2014 UK Football Fall Practice Thread

quote:

---

"Average practice today. Not good enough. Just didn't feel like we had the mentality that we needed. I don't know. Too early in camp for guys to be feeling sorry about themselves getting up early," Stoops said.

---

quote:

---

On the injury front, Stoops announced after practice that true freshman safety Darius West will miss the rest of the season due to injury. West, from Central Catholic High School in Lima, Ohio, was a four-star recruit by nearly every recruiting database. "He got hurt yesterday," Stoops said. "So, it's a real shame. He's a good player. He's everything we thought he was going to be. He's a really talented football player. He came in with an injury and we thought it was healed up. But it didn't work out, so he'll be out for the year."

---

quote:

---

UK's quarterbacks once again shared time with the first team as they compete for the starting job, a race that is progressing but still very much up in the air. Stoops expects a decision to come "in the next week," but reiterated that he won't name a starter just to name one. "One of the reasons why we're trying to be very critical of ourselves in making this decision is because it's so important, and when we give that person the reins, we want them to go," Stoops said. "You've heard me say that for a year now. Every time a year ago when we thought we were giving somebody the reins to the quarterback situation, something happened. Maybe they got hurt or maybe they didn't play very good. So we want to make sure we're very precise in our decision-making, and once we give them the keys to the car, we want them to drive it."

---

quote:

---

Days after the UK offense had one of its best days of Mark Stoops' time in Lexington on Wednesday, the Wildcats returned to Commonwealth Stadium for the second scrimmage of fall camp.

Calling passes on the majority of plays on Saturday, the goal was clear: gauging the progress of UK's air attack.

"I wanted to see where we are with the quarterbacks," offensive coordinator Neal Brown said. "I wanted to see where we are as far as the receivers getting open. We did some good things. We got some growth to make in that area for sure and I think that's going to be a big part of us improving on third downs: being able to protect, throw and catch."

The results, before film review, were mostly positive.

"I thought we improved in predictable pass situations," Stoops said. "That's the best we've looked as far as drop-back passing. So I thought we made some improvement there."

---

quote:

---

UK's contenders to start at quarterback split time as they have throughout fall camp.

"Again, they all did some good things and did some bad things," Stoops said. "So, we'll get in there today and evaluate this film and evaluate the past couple weeks and see where we're at."

Brown, who has been quiet about the quarterbacks since Media Day last week, gave some insight into what he and Stoops will look for in evaluating that film.

"I want to see who manages our tempo," Brown said. "There's a lot of things that go into that as far as getting the signal, getting us going. ... Different quarterbacks operate our offense different as far as how quick they get the signal, communicate it with the O-line and those type of things. I want to see who makes the best decision, especially on crucial downs, third downs. And I want to see who's most accurate."

---