UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 24, 2022

Mark Stoops

Press Conference

Kentucky - 31, Northern Illinois - 23

MARK STOOPS: You know, obviously not the finish that we were looking for. I think that kind of puts a bad taste in everybody's mouth who was sitting there. We're up with 17 with eight minutes to go in the game. And you're feeling pretty decent.

And I think at that point in time we punted. And, obviously, they hit the big, explosive play on the first down -- well, after the three. They come back and get the explosive when we were up 14. And we knew the absolute exact play that was coming.

And if I'm not mistaken, the corner and the -- one of our defenders ran into each other and created the explosive. Which is not good in that situation. You got to make them work for their yards.

I thought the -- you know, the beginning of the game was sluggish for us, letting them drive down and score. Offensively, came out -- again, just didn't do much, you know, early in the first half. And just overall, just a sluggish game. Good to get it behind us.

We know it's a good football team. It's tough. They're going to play hard, compete for their conference championship. We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We thought, again, we did not some good things.

Will Levis played an extremely good game once again. We improved in certain areas with the protection. They were bringing a lot of pressures and we made them pay for it with the pressures. We got them protected and hit the ball downfield with some explosive plays. That was good to see.

Run game, again, hit and miss. And defensively I just thought we were okay. So a lot to improve on. It's good to be 4-0 and we're excited to get back to work and looking forward to getting toward the challenge on the road this week.

Q. Mark, your best teams have been so good at having the ball, being able to hold on to it, run some clock at the end. How important is it to develop some of that and be balanced with the big plays?

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I think it is important. It's super important. And we need to continue to, you know, get better in that predictable run in four-minute offense.

Q. Do you feel like you saw improvements from your offensive line?

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I do. I think they did some good things. And they were bringing a lot of pressures. And I felt like we picked up a lot and created some opportunities for the explosive plays.

Again, you know, with all of us feeling like it was just the gung ho performance, just sitting there and at that point when you felt like you had the game under control if we could get a stop.

You know, we were averaging almost a 7.3 yards per play. You know, which is pretty explosive. And we just got to do a better job of finishing.

Q. There were a couple times after some short runs, I think a third and one short run, Will is kind of clapping his hands. He seemed kind of frustrated that time. With the lack of push there upfront and the pass protection, getting sacked five times, what was he saying about just how frustrated he was?

MARK STOOPS: I think we just felt like there was plays, there was opportunities. And, you know, just we were getting close and we want a couple of those runs to spit out. We had a couple. And, you know, I think there was a lot of confidence there that we could create explosive plays, as we did.

Q. (No microphone.)

MARK STOOPS: I got to look at the tape, Lonnie. I'm not sure. You know, from the sideline, maybe a few that there was some opportunities, yeah.

Q. I know you were unhappy with the penalties last week. Do you feel like you did a better job?

MARK STOOPS: I did. Yeah, I think -- I don't know what we ended up with there. The hold there was a big penalty at the end. But I want to say late we had one. I don't know what we ended up with. Two, yeah.

Q. (No microphone.)

MARK STOOPS: We have a lot of confidence. I thought he did a good job and played well. I didn't see the hold. I didn't see the play. You know, I just saw the finish. I didn't see the hold.

Q. For several years, you've been talking about wanting to get more explosive. Now, you've gotten there. Do you feel like it's been helping you in some of the other bumps in the road?

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I think it's fair to say. I think it's -- you know, we're all striving for perfection. You know, and maybe we're not there yet. But we wanted to be explosive and we're certainly getting that. So that's a plus.

Yes, I'd like to be -- you know, it's also -- you know, you kind of -- you got to be who you are. And right now we have a very talented quarterback. You know, we have some explosive wide receivers. So we're creating some big plays.

Yes, I think we want to be a little more consistent in the run game. See, everybody appreciates the run game now. Five years ago, y'all didn't appreciate shit. (Laughing.) I'm joking, I'm joking. Everybody relax. (Laughing.)

Q. Mark, it seems like a couple of the sacks -- Will's the cause of those explosive plays. Is it Will holding the ball? Is it he thinks he can make a big play? That's what it looks like. Is that the way it is?

MARK STOOPS: Well, when they were bringing all that pressure, they were doing a great job of trusting his protection and we created the explosives. Even late in the game, I felt like we had a play designed to complete one. But the player was so far behind him on the front side, we doubled back.

