Good evening, HOB. I'll be following along with the Mark Stoops Show once again tonight and sharing all the relevant news and notes here in this thread for those of you who may not be able to listen live...
* Stoops says practice went well today. Big difference between playing in sweltering heat on Saturday and being out in the relatively cool, damp weather today. (It's about 20-25 degrees cooler in LEX than it was a couple of days ago.) Players were locked in, though, to start the week. Saturday's performance may have got their attention. Stoops says it's been his experience in the past that teams respond to that. They take mistakes personally. "I have little doubt that we'll bounce back and be ready to play (this Saturday at South Carolina)."
* Chattanooga sitting back with two high safeties was really different than what they saw against Missouri. Stoops says you don't want to be behind the chains so much (2nd and long, 3rd and long) when someone is playing you like that. Probably should have established the run better.
* LB Jordan Wright returned to practice today. He was fine, Stoops said.
* Stoops praises the South Carolina RBs and WRs as being the guys who stand out on film. Those guys made some really good plays against a loaded UGA defense. "They have some guys who can win some one-on-one battles at wideout."
* Turnover margin and penalties are a couple of areas that the Cats need to get turned around ASAP, Stoops said.
* Special teams had a kick out of bounds, a hold, and a couple of punts where they lost a lot of yardage on Sunday. Not a great day. Need to clean up those a lot.
* Cats working on the silent count a lot in practice this week with the simulated noise being pumped in starting tomorrow. Huddling up has worked well the first three games, Stoops said. But they'll have to be able to communicate at the LOS as well.
* Stoops revealed that Isaiah Epps had never run the wheel route he ran on his TD catch before. He executed it from "mental reps," paying attention to what others had done in practice. Stoops was really complimentary of him for that.
* Caller asks how he can keep his confidence up from one week to the next after a bad performance. Stoops says you can be disappointed in the way you played, but you can never have a defeatist attitude... EVER. Said he can't let the team see that, either, even if he's as frustrated as he was last Saturday.
* Caller asks why they don't play more man and sit back and let passers attack them. Stoops says sometimes they do need to play more man, but they have also called for it and not had the DBs cover it properly. It's not like they're just trying one thing. Neither one has been up to standard yet.
* Stoops stresses how hard Wan'Dale Robinson plays even when he doesn't have the ball. The "want-to" on his blocking sometimes goes unnoticed. He had a great block to spring Ali's TD run. Really cares about winning.
* Leach notes that they had 9 QB hurries in last week's game, so even though they're frustrated in the lack of sacks, they are creating some things with their pass rush that affects the opposing QB.
* Caller asks what specifically the Cats are looking at in their preparation for South Carolina... They have four backs who they give the ball to equally, and they're all dangerous. When you can run the ball like they do and have talented one-on-one WRs on the outside, that's scary as a defensive coach. Defensively, they have some big guys with twitch up front. The MLB got hurt last week. He was a good player. You hate to see a kid get hurt. They'll miss him.
* Stoops says practice went well today. Big difference between playing in sweltering heat on Saturday and being out in the relatively cool, damp weather today. (It's about 20-25 degrees cooler in LEX than it was a couple of days ago.) Players were locked in, though, to start the week. Saturday's performance may have got their attention. Stoops says it's been his experience in the past that teams respond to that. They take mistakes personally. "I have little doubt that we'll bounce back and be ready to play (this Saturday at South Carolina)."
* Chattanooga sitting back with two high safeties was really different than what they saw against Missouri. Stoops says you don't want to be behind the chains so much (2nd and long, 3rd and long) when someone is playing you like that. Probably should have established the run better.
* LB Jordan Wright returned to practice today. He was fine, Stoops said.
* Stoops praises the South Carolina RBs and WRs as being the guys who stand out on film. Those guys made some really good plays against a loaded UGA defense. "They have some guys who can win some one-on-one battles at wideout."
* Turnover margin and penalties are a couple of areas that the Cats need to get turned around ASAP, Stoops said.
* Special teams had a kick out of bounds, a hold, and a couple of punts where they lost a lot of yardage on Sunday. Not a great day. Need to clean up those a lot.
* Cats working on the silent count a lot in practice this week with the simulated noise being pumped in starting tomorrow. Huddling up has worked well the first three games, Stoops said. But they'll have to be able to communicate at the LOS as well.
* Stoops revealed that Isaiah Epps had never run the wheel route he ran on his TD catch before. He executed it from "mental reps," paying attention to what others had done in practice. Stoops was really complimentary of him for that.
* Caller asks how he can keep his confidence up from one week to the next after a bad performance. Stoops says you can be disappointed in the way you played, but you can never have a defeatist attitude... EVER. Said he can't let the team see that, either, even if he's as frustrated as he was last Saturday.
* Caller asks why they don't play more man and sit back and let passers attack them. Stoops says sometimes they do need to play more man, but they have also called for it and not had the DBs cover it properly. It's not like they're just trying one thing. Neither one has been up to standard yet.
* Stoops stresses how hard Wan'Dale Robinson plays even when he doesn't have the ball. The "want-to" on his blocking sometimes goes unnoticed. He had a great block to spring Ali's TD run. Really cares about winning.
* Leach notes that they had 9 QB hurries in last week's game, so even though they're frustrated in the lack of sacks, they are creating some things with their pass rush that affects the opposing QB.
* Caller asks what specifically the Cats are looking at in their preparation for South Carolina... They have four backs who they give the ball to equally, and they're all dangerous. When you can run the ball like they do and have talented one-on-one WRs on the outside, that's scary as a defensive coach. Defensively, they have some big guys with twitch up front. The MLB got hurt last week. He was a good player. You hate to see a kid get hurt. They'll miss him.
