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Mark Stoops on Kentucky’s slow start in season-opening win over CMU: ‘There is no excuse for that’
By Nick Krueger
Published:
Kentucky looked like it was in trouble at halftime of its season opener against Central Michigan.
The Wildcats only led 21-20 at the halfway point before the defense stepped up significantly and didn’t allow the Chippewas to score in the second half. The defense also had to overcome two interceptions and two fumbles from the offense, which Mark Stoops highlighted in his postgame press conference.
“I was proud of the way the defense played,” Stoops said. “Really proud of the defensive effort to overcome 0-4 turnover margin and win says a lot about our football team.”
He was then asked whether that can be chalked up to first game jitters.
“It is but there is no excuse for that,” he said. “We’ll get on it and get it corrected. We had one particular game like that last year. We had one game like that last year but we’ll get it fixed and move on.”
Stoops was especially impressed with the play of linebacker Josh Allen, who had 10 tackles including 3 for loss.
“This is the best we’ve played as a unit in a game or a scrimmage up to this point,” he said. “I really thought we played as a unit today and we can build on that from here.”
Benny Snell didn’t have a great game, rushing for “only” 125 yards on 20 carries. He also added two touchdowns but much of that yardage came on a 52-yard touchdown. According to Stoops, Snell was sick entering the game.
“He had a virus last night. He had a temperature and a viral infection. We were watching him and he wasn’t feeling great. He went to the hospital and gave him a bag of fluids and he ended up being pretty solid.”
Nick covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
