Stoops in full football mode, ready to begin 12th season at UK

Mark Stoops is in full football mode and it showed on Monday.

“I get asked 20 times in the offseason if I’m ready for the season,” Stoops said during his weekly press conference. “I’m absolutely not ready until until we get to this point, and now it feels really good.”

Stoops, entering his 12th season as coach of the Wildcats, is preparing for Saturday’s season opener against Southern Mississippi set for 7:45 p.m. at Kroger Field. The contest also will mark the debut of offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.

“Nothing ever goes as smooth as you want it to, but we have to be able to adapt and make adjustments and nobody panics here in Game 1. Make the adjustments throughout the game, go execute and play good football,” Stoops said.

As expected, Stoops named Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff the team’s starting quarterback and wants Vandagriff to “make good decisions and continue to make the simple look simple and and the routine look routine” in his first start at Kentucky.

“If a guy’s open, hit them and catch and run and protect the football and do the basics,” Stoops said. “If we continue to do a lot of little things, big things will happen. Guys want to do too much too early. They immediately want to score, to be whatever. They immediately want to have their production. They they immediately want it all to happen right now. … that’s not going to happen unless they, you know, fall back on the things that they were taught and do the little things.

“If you continue to pile on and do the little things right – move, make routine, look routine – big things will eventually happen. That’s hard. It’s hard to preach it because guys want it all very quickly.”

Gavin Wimsatt, a Rutgers transfer, and freshman Cutter Boley, will back up Vandagriff in the pocket. Stoops said both players enjoyed a successful camp and will provide the Cats with a pair of viable options in a backup role.

“Cutter has been very consistent. We’ve been very pleased with Gavin and Cutter,” he said. “Both of them bring some very good attributes to the game (and) to the field and can do some special things, so we’ll see where it goes.”

At running back, Demie Sumo-Karngbaye was listed as the starter and Jason Patterson, a true freshman, was listed No. 2 on the depth chart. Jamarion Wilcox wasn’t listed, but Stoops added, “Jamarion will be a very close second with Jason.”

“He’ll play quite a bit as well,” Stoops said of Wilcox.

While the offense has yet to be proven, Stoops wants the Wildcats to “control what we can control.”

“(We have to) do the little things,” Stoops said. “Take care of our primary responsibility. Guys want to have big vision all the time and sometimes, you have to zero in on your key, execute and take care of your primary responsibility.”

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