Stoops' goal not a bowl but 'improvement across the board'
Kentucky players have made it known throughout the offseason that their goal this season is to play in a bowl game -- nothing less.
Senior offensive tackle Jordan Swindle and senior safety A.J. Stamps said as much as SEC Media Days, with Swindle calling a bowl "the minimum bar" for success this season.
But at his first press conference of the season this week, coach Mark Stoops tried to rein in the expectations a bit. When asked what the Wildcats would need to achieve for 2015 to be considered a success, Stoops cited only "improvement across the board," according to the Courier-Journal.
As for a number of wins, Stoops wouldn't get into specifics; he seems to recognize that even getting to a bowl won't be easy for Kentucky, which has a five-game stretch starting in mid-October featuring games against LSU (in Baton Rouge), Mississippi State, Missouri (in Columbia), Georgia and Tennessee (in Knoxville).
"I'm not going to fall into that trap that some of our players have, and I've let them," Stoops told the media. "If they want to talk about a bowl game and all that, fine. As I told them, if that's what motivates you, then put your money where your mouth is, and when things get tough later on down the road, let's be consistent and go to work every day to get better."