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Keith Taylor: Stoops hopes Cats can continue recent trend of success against South Carolina


Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has four wins in the Southeastern Conference during his tenure as coach of the Wildcats. Two of those victories have been against Eastern division foe South Carolina.

Stoops hopes his team can continue the trend against the Gamecocks (2-1, 1-1) Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium. A second-straight win would give Kentucky a boost of confidence it needs going into an Oct. 1 contest at top-ranked Alabama.

UK tight end C.J. Conrad scored three touchdowns in last week's win over New Mexico State. The Wildcats return to SEC play this weekend against South Carolina (Bill Thiry Photo)

UK tight end C.J. Conrad scored three touchdowns in last week’s win over New Mexico State. The Wildcats return to SEC play this weekend against South Carolina (Bill Thiry Photo)

The Wildcats (1-2, 0-1) are coming off a 62-42 rout of New Mexico State last week, but lost starting quarterback Drew Barker for a “significant amount of time” on the first series from scrimmage. Barker injured his back and backup Stephen Johnson will make his first start against South Carolina. Johnson threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns against the Aggies. Johnson’s performance in his last outing was enough to convince Stoops he was ready to lead the offense.

“I wasn’t sure I saw that coming,” Stoops said. “I had all the confidence that he would move the football and that we would get on pace, and our offensive players believe in him and we’ve talked about him for a long time because we knew he’d shown signs in practice of being very efficient at running the offense. He’s a very consciences kid, he works extremely hard, he wants to perform well for his team and he has some talent. So you knew he’d be good, but to see him play that well, I don’t know if I saw that coming.”

Although the absence of Barker gives Kentucky one less experienced quarterback on the depth chart, Kentucky offensive coordinator Eddie Gran plans to utilize Johnson both in the passing and running game.

“We gotta go win this one, you know what I mean?” Gran said. “We have to go win this one. We will take it week by week, and we gotta go.”

Stoops agreed with his offensive coordinator.

“We have to play and we know we have to win,” Stoops said. “We have to do whatever gives us the best opportunity to win football games. So we are going to do what we have to do. You ever hear that saying in Vegas that scared money never wins? Same thing here.”

Gran liked the way the offense responded last week after scoring just one touchdown in the previous six quarters, including a seven-point outing in the league opener at Florida. However, Gran doesn’t want the Wildcats to become complacent.

“The first thing I said to them on Monday was if you think you’ve arrived we’re in bad trouble,” Gran said. “You’ll get humbled in a heartbeat, and it’ll be ugly. So that’s my message. Is it commitment or routine?”

If changing quarterbacks weren’t enough for Stoops to worry about, the Kentucky coach has spent most of his time this week working with a defense that ranks last in nearly every category in the SEC.

“I’m not pleased,” Stoops said. “It’s frustrating. We try to teach, try to coach, try to educate, and sometimes all that don’t work. The truth is the truth. If we’re so fragile we can’t handle the truth, we’re not going to win many games. I told them the truth.”

Stoops let his feelings be known following practice Wednesday and didn’t like the way the defensive unit performed behind the scenes.

“I thought we practiced the way we should practice (Tuesday) and I thought we absolutely regressed (Wednesday), and that’s our problem,” Stoops said. “That’s our problem. Until we get it changed, we’re gonna have the same darn results that we have in that stadium which is bull crap. So until we grow up and get a mentality about us and have some guys step up and get tougher, then we’re gonna look like the same bunch of crap.”

Stoops added his squad has no time to make excuses with nine games remaining.

“Some guys need to grow up in a hurry,” Stoops said. “We have no idea what it takes to have concentration, from the beginning of the week through the end and through a whole game and so on. You get the picture? We’re not real tough, we’re not real smart and we’ve got a long way to go.”

Scouting South Carolina

The Gamecocks have settled on a starting quarterback after three games. Freshman Brandon Mcllwain threw for 195 yards and rushed for 34 yards and a pair of scores in a 20-15 win over East Carolina last week.

Stoops said the Gamecocks are building a foundation around their freshman signal caller.

“I can tell they’re gaining a little confidence and continuity in what they’re doing with him and some of the problems that he presents and some of his strengths,” Stoops said. “They’re going to get nothing but better offensively. It’ll be much of what you saw last week and then they’ll build off that.”

Stoops added first-year South Carolina coach Will Muschamp is starting to put his stamp on the Gamecocks’ defense.

“You see what they’re doing defensively is the same as what (coach) Will Muschamp has done (at other stops), just less right now,” Stoops said. “It looks like he builds a little more each week but you see the core of what they are defensively.”

Hall of Fame weekend

Kentucky will add six new members of its Hall of Fame class this weekend. The newest inductees include Rich Brooks (football), Chuck Hayes (men’s basketball), James Johnson (wrestling), Molly Johnson-Belcher (softball), Bernadette Madigan-Dugan (cross country/track and field) and Wesley Woodyard (football).

A reception is set for 5:30-7 p.m. Friday at the Woodford Reserve Room at Commonwealth Stadium.

Game tracker: South Carolina at Kentucky, 7:30 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, 98.1 FM WBUL.

Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter


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