Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has both a sense of humor and a sense of perspective, and both were on display during his opening remarks at SEC Media Days on Thursday.
“I’d like to start by thanking the SEC for saving the best for last,” he said, grinning. “And I think all of you deserve some kind of an award for enduring four days of this. So God bless you.”
Stoops’ comment got a big laugh the media assemblage still remaining late Thursday afternoong. The Wildcats were the very last of the league’s 14 teams to work the grand ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel and they followed Alabama’s Nick Saban and three of his players.
In fact, Kentucky walked through a hotel lobby filled to the brim with Bama fans chanting “roll tide” at the faintest glimpse of their Crimson-clad heroes. Nary a Big Blue fan could be spotted.
The programs are similarly contrasting on the field. While Alabama’s contingent spent its time bemoaning its two losses its last two years, the Wildcats were trying emote positivity after winning just two games each of the last two seasons.
“How we measure success is how we prepare,” Stoops said, chiming a familar refrain heard in Lexington. “Our players are paying the price. They’re working extremely hard this season. We do in preparation what we do in games. Our coaches are putting them in position to be successful. We’re doing everything we can.”
And the Wildcats are doing it with their wallets as well as their practice habits. They’re in the midst of a $120 million renovation of Commonwealth Stadium. They’re in the design phase of what will be a 100,000-square-foot, football-only building that is set for completion in 2016.
Slowly but surely, they’re building some depth and stabiltiy. Fifteen starters return from last year’s team and 36 players on the roster started at least one game a year ago.
“We’re starting to build a little bit of depth,” Stoops said. “We’re still a little young. Roughly 60 percdent of our team has been part of the program since January of 2013. That being said, we’re excited.”
They’re are still some major hurdles to clear. For starters, nobody knows who might start at quarterback. Maxwell Smith, the only candidate with any significant experience, had off-season shoulder surgery and just started throwing and it is highly questionable whether he’ll play at all this season.
Redshirt sophomore Patrick Towles emerged from spring practice with a slight edge over redshirt freshman Reese Phillips for the No. 1 position. True freshman Drew Barker remains the only other option.
But that puts Kentucky among half of the teams in the SEC unsettled at quarterback. Its issues run deeper than that. That’s the only way a team can go winless in the conference two years running.
So the Wildcats search for positives and lock onto them whenever they can find one.
“We don’t discuss number of wins,” said defensive end Bud Dupree, a senior from Irwinton, Ga. “We want to win every game. But we don’t want to put a limit on ourselves by saying a certain amount of wins. We want to make it to a bowl game, most definitely. But that’s not what it’s about for us.”
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