Stoops impressed

Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops, speaking on the SEC’s overall strength during Wednesday’s coaches teleconference, brought up Arkansas’ 40-21 victory over Texas last Saturday.

“I think people outside of our conference obviously get sick of hearing about it, because there’s a lot of chatter nationally about it, but it’s one thing to view it from the outside until you strap it on and play these teams each and every week,” Stoops said. “It’s quite another to see it from the inside.”

The Longhorns, who along with Oklahoma will join the SEC no later than 2025 and possibly earlier, came into the game ranked No. 15. But Texas was manhandled physically by the unranked Razorbacks, who are No. 20 in The Associated Press poll this week in Sam Pittman’s second season as coach.

“That’s one heck of a win for Sam, so congratulations to him,” Stoops said. “And it really doesn’t surprise me, because of the way he recruits and the way he’s going to build it with the big boys. It starts up front in this league.

“We don’t play Arkansas this year so I haven’t had a chance to study them, but obviously they’ve made quite a bit of progress.”