What Mark Stoops said after Kentucky's loss to Southern Mississippi

Highlights from the Mark Stoops post-game presser following the 44-35 loss to Southern Mississippi in Lexington:

The Wildcats built a 35-17 lead at halftime — before being outscored 27-0 in the second half.

Stoops sums up UK's second half pretty well: "It's both sides playing equally bad football."

— Ben Roberts (@BenRobertsHL) September 4, 2016

Stoops: "It's both sides playing equally bad football. We are not capable of beating teams if we play like that"

— Kernel Sports (@KYKernelSports) September 4, 2016

Stoops says this loss hurts everybody. Just apologized for the loss to everyone, Fans, Administration, everyone

— Kernel Sports (@KYKernelSports) September 4, 2016

Though this certainly wasn’t the start Stoops and the upstart Wildcats were hoping for, the head coach is calling on the fan base to support the program.

Stoops asks fans not to bail on them, says this team has a lot of good football in them

— Kernel Sports (@KYKernelSports) September 4, 2016

Stoops: "Our fans deserve better. … I know the criticism that comes with it, and I can handle that."

— Ben Roberts (@BenRobertsHL) September 4, 2016

Stoops: "I want to make guys proud of our program"

— Kernel Sports (@KYKernelSports) September 4, 2016

Stoops also feels as if this loss may be damaging long-term when it comes to recruiting.

Mark Stoops on how this game will play with recruits: "It definitely hurts. It doesn't help." Jedrick Wills among the visitors tonight.

— Ben Roberts (@BenRobertsHL) September 4, 2016

Following USM loss Mark Stoops' overall record at Kentucky drops to 12-25. 11-12 at home – considering noncon cupcakes, that's rough

— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) September 4, 2016

Mark Stoops says he has never apologized for a game but he wants to apologize to the fans for this one

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) September 4, 2016

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