Mark Stoops sat in for his first weekly Coaches Show of the 2024 season, answering questions from callers and discussing the first game with UK Sports Network broadcaster, Tom Leach. As this new roster is still more unknown than known as its only the end of August, there were plenty of questions for Mark to answer as we approach the start of the long season.

One question stuck out to me that was asked on social media, on that read, “What are three keys to establishing an identity for this year’s team?” I was really intrigued what that answer would be as I’m also trying to get to know the team. Mark Stoops ended up giving four points instead of three, with the first one being a two-parter.

#1 & #2 – Line of scrimmage: O-line and D-line

“First thing with me it always starts up front. There’s no mystery, you (Tom Leach) and I have talked and you and I have been together, been around for long time, but, I wanna be physical up front. I don’t think we’ve met that challenge (recently) on the offensive line. The defensive line we have at times. I thought we were really disruptive last year, but, I think we took some steps forward. We had a lot of tackles for loss, we had some sacks, we had some pressure, we were disruptive on the defensive line. On the offensive line I wanna continue to build. I think Eric Wolford is a great offensive line coach, he recruits extremely well, we’re more physical than we’ve been, but we’ll see. We have to be consistent, we have to be physical up front.”

#3 – Executing the easy plays

“We’ve got to pitch and catch. We’ve got to make routine look routine. When things are open and you’ve got good plays designed, you’ve got to pitch and catch. Throw the ball, catch the ball, get the yards that are there.”

He mentions that the short plays need to be executed effectively, and that they also want to avoid the pre-snap penalties. He really emphasized on making “routine look routine.”

#4 – Turnover margin

“I think that’s a big deal. We have to be disruptive and take the ball away defensively, and we have to be very smart and protected on the offensive side.”

This with a lot of new pieces, it’s going to be important to establish an identity as early as possible, that way we’re not in Week 5 and still pondering for an answer. Being physical on the offensive line and the defensive line, executing the easy plays, and managing the turnover margin, all four are priorities for the staff. Getting these under control as soon as possible will allow this team to prosper in many other additional ways that come beyond the fundamentals, which is desperately needed to compete amongst the SEC.