LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Upon further review, University of Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops came away with a new remedy for his team's sometimes spotty performance in a 44-14 season-opening win over Ball State on Saturday in Kroger Field.
The operative word is "clean." That's what Stoops wants to see from all phases when the Wildcats welcome EKU to Lexington on Saturday afternoon.
After watching the video, Stoops could find no real fault with his team's emotion, attitude or effort. It was just sloppy at times, particularly on offense. Defensively the Wildcats got a 69-yard scoop and score by Jalen Geiger. From special teams, they got a 99-yard kickoff return TD from Barion Brown.
But offensively, had the Wildcats not gotten a 30-yard TD rush from Ray Davis on their final play from scrimmage with 6 seconds left in the game, they'd have scored only two offensive touchdowns.
"I thought physically we were ready to play the game," Stoops said. "We tried to do a lot of things that we had talked about: impose our will, start fast, be physical. Our team, I give them credit, they did a lot of that. ... What we did not play was very clean. I felt that Saturday, and that was true with watching the film. The little details in all the things that we talk about, it's a fundamental game. We played hard, we played physical, we were not always fundamentally sound and that will bite us eventually. Those are things we have to work on."
Sometimes, details are hard to drive home before games have been played. Sometimes the lessons are better taught through full-speed experience. Sometimes, playing a lesser opponent in the opening game can make players feel less urgency to get everything right.
And sometimes in an opening game, players are trying to make too many things happen.
Whatever the case, Stoops is hoping to see some of the sloppy mistakes disappear on Saturday.
"I tried like heck to preach that in game one, because in game one, they have been training for so long and putting in all that hard work, they want everything to happen immediately, instead of doing their job and doing it fundamentally sound and doing all the things they have been coached to do," Stoops said. "We get out there and they mean well and want to do too much and want to do a lot and want to help and make an impact, but therefore fundamentally suffer sometimes. That was evident on both sides. Just like I felt Saturday, some of the third down conversions were a bit frustrating."
Ball State had 9 successful third-down conversions in 17 tries. A year ago, Kentucky allowed only seven third-down conversions in its first three games combined, and one of those was at Florida. It was the most third-down conversions by a nonconference opponent since Murray State had nine against the Wildcats in September of 2018. That Kentucky team went on to win 10 games, so perhaps hold off on sounding the alarms just yet.
But the result Saturday was less than 22 minutes of possession and just 51 plays, which was one reason Stoops kept running plays out of his regular offense until the end, the result being a touchdown in the final seconds on a running play.
Stoops said that wasn't his intent on that final play (which did allow UK to cover the point spread).
"The way the game played out, offensively -- we had 11 plays in the second half until that last three minutes and that's why I just wanted to run a few plays to, if nothing else, get out guys in shape, practice and play, and get some game reps under our belt," Stoops said. "That felt frustrating Saturday and it was frustrating. It's twofold. It's really good -- I compliment our team for scoring on offense, defense and special teams. That's something that we'll always take. But you put that in with long drives—we start the second half and get a beautiful drive, I believe we started with a stop, took a little time, get a long drive touchdown, then we're giving up yardage and then we get the kickoff return, then give up a long drive and that felt frustrating, and it was. There were long stretches in this game where our offense did not touch the ball, with the defensive score and the kickoff return and with us not converting on third down. It felt frustrating. It was frustrating. And there are things in there that we have to get cleaned up."
So cleanliness will be next to godliness for Stoops this week. It may not be necessary for victory against another badly overmatched opponent (EKU lost to Cincinnati 66-16), but it will be for a positive disposition for the head coach.
"We have to teach better," Stoops said. "We have to teach off this. Our team had great effort. I love that. They wanted to be physical, they wanted to be dominant, they wanted to impose their will on both sides. I thought our guys came out ready to play. But with that, with the hype, it's maturity, it's us coaching. Whether you simplify things -- which I know we didn't overdo it in this game -- we just have to do a better job of teaching and the players have to be coachable. They have to understand that because they mean well."
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