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Opening Statement by Kentucky coach Mark Stoops following his team's victory over Tennessee:
"I was joking here before our audio got turned on with some of the media that even they have to admit that that's a thing of beauty. And it is because how many times were we on the wrong end of that for 33, 34 years or however many years. There's been many times when we have played some good football and came up on the wrong end. We have done that here. And so it was really nice to be on the other end to just hang in there.
"But I have to give so much credit, number one, to our football team the way they hung in there in difficult, difficult times. Obviously, offensively with turnovers really put us behind the eight ball as far as plays, opportunities, chances for Tennessee, kept us on the field. They were having success in the first half running the ball and the defense just kept on hanging in there. So proud of our team to pull together. This is what we said on the last drive, just one drive, just put it together, run our offense, and put a drive together and they did that.
"And I have to credit Tennessee, there's no doubt in my mind, I knew what they would do, that's a prideful program with very good football players that have a lot of pride and they came in here and played exceptionally hard. They played a very good game and outplayed us in many ways, many times. I knew Butch (Jones) would have them ready and they played super hard for him and give them credit. But very proud of our players, our coaches, and it's a team victory right there. Every phase had to step up in certain moments and they did that tonight."