Stoops wished Harris well; still believes in Barker, Baker and Dubose

By: LARRY VAUGHT

LEXINGTON — Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said he wished Madison Southern running back Damien Harris well after he chose to sign with Alabama and not the Wildcats.

Harris was one of the nation’s top-rated running backs and seemed to be a UK lean before picking Alabama.

“I am very happy for Damien. I wish he was here, but I wish him nothing but luck,” said Stoops during his national signing day press conference Wednesday. “I enjoyed getting to know him and his family. He is a quality young man and will have a great future.

“We were very disappointed (not getting him), but we went back to work. It’s part of it. I feel very good about the work we put in to show Damien how important he was to us. I feel like every legal time I was allowed to be in the school, I was there. We put in countless hours (recruiting him). We tried as hard as we could.”

Earlier in the day on Kentucky Sports Radio, Stoops told Matt Jones said he always told Harris one thing during the recruiting process.

“I’ve always told him, I’ll be the first one to shake his hand and and wish him well wherever he goes, and I want nothing but good things for him,” Stoops said.

Bar fight update: Stoops says he still believes in freshmen Drew Barker, Dorian Baker and Tymere Dubose or they would not still be on the UK football team.

Stoops made his remarks on Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday on national signing day. The three players have been identified in some media reports as being part of a recent bar fight in Richmond that left an Eastern Kentucky football player injured.

“Things are going to happen, but we will continue to work with these men and educate them,” Stoopssaid.

He called them “good kids” and said he knew more about the situation than most people do.

“It’s easy for people to judge them on what comes out initially in the media and everything else. Whatever the outcome is, were they wrong in certain aspects? Absolutely. We’re not afraid to address players when they’re wrong,” Stoops said.

Does Stoops still believe in Barker, Baker, and Dubose? “Absolutely. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be here.”

At his signing day press conference, Stoops said again he was still "trying to gather the information" about the incident.

"I have been reading a bunch of reports from what everybody said. To this point, I don’t know what is true and what is not. I need to let the legal process go through its course. I need to get a little more accurate information and see where it goes."