Stoops says UK football's feel-good session is over

Mark Stoops hopes his players enjoyed seeing the lopsided final score from last weekend on the ESPN crawl.

He hopes they enjoyed all of the congratulatory Twitter messages.

Because on Monday, all of the back patting ended at the doors of the Nutter Training Center, the Kentucky coach said.

Especially for his younger players who might have thought a 45-point victory over Tennessee-Martin would bring on feel-good meetings with coaches at the start of this week.

"It won't be a pleasant film session today, I can promise you that," Stoops said at his regular Monday news conference to preview the Cats' Saturday game against Ohio University (1-0).

Stoops, a defensive guy by trade, seemed most displeased by that side of the ball, noting his disappointment in inconsistent play, players trying to do too much and one part of the game where the defense allowed nine possessions with 150 yards.

"There was some good, don't get me wrong," the coach said of his defense, which forced five Tennessee-Martin turnovers (after only forcing opponents to cough it up 15 times all of last season), including turning those mistakes into 21 points.

Then came the "but."

"But there were some things in the run game, some of our fits, just not striking people, being as violent as we need to be," he continued. "So there's a lot of areas to improve, and we will."

Even Kentucky's most talked about defensive weapons in senior defensive ends Bud Dupree and Za'Darius Smith didn't escape unscathed on Monday.

"I saw a couple instances when they were trying to do too much, and that's bound to happen when you have guys that want to be play– makers and what they want to do is what they can do, make big plays," he said. "But you have to do that within the scheme."

Stoops couldn't be too critical, though, because he said generally those types of plays come from being too excited to play, trying too hard to change the game.

The other thing that bothered the coach was the lack of depth on that side of the ball. After allowing just 114 yards in the first two quarters, the Cats' defense allowed 284 yards in the second half, including 183 on pass plays.

Kentucky (1-0) only allowed eight first downs in the first half and then allowed eight in the third quarter and 10 more in the fourth quarter.

"In this game I wanted to play very fundamental," Stoops said. "I didn't want to have to scheme a million different ways to stop them. Our guys need to learn how to play football, learn how to play blocks, learn how to have proper fits, learn how to do tackles and do the fundamental things."

The Skyhawks' final two scoring drives alone were a combined 26 plays for 151 yards.

"I was very discouraged," Stoops continued. "We need to get some depth and we need some guys to step up and compete."

Injury updates

Two of Kentucky's top potential playmakers this season both injured ankles in the opener against Tennessee-Martin.

Stoops said the UK training staff likes to have 48 hours to assess ankle injuries, and it's still unclear now what the status is of running back Braylon Heard and wide receiver Javess Blue.

"Right now we're just treating them and seeing," Stoops said. "This morning, felt better. We'll see. I think there's a good chance we could get them to play."

Later Stoops clarified that Heard was still sore on Monday morning and listed the junior transfer, who took both his carries on Saturday in for touchdowns, as "a question mark."

■ Receiver Jeff Badet, who took a tennis ball to the eye in fall camp, is expected to see a specialist on Thursday and likely to sit out again against Ohio.

Alexander Montgomery, who tore his anterior ligament late last season, has been rehabbing, doing running and cutting.

"He's trying to get to a point where he can get on the field," Stoops said. "Not sure when that will be."

Debuts, first-timers

A total of 25 players made their Kentucky debuts in the opener, including nine true freshmen, 10 redshirt freshmen, five transfers and sophomore Jeff Witthuhn.

If you count Patrick Towles, Josh Clemons, J.D. Harmon, Jabari Johnson and Zach Blaylock — none of whom played in a game in 2013 — a total of 30 players who didn't play in 2013 played in the 2014 opener.

True freshmen who played included: RB Mikel Horton, WR Blake Bone, WR Dorian Baker, RB Stanley "Boom" Williams, WR Garrett Johnson, WR T.V. Williams, WR Charles Walker on offense and Kendall Randolph and Matt Elam on defense.

Redshirt freshmen who saw their first action included QB Reese Phillips, OG Nick Haynes, OG Cole Mosier, OG Ramsey Meyers, OT Kyle Meadows and WR Miles Thompson on offense and CB Keron Wakefield as well as defensive tackles Jacob Hyde and Regie Meant on defense. Kicker Austin MacGinnis also saw his first game action.

Transfers who played included RB Braylon Heard, DT CJ Johnson, S A.J. Stamps, LB Ryan Flannigan and DT Melvin Lewis.

Honors

Kentucky center Jon Toth was named Southeastern Conference Offensive Lineman of the Week. He was credited by Braylon Heard for helping him break away for two long touchdown runs in the win over Tennessee-Martin on Saturday. ... Quarterback Patrick Towles (20 of 29 passing for 377 yards and a touchdown, 30 yards rushing with a score) was named as one of the unsung players of the week by the coaches on the SEC Network show unveiling this week's honorees. .... UK reserve offensive lineman Max Godby was named SEC Football Community Service Player of the Week.

This story was originally published September 1, 2014 at 11:01 PM.