Wildcats Looking To Continue Momentum

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops (Randy Sartin/imagn)

Most people don’t think about football success when thinking about the Kentucky Wildcats, but returning a majority of talent from last year’s eight-win squad could alter that mindset. Season-ending wins over Louisville and Virginia Tech could provide a springboard to a bigger 2020, and spring is when it begins for UK head coach Mark Stoops.

“I feel good about the overall depth,” Stoops said on the eve of the first practice. “We have 111 guys here going through spring. We’ve never had that and that goes to last year, what did we have – what did end up playing, seniors maybe nine, nine guys and we brought in 11 at mid-year so our team is full, which is good. We still have 10 guys coming in, so we have great depth in the spring. That excites me because sometimes in the spring things get watered down and it’s hard to really compete physically how you want to all the time but we have a lot of good bodies in there and got a lot of guys from experience and as you mentioned, some inexperienced, but that’s every year. We’ll see how it goes, but I hope some guys elevate.” 

Quarterback Terry Wilson won’t be participating this spring as he is still recovering from a knee injury suffered early in the 2019 campaign. Nik Scalzo is also out, but Sawyer Smith returns, and he got a lot of experience in relief of Wilson last year – at least until electric Lynn Bowden Jr took over signal-calling duties in the last portion of the season. There may need to be some creativity with how the quarterbacks are used this spring, but that excites Stoops.

Something else that brings a smile to the coach’s face is the depth at linebacker. Senior Kash Daniel exhausted his eligibility, but DeAndre Square, Chris Oats, Boogie Watson and Jamin Davis all return, and all four were among UK’s top 10 tacklers in 2019. Freshman Xavier Peters played in four games last season and flashed potential, but also had issues that affected his playing time. If the Florida State transfer gets his head on straight he could be squarely in the rotation.

  

“I’m really excited about that group,” Stoops said. “Boogie coming back, I believe he leads the most experienced (players) as far as coming back in sacks in the SEC with six and a half. We have high expectation for Boogie. He did some very good things a year ago.  I think a year ago, maybe, there was some frustration with him early. He kind of just settled in and listened to Coach (Brad) White, put his head down, went back to fundamentals and playing the game and enjoying it  I think he was putting a little pressure on himself early.  Boogie is a guy that has a lot of experience, played a lot of football for us, he’s one of our leaders. We’re really excited about having him back for his senior year.

“Xavier, that’s up to him, as I mentioned before, I don’t want to get into specifics or try to throw him under the bus, but we have expectations here. We’re going to do things a certain way, we’re going to do things right. That goes for him or anybody else. When you reach those expectations and play to our standard and do the things to our standard, as far as going to school and tutors and workouts and you can handle your business, then you’ll have an opportunity to do it on the field. Until then, there won’t be any. Again, I’m talking in general.  You can read between the lines or however you want to do it.  He’s doing some good

things, he’s doing better.”

Stoops appears to have the Wildcats trending the right direction, but it might be just a tad early to say the program has truly arrived.

There is still some tweaking of the culture going on, and Stoops know it will take sustained success to complete that task.

“It’s always a work in progress and we’re constantly trying to evolve and do better things, do the best we can,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s just like the recruiting process. The guys we’re recruiting are juniors in high school right now, and sophomores, and freshmen. They don’t know anything about Kentucky other than going to the bowl games and winning the last two and playing exciting football, so that helps us. Climate is easy to change, culture is different. Culture is in our community that goes back 100 years, but I don’t want to hear any of that anymore.

“We’re going forward and we want to continue to push forward and just say I do appreciate the support. I want to see it go to another level. I really do. I ask the fans to continue to support us, to continue to buy season tickets, to make that investment. When I say it takes all of us, please don’t take it as a BS cliché. It’s true, it takes a great investment by a lot of people to be consistently successful in the SEC and that’s what we want to do. We need the fans, we need the people in the upper decks, we need the stadiums full and we’ll continue to take it to another level. I promise our coaches and our players are working that way and we’re proud of the work we’ve done. We know that there’s a lot more to do and we’re excited about that challenge but I also challenge other people to continue to invest in it because we need it.”

Kentucky opens spring drills March 3, and finishes up with the Spring Game on April 11 at Kroger Field.