Mark Stoops shares thoughts on Louisville ahead of Rivalry Week game
The Kentucky Wildcats will try to pick up win No. 9 on Saturday when they travel to Louisville to take on their in-state rivals.
The Cardinals have fired coach Bobby Petrino this season already and are 2-9 on the year after a 52-10 loss to NC State over the weekend.
On Monday, coach Mark Stoops discussed the challenges of facing Louisville, and said he doesn’t expect them to change too much of what they do without Petrino (via 247Sports):
“Not really. They did what they did this past week. Obviously play caller is different, but they still stuck with their offense.”
Stoops added that he expects Louisville to keep doing similar things this weekend, adding that he’s more concerned about how the Wildcats prepare for the game:
“Again, we’re worried about us, but Louisville is going to do what they do on both sides of the ball. They’re not going to re-invent the wheel in the last week, they’re going to play the system that they’ve played and they’re going to play hard. You see it in every game that they’ve played, they’ve play hard and they play aggressive and some big plays or some trick plays and things like that have gotten out of their comfort zone as well. We just worry about us and our execution and playing a discipline football game. They beat us last time here, I wasn’t very proud of that after a year ago and we’re looking to just improve and we have a lot to play for. We got our eighth victory this past week and trying to play for nine. That’s our concentration on obviously preparing for them, but control the things we can control and that’s us and how we play.”
Saturday’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen on ESPN2.
I see there’s an article in the Herald, that’s a new paper for those of you don’t know, that ‘Louisville Isn’t Your Typical 2-9 Team’.
That’s interesting.
So, is Kentucky the typical 8-3 team?
What is the most outstanding performance since the Texas A&M loss?
Vanderbilt – a touchdown on the last drive?
Missouri – a pass interference call on a pass many saw as ‘uncatchable’.
Georgia – yea, let’s go with that.
Tennessee – loss by the same amount we lost to Georgia.
Tennessee Martin – this may be the one we can hang our hat on, especially since we set so many personal records.
Tennessee Martin? Didn’t know we played them, but if we won I’ll take it.
To address the your question, is Kentucky the typical 8-3 team, I’ll say yes. 8-3 teams are typically good teams, but not great teams. I think it’s fair to say that UK is a good team that has some clear deficiencies, primarily being that UK still doesn’t quite have SEC caliber talent/depth.
Sorry, we play Tennessee Martin next year.
I was counting that win a year early.
So what was our signature win after the A&M loss?
We don’t have one and I don’t think anyone has suggested that we do. Doesn’t mean we aren’t a good team.
You could probably say Mizzou. Whether or not you like the ending, Kentucky held them to 14 points. Good teams find ways to win. Many (most) teams in the power 5 would be just fine with Kentucky’s win total this year and how they got them.
Let’s hope we can hang on to our coach.
Give him A HUGE CONTRACT so Michigan, Ohio State, LSU etc won’t be able to afford him.
And certainly hold on the Dynamic Duo that masterminds our offense at any cost.
I doubt any of us will ever see a Kentucky football team again that could compete with this one.
Don’t you agree?
HUGE CONTRACT is all relative. Are we paying Stoops more than we have any other football coach? Yes. Is Stoops winning more than any other UK coach in modern history? Yes.
Simple economics.
Also, disagree that we will ever see a UK team that can compete with this one. I think we will again surprise some people next year. I think Rose is a good back, we will have some experienced pieces on the O-line. On D, the fact that we have such a strong senior class this year means that we have been able to redshirt and develop younger guys for the first time since Brooks was around.
Paris10,
You are still a troll that loves to sackhang UK football so I’m not sure why I even entertain the notion of answering your “loaded questions” but here goes. 8-3 encompasses the entire season so its peculiar that you select UK after the Texas A&M game when you were badmouthing the team from the start of the season. UK was picked to be the underdog in many of the games they played. The only bad loss I consider was against Tennessee. No one expected them to beat Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina or even Missouri, but they did. As far as what happened at Missouri, that’s the breaks. Usually UK is on the other side of that. Like what happened at Florida a couple years ago when there should have been a delay of game call made but didn’t happen that handed UF the win. There are more examples but that is just one.
UK won the games they were supposed to. Running the score up doesn’t matter; winning on a last second play or drive doesn’t matter. What matters is they won. 8-3…and hopefully 9-3 after this weekend. That hasn’t happened in over 40 years. If you look at the body of work of this team, this team is a legit top 20 team with one bad loss.
I just really want five minutes to pick the brain of anyone who finds Paris10’s brand of sarcasm/cynicism intelligent or entertaining. You’re an idiot and it’s exhausting.
I know, typically I ignore his posts but bored at work.
paris10 is a baghanger on UK football.
Vanderbilt – won
Missouri – won
Georgia – lost
Tennessee – lost
Tennessee Martin – didn’t play
Middle Tennessee State – won
3-2 in that span. 8-3 overall. So many things accomplished this season than I can remember.
I would love to see Josh Allen to win the Butkus Award. He is projected mid first round in the draft. Love it.
I’m a troll?
Who is responding to who on this page?
Any you geniuses remember a few years ago when Miracle Mitch got all giddy and awarded Stoops an IMMEDIATE 1,000,000 raise in the middle of the season? We were so afraid Michigan was going to come in and snatch him away. Heck, we were 5-1 our only lost was to Florida so we were a lock for a major bowl. Certainly tha million was going to buy us prosperity
We lost the last 6 in a row and somehow we missed going to a bowl.
And you have to admit we should expect to have a great season when your top running back announces he’s the best in the country.
And isn’t it about time for the fruits of our fantastic recruiting deck to spew forth several more all Americans? We’ve had a good year. We’re currently 12th in recruiting in a 14 team conference. By Kentucky standards we’re great. Since the Texas A&M game we’ve been ‘holding on’ in most games. Georgia and TENNESSEE we were never in the game.
With the best running back in the nation I guess that good enough.
Oh: and thanks for trolling after me. Any of you have the responders I have?
I mean other than yourselves. I guess you have all those multiple screen names so someone will talk to you.
You can be a troll and make the first post. I’d guess you nearly piss yourself to be first on to make a negative comment.
Ignore Paris zero
Paris is about 75 years old and is full of bitterness and disappointment. He is fat depressed and worthless. His x wife left his sorry a$$ years ago and he has nothing better to do than troll SDS and try to divide Kentucky players coaches and fans
Paris seems to be the only KY football fan that seems to realize what a joke Stoops is. Most KY fball fans are fair weather fans. The attendace at this weeks game at Kroger Field against MTSU was sad. KY caught FL and MS ST early and grabbed some great wins. If they played again KY would lose to both teams. KY should easily run all over LOU as they are arguably the worst team in the ACC. Enjoy the 9 win season and maybe KY can grab a weak opponent from the B10 and Mark Stoops can finally win a bowl with his 4 and 5 year players and send them off on s high note and not embarrass the conference again.
Of course a person named Mayor Boner supports him. Were you at the game? I was. If not can you really comment on attendance? Many games had empty seats last week. I’d guess you didn’t attend any game last week.
UK1970 after reviewing your posts, it seems you find me the most interesting poster on here.
But hey, keep trying!
Boubon Blue, back off on the Kentucky Tavern. Get back to your place and start talking basketball somewhere else and how bad Coach Cal and his team will beat the TSU Tigers on Friday. This is man talk.