After a dreadful 31-6 loss to South Carolina, it looked like the Kentucky Wildcats had no chance to win against the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs, but games aren’t won on paper.
Kentucky put up a fight, even leading 6-3 going into halftime, but missed opportunities and conservative play-calling prevented it from pulling off the upset.
Mark Stoops had his postgame press conference, and this is what he had to say:
Highlights of Mark Stoops’ press conference
Question: Mark, it seems like it’s been a tale between two weeks between South Carolina and Georgia. Was the preparation different or anything different in practice? Was there anything different with the team? What was it?
“No, I think our team was embarrassed by the way we played and rightfully so,” said Stoops. “I said that and I wasn’t very proud of the way we played. As I mentioned to you on Monday, you know, I thought our team did play hard a week ago.”
“We just didn’t play very good or very efficient. We didn’t execute very well. And to play and beat this team you are going to have to make plays. Make competitive plays. You know, play extremely hard. I thought we did that. We had a good recipe to try to get this victory, we just fell a little short.”
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has a lot of respect for Stoops and Kentucky, and he echoed that sentiment in his postgame press conference.
Mark, you said you learned something about your team. Do you think you created some sort of offensive identity or found something there to get twice as many first downs?
“You know, 23 first downs against Georgia is hard to do. Obviously, we needed to cap one of those off with a touchdown. That’s where we needed to finish it off on one more possession, one more field goal might have done it as well but we didn’t get the stop. I think, you know, that’s how we want to be.”
“We want to be balanced but it always starts with us with a physical run game. We dressed it up a lot and a lot of pre-snap motions and different things and we tried to put a lot of pressure on the defenses pre-snap.”
“There’s a lot of formations and motions and shifts and there is a lot going on there. But it comes back to blocking, pad level, not getting penalties, backs hitting the holes, running hard. And yeah, I was proud of the effort. I felt like it was a big improvement in the way we played.”
“You know I’ve been honest with you for 12 years, and if I made a mistake like last week, I’ll tell you. I don’t regret punting that ball. I felt like if we went for it there and don’t make it, then our offense, if we stop them, has to go length of the field and that was going to be tough against that defense.”
“A predictable pass situation, that’s not our strength. It’s a play to our strength to pin them. Plenty of time to pin them and get the ball back. What I don’t like is one play during that four-minute drive where they hit the sail. We’ve got to man that up and not give them the sail route that was completed on their sideline. That’s the one play that will haunt right here tonight and for a long time.”
What is next for Kentucky?