Mark Stoops
Opening statement:
I thought it was a good day, good practice. It was fun to get out there and spend some time with the fans. It was a great turnout. I think our players really appreciated that. I know I did. It was good to spend some time with the fans and open up the practice again. A lot of people at practice, which was good. It was good for you all to get in there and watch practice, see how it went. I might ask you guys a few questions, see what you think. But overall, good day. I felt like it was good to go out there and -- you could see form the tempo of practice it's organized chaos at times -- to see that and get some young guys out there in front of a few people. The ball was on the ground a few more times today than it was yesterday. So, it's good just to work on those things. But overall I thought it was another good day. Two solid days back to back.
The only disappointing thing for you all is to not see it with pads because I think we do have a more physical football team like you saw out there. But we have been in helmets the first two days. We'll start to put the pads on here in the next couple days, so things will pick up physicality wise. I thought it was a good day and looking forward to getting the pads on and getting a more physical practice going.
On throwing the freshmen DBs into the mix and Chris Westry running some with first-team defense:
It was. And that was by design. Me and Coach Ansley talked about it yesterday. I want to see the more and more. I know what some of our guys can do. I just want to throw them in there and see how they respond, so that was just by design today with a rotation. We feel like we're deep. We just want to get them some work. So that's not necessarily that they're going to be on the first team or anything like that.
On being involved with the safeties:
I wanted to get out there and help. As I've said many times it takes a lot of guys, coaches. Coached defensive backs for a long time, defense for a long time, so I'll get in there and help. I'll tell you I feel really good. I feel very good with our staff. I feel like they do an excellent job. Coach Ansley does a great job. Very detailed, very organized. Makes it easy for me, because I get in and maybe watch a little bit of film with them and get out there on the practice field and work certain parts that he wants to. I work for him during that period, for a few minutes here and there. But it's good. It's fun to get out there and get active.
On if Ansley ever yells at him:
No. No. Derrick is very respectful. He's a good man. (Laughs)
On who would be in the competition for fastest guy on the roster:
I don't know. I know Badet stood out today a little bit. Jeff really looked good. It's good to see him back out there full go. I'm not really sure. If I mention names then what's going to happen is the locker room's going to get talking and then they're going to get their egos up but then they're going to try run 40-yard dashes when they're not supposed to and pull a hamstring. Who were you thinking? (Boom). Badet, Boom, probably others. I wouldn't be surprised if Westry was in there somewhere. So, I don't know. I'll get Eric (Korem) in here and get the GPS and see who's on.
On if Calvin Taylor is definitely with the defense:
Yeah. Right now. Yeah, right now. We'll look at him at both spots.
On if Kyle Meadows was there:
He was not. He had a migraine. He was up all night the way I understand it. He should be fine tomorrow.
On if Jason Hatcher has made progress on the field:
Absolutely. Jason has worked extremely hard. He has put himself in a position to help this team. There will be an announcement. He will be suspended for two games. Violation of team rules, and really don't want to comment too much more about that, but he will have a two-game suspension.
On if that will be the first two games:
Yes.
On if there was a theme he heard from fans today:
I think everybody was just excited. So it was fun. Fun to spend some time with them.
On if there was a most common question:
No. Not really.
On the weirdest thing he signed:
I held a lot of babies, I know that. Kissed some babies, held some. But it was really good, just to spend some time with (the fans). It was good to see people so optimistic and excited about the season.
On Kobie Walker being Hatcher's backup on the post-spring depth chart:
Kobie's out, as you know. Kobie will not be healthy for a while. And they told us that from day one that that surgery was gonna take some time. Best-case scenario for him would be 100 percent maybe one, two three games in. So you could tell from being out there today we have options. We have a lot of options that we can move some guys around. Depending on scheme, depending on how big we want to get and what we're getting from the offense, we have some big DBs, as you could tell, that we could put a little closer to the line of scrimmage depending on the personnel groups and how big the offense is. So we have some options there that we're gonna keep on working with. Alvonte's out there, Denzil's out there, Jabari's back out there. (Kengera Daniel) is a big, long rangy guy that you saw out there at outside backer into the boundary, so we'll keep on working some options. We'll be fine.
On looking more like an SEC team, and if they have the size they want or if you always have to add that:
We're getting there with some of our length, some of our size. But you know across the board we're not there yet. And some of this size and some of this length is very young. I'm very pleased as I mentioned, I believe, yesterday that this freshman class I think has the size and the length that we like, and the athleticism at the skill positions. You know I've talked about it all the time, not just getting big at the lines. We have to get bigger at the skill positions. And I feel like we have some -- not just the freshmen, but some of the sophomores and some of those guys that are growing into that position. You can tell from the skill guys on offense in particular, the guys that are true sophomores really look good. Guys that played a lot last year, Dorian and Blake and Garrett.
On how Drew Barker threw today:
You know, it's always hard for me when I get that question when I walk right in here, because honestly you guys probably paid more attention to it than I did. Again, I've said that before. I may catch a -- if I see a spectacular throw or a real bad throw, I may look over there and see who did it, but I want until I get up there and watch the film. My eyes are on the defense most of the time.
On Sihiem King looking like he can really run:
He does. He looks comfortable returning the punts and the kicks. So he looks good so far, the first two days. So we'll see what he can do when we put the pads on.
