Opening statement:
“We’re going to play a really good football team this weekend. I followed Coach [Mark] Stoops at Florida State so I know firsthand what his teams are all about. They’re going to be very well coached and hard-nosed. He does a fantastic job evaluating talent. They have a lot of experience. They start 15 seniors, you can see it on both sides of the ball. They’re tough, they’re physical, they can run the football offensively. They have a very athletic quarterback. It seems like some of these guys have been playing forever. They have playmakers on the outside.
“Defensively, they’re sound and they stop the run. They’re really good in the red area. They give you multiple looks and they’ve got good pass rushers. They have good guys out on the edges that can deny the ball. Special teams, they give you multiple looks and they have good returners. The punter does an outstanding job. We’ll have to be at our best and it will be a tremendous challenge for us.”
On struggles in the running game against Charlotte and the health of the running backs:
“We didn’t block very well. We basically got whipped at the point of attack. We had some mental errors that we haven’t been having for quite some time. We had free guys in the hole. That will get you before you get going. I’d say the health of our running backs is probably like everybody else, it’s November and everybody has bumps and bruises. All of our guys will be ready to play.”
On what he’s seen from Alontae Taylor this season:
“He’s a guy that has really good athletic ability, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of experience playing defensive back, so he has a lot to learn. He has a lot to learn, he’s very willing. He tries to be a physical guy. He can run, so he’s going to get better the more he plays and gets more comfortable with the position.”
On Kentucky’s Benny Snell Jr.:
“He’s a tough guy. They do a lot with him, lots of Wildcat, so he can obviously handle what they do. They used him a lot as a freshman, which is the last time I coached against him. He’s very physical, but he doesn’t take a lot of one-on-one hits. He runs through the soft shoulder, so it’s tough to get him squared up. We’ll have to do a really good job of gang-tackling him.”
On how Kentucky has evolved as a program:
“You see right now on their two-deep there’s probably over 30 guys, maybe 35 guys, that have been there for three or four years. They’ve been in the system and they understand it. It’s obvious they have a lot of experience and they found a way to win. They’ve won on the road and they’ve won at places that are tough to win at and you can see that. You can see it in how they play. There’s not a lot of mistakes that they make. They make you earn everything that you get. There’s not a lot of errors on the offensive side, so we need to play really well.”
On what sticks out about Kentucky’s defense:
“They give you a bunch of different looks. Again, they’re sound and they have a lot of experience. They play hard and they are good tacklers. They can play man-to-man in the backend and they can force you to throw the football.”
On if he’s talked to his team about voting:
“No, I have not.”
His thoughts on the targeting call on Alontae Taylor:
“It was definitely a head-to-head hit. The problem with the whole rule is — well it’s not a problem — I said it the other day, it’s about protecting our game. When Alontae is going to hit the guy, his aiming point is about at the guy’s waist once he gets committed to making the tackle. Then the guy slides at the last moment, so it ends up being a head-to-head. There was never an intent to take a shot at a defenseless guy. It just makes it tough on coaching defenders. We’ve had two guys that have been ejected for targeting, and both of them were runners with a ball. It wasn’t like it was defenseless wide receivers or quarterbacks.
“It’s like I was talking about the other day, the intent of the rule is to protect the game, but I also think at times it’s tough on defenders with their aiming point. Since we started having the targeting rule, I can remember one guy that I’ve coached that had been thrown out of the game and he was actually playing the ball, but he ended up hitting a guy head-to-head. We’ve been very conscious about coaching our guys to play the right way and that’s a little bit of the frustration. You have guys that get knocked out of games and you want to do a better job as a coach. It would be great if we could get an idea of what is going to be called and what is not just so we can coach it and continue to have a really good game that we have.”
On updating the health of the team:
“I think Trevon [Flowers] started doing some things last week and he’ll continue this week. He’ll probably be a gameday decision. Micah [Abernathy] is going to start practicing this week, so we’ll just see how it goes.”
On the priority of creating explosive plays on offense:
“I think big plays come when you execute at a high level. It’s not like you go into a game and say we’ve got “x” amount of plays that we think will be there. If you execute it, it presents itself. Two weeks ago, we had a few chances that were there because we had break downs in protections. This week, probably the same thing.”
On keeping the offense balanced against Charlotte:
“It’s hard to win in this league if you can’t run the football, or any league. You have to be committed to it and we have to find a way to get it done. I know as a defensive coach, if you’re coaching D-linemen, if they’re going to pass it every snap those guys can turn lose and go put the offensive line at a disadvantage. You’ve got to be able to run the football to some degree.”
On what he liked on the defensive side last week:
“We limited explosive plays, probably tackled a little better, but we still have a lot of ways that we need to improve. I think our guys will work hard this week to do that.”
On possible changes to the offensive line:
“Well to me, it’s like I said before, it’s how you produce. If we’re not getting a whole lot of production, then why are we not getting production? We try to play the guys that give us the best chance to win and be productive and we’ll do that again this week.”
On his message to the offensive line in past weeks:
“I think the message to our entire team is we want to go out there every day and improve every snap. Take it one snap at a time. Our guys have worked really hard to do that, but again like I’ve said to the team, how you play on Saturdays is how you’re remembered. It’s not how you play on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But, to play good on Saturdays you need to practice well and prepare well. We had too many mistakes Saturday, which went back to earlier in the year, guys blocking the wrong folks. It’s hard to have success when you do that.”
On watching Josh Allen of Kentucky blossom:
“I think when Josh went to Kentucky I was actually at Georgia at the time. I remember when he came out. Again, it’s a very good job by Mark [Stoops] and his staff evaluating and finding the right guys that can develop and play in their system.”
On his thoughts on the Kentucky/Georgia game:
“Well, Georgia has a really good football team. They won the East already and we’re in week eight or nine. They have a good football team and they made some plays and made a few more than Kentucky.”
On his thoughts on the SEC standings:
“Well, I think it is what it is. They played everybody on their schedule and they beat everybody. So, they’re the champions.”
On evaluating Kyle Phillip’s season so far:
“Kyle has worked really hard. He’s a guy that practices hard every day. He’s got some good toughness to him and instincts. He plays with a good motor, so he’s doing a good job for us.”
On the improvements on the punt team this season:
“I think coach [Charles] Kelly has done a really good job mixing up our looks. If you’re going to be good on punt team, it starts with the snap and the operations, so we’ve been good there. We’ve placed the ball, so we give people multiple looks and we’ll have another challenge this week. So, we’ll have to do a good job.”
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