Mark Stoops talks Matt Elam but not quarterbacks after first practice
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops addressed the media in Lexington Monday morning following the team’s first practice of the summer.
One topic Stoops discussed with the media was four-star recruit Matt Elam.
“Obviously a guy like (Matt) Elam could give us some size inside that we need and some depth inside,” Stoops said according to the Courier-Journal’s Kyle Tucker. “He looks good. So we’ll see where it goes.”
When asked a follow-up question about Elam’s weight entering camp (Elam is listed at 375 pounds on Kentucky’s roster), Stoops said: “Yeah, he’s working his way into shape. He carries it well, but we’ll see how many snaps he can go right now. But he’s working his way into shape.”
As for the ongoing battle for the starting quarterback job, Stoops talked his way around the subject when reporters asked him about the competition Monday, focusing more on the skill players around the quarterbacks than the passers themselves.
“You know you’re not going to get much on that,” Stoops said. “I think we need to continue to improve around the quarterback. Those guys need to step up and make the big catches and we need to function as a unit much better.
“It’s always put on one guy, but I was a little disappointed that we dropped the ball a little bit today and put the ball on the ground when we had an opportunity to make some plays. So we’ve got to continue to push in that area. We’ll go back and look at the film and see where we’re at, but I noticed some drops today that we can’t have.”