Opening statement:
I thought it was a good day, good practice. It was fun to get out there and spend some time with the fans. It was a great turnout. I think our players really appreciated that. I know I did. It was good to spend some time with the fans and open up the practice again. A lot of people at practice, which was good. It was good for you all to get in there and watch practice, see how it went. I might ask you guys a few questions, see what you think. But overall, good day. I felt like it was good to go out there and -- you could see form the tempo of practice it's organized chaos at times -- to see that and get some young guys out there in front of a few people. The ball was on the ground a few more times today than it was yesterday. So, it's good just to work on those things. But overall I thought it was another good day. Two solid days back to back.
The only disappointing thing for you all is to not see it with pads because I think we do have a more physical football team like you saw out there. But we have been in helmets the first two days. We'll start to put the pads on here in the next couple days, so things will pick up physicality wise. I thought it was a good day and looking forward to getting the pads on and getting a more physical practice going.
On throwing the freshmen DBs into the mix and Chris Westry running some with first-team defense:
It was. And that was by design. Me and Coach Ansley talked about it yesterday. I want to see the more and more. I know what some of our guys can do. I just want to throw them in there and see how they respond, so that was just by design today with a rotation. We feel like we're deep. We just want to get them some work. So that's not necessarily that they're going to be on the first team or anything like that.
On being involved with the safeties:
I wanted to get out there and help. As I've said many times it takes a lot of guys, coaches. Coached defensive backs for a long time, defense for a long time, so I'll get in there and help. I'll tell you I feel really good. I feel very good with our staff. I feel like they do an excellent job. Coach Ansley does a great job. Very detailed, very organized. Makes it easy for me, because I get in and maybe watch a little bit of film with them and get out there on the practice field and work certain parts that he wants to. I work for him during that period, for a few minutes here and there. But it's good. It's fun to get out there and get active.
On if Ansley ever yells at him:
No. No. Derrick is very respectful. He's a good man. (Laughs)
On who would be in the competition for fastest guy on the roster:
I don't know. I know Badet stood out today a little bit. Jeff really looked good. It's good to see him back out there full go. I'm not really sure. If I mention names then what's going to happen is the locker room's going to get talking and then they're going to get their egos up but then they're going to try run 40-yard dashes when they're not supposed to and pull a hamstring. Who were you thinking? (Boom). Badet, Boom, probably others. I wouldn't be surprised if Westry was in there somewhere. So, I don't know. I'll get Eric (Korem) in here and get the GPS and see who's on.
On if Calvin Taylor is definitely with the defense:
Yeah. Right now. Yeah, right now. We'll look at him at both spots.
On if Kyle Meadows was there:
He was not. He had a migraine. He was up all night the way I understand it. He should be fine tomorrow.
On if Jason Hatcher has made progress on the field:
Absolutely. Jason has worked extremely hard. He has put himself in a position to help this team. There will be an announcement. He will be suspended for two games. Violation of team rules, and really don't want to comment too much more about that, but he will have a two-game suspension.
On if that will be the first two games:
Yes.
On if there was a theme he heard from fans today:
I think everybody was just excited. So it was fun. Fun to spend some time with them.
On if there was a most common question:
No. Not really.
On the weirdest thing he signed:
I held a lot of babies, I know that. Kissed some babies, held some. But it was really good, just to spend some time with (the fans). It was good to see people so optimistic and excited about the season.
On Kobie Walker being Hatcher's backup on the post-spring depth chart:
Kobie's out, as you know. Kobie will not be healthy for a while. And they told us that from day one that that surgery was gonna take some time. Best-case scenario for him would be 100 percent maybe one, two three games in. So you could tell from being out there today we have options. We have a lot of options that we can move some guys around. Depending on scheme, depending on how big we want to get and what we're getting from the offense, we have some big DBs, as you could tell, that we could put a little closer to the line of scrimmage depending on the personnel groups and how big the offense is. So we have some options there that we're gonna keep on working with. Alvonte's out there, Denzil's out there, Jabari's back out there. (Kengera Daniel) is a big, long rangy guy that you saw out there at outside backer into the boundary, so we'll keep on working some options. We'll be fine.
On looking more like an SEC team, and if they have the size they want or if you always have to add that:
We're getting there with some of our length, some of our size. But you know across the board we're not there yet. And some of this size and some of this length is very young. I'm very pleased as I mentioned, I believe, yesterday that this freshman class I think has the size and the length that we like, and the athleticism at the skill positions. You know I've talked about it all the time, not just getting big at the lines. We have to get bigger at the skill positions. And I feel like we have some -- not just the freshmen, but some of the sophomores and some of those guys that are growing into that position. You can tell from the skill guys on offense in particular, the guys that are true sophomores really look good. Guys that played a lot last year, Dorian and Blake and Garrett.
On how Drew Barker threw today:
You know, it's always hard for me when I get that question when I walk right in here, because honestly you guys probably paid more attention to it than I did. Again, I've said that before. I may catch a -- if I see a spectacular throw or a real bad throw, I may look over there and see who did it, but I want until I get up there and watch the film. My eyes are on the defense most of the time.
On Sihiem King looking like he can really run:
He does. He looks comfortable returning the punts and the kicks. So he looks good so far, the first two days. So we'll see what he can do when we put the pads on.
