Wrapping Up The Session
After four days and 15 coaches, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops was the final speaker at Media Days. The SEC’s “Dean Of Coaches” who’s now going into his 12th season took the podium speaking on many topics and answering questions from the media. From the state of the program to his new quarterback to that “one question” let’s break it down with the Kentucky SEC Media Days Recap.
Not Satisfied
There was a general theme to the UK head man’s comments and that’s improving in the SEC. With Oklahoma and Texas joining an already-loaded league taking that next step may be harder than ever. Kentucky followed up their second 10-win season in four years in 2021 with back-to-back 7-6 campaigns and bowl losses. In the old days finishing over .500 and making a bowl was cause for celebration. However, the bar has been raised in Lexington.
“I was really kind of coming in with a little edge, a little attitude about our team because we just want more,” said the Kentucky head coach. “Ultimately, we got to get better. We got to find a way to make those players in critical moments to push us over the top. We’re not interested in just existing. I’m not here, I’m not coaching, I’m not back for the 12th year just to to exist. We want to improve, we want to use these rules, whatever it is, to make changes to make that jump to get to the next level.”
One of the big catchphrases this media days was the term next level. Can the Wildcats get there in 2024? We’ll soon see.
Continuing on with our Kentucky SEC Media Days Recap let’s move to another big topic reporters wanted answered.
You Knew It Was Coming
It probably wasn’t intentional, or maybe it was, that Stoops spoke on the same day as new Texas A&M Coach Mike Elko talked to the media. Taking it a step further media days was being held deep in the Lone Star State in Dallas.
As you may remember following the win over Louisville in the season finale word on the street had Stoops taking the Aggies’ head coaching job. Depending on who you ask he either turned down the job or was never actually offered. It took only a couple of questions before it was brought up.
“I was pursued pretty aggressively by them, and we’ll leave it at that out of respect for everybody involved. There’s a lot of people over the years, a lot of interactions between people, but it was very brief. I was pursued. I had a job to do.”
He added, “I’ve been grinding at Kentucky for a long time, and very proud of that and want to continue to do that.” Stoops really didn’t answer the question but it’s probably put to bed for a while. Or until the Cats and Aggies finally meet again on the gridiron.
He was also asked about former basketball coach John Calipari, who is now at Arkansas. The two had a bit of a blow-up two years ago but the UK headman said they were good.
“I wish the best for him, really,” Stoops said. “He and I’ve had a really good relationship for a long time. There’s one little blip on there, but, you know, there’s nothing–we’re both big boys.”
All About QB1
Stoops brought three players with him to Dallas for media days. Offensive tackle Marques Cox, linebacker D’Eryk Jackson and All-American defensive lineman Deone Walker.
📍 #SECMD24 @deonewalker0 @Derykjackson4 @MonsterMarq @UKCoachStoops pic.twitter.com/FUXyXD6DwR
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) July 18, 2024
An interesting note is new quarterback Brock Vandagriff did not attend. Kentucky was one of five schools whose starting signal caller wasn’t there.
However one of the first questions was about the former Georgia backup. As you would expect Stoops spoke glowingly about Vandagriff.
“What I like about Brock is you saw him — for Georgia’s sake they won a lot of games, so they were up a lot of points, so they were able to work some of their backups even at the quarterback position because you know that’s very difficult to do is get QB reps. For us, that’s a big deal.
We’ve always been a pro-style offense, so you know he was coached well there. You know it was complex. You know he was doing the right things, and he could come in and handle our situation.” He added “but we felt very good about him being able to handle everything that we’re going to ask him to do.” Stoops finished by saying he just needed reps.
Final Thoughts
Heading into his 12th year media days is old hat for Stoops. He likes it when there’s a chip on his shoulder and feels the team gets no respect. That’s certainly true in 2024. Over the last four days when the SEC Network showed the chances to win the league or make the SEC title game, they showed 12 teams. Guess who wasn’t one of them? That’s right the Wildcats. Look for the staff to use that as bulletin board material for the upcoming year.
Thanks for checking out the Kentucky SEC Media Days Recap here at Last Word On College Football.