It was a double move and he felt like he was going to fall into it because he was so far behind on a little snag route we had. And so, long story short, he kind of held that one late to cap the game.

And he didn't want to make a bad decision and have somebody fall into a play, you know? But he did a really nice job, to your point, of hanging in there and delivering the ball downfield.

Q. Mark, you said you appreciate the run game. You'll get Chris back. How much has he helped as a blocker in addition to what he'll do for you as a runner?

MARK STOOPS: He'll help in a lot of ways. We all know he's a very good football player in a lot of ways. And we'll be excited to get him back.

Q. Conference play ramps up. Where's the focus and how does the focus change?

MARK STOOPS: Well, I think everybody -- you know, the intensity level, you know, has to ramp up. But I really -- as I just told the team: We had a really good week of practice. You know, so I challenged them hard all week. And they did. You know, they really practiced hard.

There's areas where we improved. And there's areas where you have to give them credit. And there's areas where we need to continue to go back to work and focus and get better. And we will.

Q. Mark, you talked about the last few weeks using the segment, We have to get better around Will. I know you said we saw some sluggish things. In those areas, did you see them improve anything around that specifically?

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I think we definitely played better around him tonight. The receiver play was cleaner. There's still some younger guys, still some inexperienced guys. I thought they did a good job. I thought the protection improved in a lot of ways. So, yeah, I think we're doing some better things.

Q. Did Northern Illinois have more misdirection than you were anticipating?

MARK STOOPS: They did a nice job of keeping us off-balance. They did. We were anticipating that. We always do. We always get a lot of misdirection and boots from our offense all the time. So we see that.

They did a nice job creating some looks and overloading us into the boundary and booting and pulling the three through. They did a nice job.

Q. You were talking about those wide receivers stepping up. Last week and Monday, you said we needed to see wide receivers block better. I know you got to watch the film, but just in first sight, did they do better today?

MARK STOOPS: I felt like they played cleaner just in general. You know, so we'll see from the look at it.

Q. What did you tell the team at halftime? It seems like they came out with a little bit more energy.

MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I mean, it was an unfortunate end to the first half. It took the wind out of us. You know, you get the stop and I play aggressive to get a last possession and then we put it on the ground. That's inexcusable. And we lose a lot of momentum there.

You go in 14-7 and you get the ball to start the second half, big difference there. So we just can't put the ball on the ground. But I just told them to just be calm, it's 0-0. We're going to take the ball. We get the opportunity to get the ball in the second half. And go score and go play. You know, I didn't want them to clam up and get tight at that point. They played good.

Q. When Will is able to take a big hit and still throw a 70-yard touchdown bomb, does that kind of light the sideline up?

MARK STOOPS: It doesn't surprise any of us at this point. We know he's a tough guy. We put a lot on him and he's playing really good football.

Q. Mark, you said just okay defensively. Defensively, the third downs bring you problem in the first half, much less in the second. Was there anything noticeable to you that was making a difference?

MARK STOOPS: Well, I think, you know, part of it is them getting good opportunities. You know, third and short, third and medium and keeping us off-balance. You know, that was part of the first third downs and getting them in a little longer, predictable situations helps us out.

Q. How reliable is Tayvion?

MARK STOOPS: Tayvion is playing really good. Yeah, really good. A crafty player. He's really skilled and talented, but he's also very smart.

Q. (No microphone.)

MARK STOOPS: He does. Yeah, he does. He has a good knack for sitting when he needs to sit, running through it, pulling out of it. You know, we knew we were in zero on a couple of those and he spun out of it and made them pay.

Q. What did you still need to see from the offensive linemen and the pass recollection? Is there something with the technique? Three sacks, five sacks is there something --

MARK STOOPS: It's not always on them. I'm not saying none of it is or -- you know, some of those sacks -- where the one in particular was that stands out to me where I know we got beat clean off the edge. There's other ones where the quarterback needs to throw the ball. There's running backs, there's a lot of people involved.

I mean, as I said, we know we need to improve. But look at the good that they did tonight, as well, in protecting a bunch of stuff. And they were selling the farm. And we made them pay for it.

Q. (No microphone.)

MARK STOOPS: I think so. For the most part, yes.