Kentucky football notes: Stoops on QBs, depth, scheduling and more

By: LARRY VAUGHT

FRANKFORT — Kentucky coach Mark Stoops still isn’t ready to reveal who his starting quarterback will be, but he did again acknowledge Wednesday that Patrick Towles “did some very good things” last year in his first season as a starter.

“He probably has the leg up right now (over redshirt freshman Drew Barker), but we'll see moving forward. Again, we're certainly going to leave that open to compete throughout the summer and throughout fall camp,” said Stoops during an appearance at the annual Governor’s Cup press conference.

“He has the experience; he did some very good things in the spring. We’re constantly evaluating that. We went back and watched a lot of tape, a lot of cut ups, and trying to be very critical. He did some good things in the spring, but Drew is young and playing better and better every time he steps on the field. He’s still going to have an opportunity throughout the summer and throughout camp to win that job, but Patrick’s probably got a leg up at this point.”

Stoops believes the competition is good for both players and the team.

“I think it’s good to show competition. I think competition helps us at every position. You hear me talk about that often: Every position you need great competition it helps step up everybody’s game and elevate everybody’s game. I feel like we’re getting more and more competition at a lot of spots and it’s good to have two guys playing quality football at quarterback,” Stoops said.

Stoops also said that sophomore quarterback Reese Phillips has yet to be cleared for workouts after tearing his Achilles’ tendon.

“He’s limping and slow to move right now, but we expect him to be ready probably mid-August,” Stoops said.

Rivalry: Louisville coach Bobby Petrino also appeared at the event, which was started when UK and Louisville played either the first or third game of the season. Now UK and Louisville do not play until the final game.

Still, Stoops said Kentucky needs to “do our part” to make the rivalry better.

“I think Louisville's been a top program the past two, three years, and we need to bring ourselves up to that level to get it on a national scale. Certainly prior to coming here, I'm blessed to play in some big rivalries throughout my career — being at Florida State playing at Florida was exciting, and certainly a national game,” Stoops said.

“That's what we need to get this rivalry to, and part of that is Kentucky doing our job to bring it up to national prominence and play at a high level. And we're working on it and feel good about where we're at, but I think it's a great rivalry. You certainly feel it. As with any rivalry game as coaches, you feel the importance of it.”

He also noted that UK had little choice but to add a home-and-home series with Southern Mississippi in 2016 and 2017 to offset a scheduling problem after Alabama-Birmingham, UK’s scheduled opponent to open the 2016 season, dropped football.

“We were stuck in a bad position with UAB dropping football. It was difficult to find a game at that point and time for that particular date. So we got in conversations with them and worked out something. But that will be good for us,” Stoops.

Better Cats: Kentucky’s season-opening game is about three months away, but Stoops emphasized again that UK should be “significantly better” this year in his third season as head coach.

“You expect to be better. That first year is always difficult, just trying to get the players, the coaches, the people the community to understand your expectations and what you demand of them. I think that second year, it's a lot about self-awareness, the players understand what they can do. This third year as we move forward, I think what the nice thing is the players clearly understand what we expect of them,” Stoops said.

“We have some experience, some guys who've been in our program, some guys that played as true freshmen two years ago, some guys that played as true freshmen a year ago. I feel like we have a good blend this year with some upper classmen who've been in our program for a couple years and some young talent that you saw last year at times.”

Kentucky started last year 5-1 but closed 0-6. Stoops said UK needs better depth to avoid that problem again and summer workouts are critical for his team.

“It's so important for us this summer to have a great summer and to work extremely hard physically to be able to withstand an SEC schedule – and Louisville at the end of the year. We obviously have a tough run as go through the year, but again, that's what's so big about this phase and what we're doing this summer to get bigger, get stronger, to be able to physically be able to handle that type of the season and be able to build that type of depth that we need,” Stoops said.