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After a depressing and unexpected loss to WKU the UK football team obviously went through some soul searching. Coach Mark Stoops, offensive coordinator Neal Brown and to a lesser degree D. J. Eliot have on several occasions stated they were trying to find out who they are as team. There has no doubt been or should've been an exercise of catharsis occurring this week to wipe the stench of a bad loss away.
A number of players have been asked this week what they learn coming out of last Saturdays game. One player was very poignant in his analysis and that was Maxwell Smith when he said they found out they were not as good as they thought they were.
They were a few players that have been cast into a different role for this weeks game. Smith is the starting quarterback instead of holding the clipboard. Jalen Whitlow assumes that roll this week though Brown has proclaimed that Whitlow will definitely play in the game - a level of mental gymnastics. True freshman Blake McClain who has played cornerback, safety, nickel back, and linebacker and who knows where this week - again mental gymnastics. Defensive end TraVaughn Pascal has played more exclusively at that position though in fall camp he has taken a small amount of reps at will-linebacker. This week he is exclusively a linebacker because the coaching staff wants to take advantage of his speed and quickness - again mental gymnastics. These are just a few instances of what has been occurring in practice this week.
Stoops said he can't put a finger on why they didn't play as well as they would've liked but he said - "But I think maybe there's less pressure this week and more of taking care of business and concentrating more on details. And maybe not quite as tight and we seem more comfortable and I hope it shows."
Stoops performs mental gymnastics with media who has been use to full disclosure on the injury front. For the most part he has no comment on those that are injured and the media is getting adjusted to that particular style. Seemingly if the player is not involved in the gameplan he's not talked about. A question was asked about Kory Brown who left the game Saturday with an apparent injury and the said they have moved some people around and are better prepared to handle that. One of many Stoops examples are, on Brown he said - "I don't want to get into anything with injury-wise right now."
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