{"id":69681,"date":"2024-09-09T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/kentucky-played-hard-not-smart-against-south-carolina\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T18:30:00","slug":"kentucky-played-hard-not-smart-against-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/kentucky-played-hard-not-smart-against-south-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Played Hard, Not Smart Against South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky\u2019s 31-6 loss to South Carolina<\/a> was an all-systems failure. Those weren\u2019t the exact words Mark Stoops used in his postgame press conference, but that\u2019s exactly what it felt like. The piss-poor performance was stunning. <\/p>\n

About 48 hours after the defeat, Stoops had more time to rewatch the game and collect his thoughts. There\u2019s not a whole lot he would change about his initial assessment, with one exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually do think our guys played really hard. We just didn\u2019t play very smart,\u201d Stoops said during his weekly Monday press conference<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t execute very good, we didn\u2019t play very disciplined, we didn\u2019t play winning football at all. We played hard at times. Guys were physically up for the challenge, but mentally we got to do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undisciplined vs. Bad Execution<\/h2>\n

Stoops saw the strain on tape, particularly on the defensive side of the line of scrimmage. South Carolina was just 3-of-14 on third down and only gained 252 total yards. Kentucky had 12 tackles for loss, three sacks, and three forced fumbles, but most of that good was overshadowed by blatant missed assignments in coverage and an offsides penalty on 4th and 1. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were clearly undisciplined at times. The defense played exceptionally hard. We created a bunch of negative yardage plays, the ball\u2019s on the ground. Heck, in one series the ball is clearly up for grabs two plays in a row, and we can\u2019t get it. That doesn\u2019t mean we didn\u2019t play hard. We just didn\u2019t play very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cwe\u201d Mark Stoops is referring to includes himself and his entire coaching staff. Going for it on 4th and 1 from the 31? Dumb. Jet sweep on 2nd and 1? Bad idea. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t put that all on (the players). After watching the film, we have to own our part too. We have to put them in a position to be successful\u2026 We\u2019re all in it together. We\u2019re going to take ownership of it. The big thing is, everybody\u2019s got to take charge of their own self and their job in their area and take pride in what we do,\u201d said the Kentucky head coach. <\/p>\n

Stoops is forcing the coaches to take ownership. That doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s letting his players off the hook for being flagged 11 times. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have penalty after penalty after penalty. That part of it \u2014 the execution and the undisciplined play \u2014 was embarrassing,\u201d said Stoops. \u201cThe penalties and things of that nature, you just can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/em>Got thoughts? Continue the conversation on KSBoard, the KSR Message Board.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Kentucky has No Time to let this Stinker Linger<\/h2>\n

Kentucky laid an egg against South Carolina. Stoops spoke for 26 minutes and for about 90% of the time he talked about what went wrong a week ago and how to correct it, rather than the difficult task that lies ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe better turn the page quickly, but we have to own that first and that\u2019s what we\u2019re all going to do. We\u2019re going to own it. We all have to take charge of our responsibility, our job, and do it with pride,\u201d said Stoops. <\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a get-right game with an FCS opponent on the horizon. No. 1 Georgia is coming to town. The Dawgs are the class of college football, but they aren\u2019t the only potential CDB Playoff team on the schedule. Kentucky has to figure this thing out quickly or things will get ugly in the Bluegrass. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe schedule only gets harder. I think we get the opportunity to play four of the top six in the coming weeks, so that\u2019s a joy,\u201d said a deadpan Stoops. \u201cBut you know, it\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Kentucky Played Hard, Not Smart Against South Carolina<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kentucky\u2019s 31-6 loss to South Carolina was an all-systems failure. Those weren\u2019t the exact words…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}