Mark Stoops talks early season fumble issues for RB Chris Rodriguez
Junior running back Chris Rodriguez has been a weapon for the Kentucky offense in 2021.
In helping the Wildcats start 4-0, the 5-11, 224-pounder has rushed 85 times for 520 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The one downside for Rodriguez, a native of McDonough, Georgia, is that he as been prone to fumbles.
Rodriguez has put the ball on the ground 5 times this year, including twice in the red zone against Missouri.
And while the miscues haven’t cost Kentucky a game thus far, it’s a situation that Wildcats coach Mark Stoops is looking to see get fixed sooner than later.
“I’m not in a state of panic or anything,” Stoops said Monday in his weekly press conference. “But anytime you have an issue early in a season, you need to get it corrected.”
Stoops says he is confident that Christopher Rodriguez will get fumbling issue corrected. 'I'm not in a state of panic or anything, but anytime you have an issue early in a season, you need to get it corrected.'
— Mark Story (@markcstory) September 27, 2021
Stoops did, however, add that for a player of Rodriguez’s experience that the errors were unacceptable.
Said Stoops: “”Only thing I can say is we can’t make excuses, we’ve got to go back to work and correct it.”
Stoops asked about Chris Rodriguez's ball-security issues: It's unacceptable, and he's played too much football for us to do that. But they relied on him at the end and went back to him. "Only thing I can say is we can't make excuses, we've got to go back to work and correct it."
— Jeff Drummond (@JDrumUK) September 26, 2021
Rodriguez and the Wildcats return to action on Saturday at home against 10th-ranked Florida.
I’m concerned, but not worried. At the end of the 4th quarter when everyone knew he was getting the ball in order to run out the clock, he held on well, with everyone trying to strip him and he was still getting 5-6 yds a carry. The TOs have not cost us a game, but they do make the scores look a lot closer than they should, as we have been the clearly dominant team in every game except the FCS opponent ironically. If they get that cleaned up we will pressure UF and UGA for the East, but if we have +2 TO margin against them, we probably can’t win.
Unfortunately this could be our Achilles heel. Turnovers seem to be only thing keeping UK from getting respect.
On the other hand, with four games under their belts, offense could magically learn how to hold on to the ball. Defense could magically learn to rush the QB, maybe even force a turnover to two.
It’s Kentucky and Florida in Commonwealth. Anything can happen.