Mark Stoops addresses how Kentucky’s defense can continue to improve
By Jake Rill
Published:
Mark Stoops likes his defense this season, but he also has ways that the unit can continue to improve early in the year.
The Wildcats did enough to earn a 35-20 win in their season opener against Central Michigan, but this week’s opponent, Florida, has a better offense that they will need to stop.
During Wednesday’s SEC Coaches’ Teleconference, Stoops discussed what his team’s defense can do to play even better moving forward.
- The up and down can’t happen. That starts with a mentality. We have to play to the standard we want … it’s a team effort. … I really like this team, they have the right mentality.
Here are some other topics that Stoops discussed on the teleconference:
On how to prevent defenses from stacking the box to stop RB Benny Snell:
- We have to hit some of our shots. That was evident in the opener. We were fractions off. A lot of that has to do with protections. We need to protect better to get opportunities to hit big plays. I think it’s about effectively throwing the ball downfield.
On Florida QB Feleipe Franks:
- He played really well, you could see he was much more comfortable. He had some really good weapons around him. … Playing any QB, your job is to affect him … it has to be a team effort.
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
