoops said. “There’s nine teams in our league with three wins or less. What’s that word you put in front of show, it’s a blank show. I don’t even want to say because I don’t want anybody attacking me for excuses, it sucks. It’s very difficult. It’s very difficult to pick your players up each and every day, but that’s what we’re going to try our best and we’re going to continue to fight and again, we will be there. We will play.”

About the quarterback situation, Stoops said he did not take Terry Wilson out because of the Pick Six at Alabama. Stoops added that he just wanted to see if Joey Gatewood or Beau Allen could give UK a spark.

Stoops confirmed that Jeff Jagodzinski will come in and help with the offensive line the remainder of the season.