By Murray Evans
The Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Calling his squad "a team in transition right now," Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks repeatedly promised Tuesday that the Wildcats will improve, beginning Saturday against Murray State.

Brooks said he was disappointed with the Wildcats' execution in the season-opening 40-24 loss to Louisville on Sunday, but noted that there's plenty of room for improvement.

"We're a team that needs to play more cohesively together," Brooks said during his weekly news conference. "I don't think this game is an indication of what we're capable of doing the rest of the year.

"We have work to do, but I knew that when I came here. I'm not happy with where we are after one game, but I'm not ready to roll over and pronounce this thing as a done deal, because it isn't. We will get better, I promise you that. This team will respond, we'll play better football, and we will be a force. Before the year is over, we will win our share of games, and in the future we will win more than our share of games, based on recent history."

Brooks said criticism and second-guessing he has heard since the Louisville loss reminded him of what another Kentucky coach recently endured.

"The weekend I came in here to be hired, Louisville had just kicked the devil out of our basketball team," Brooks said. "I think they were about 3-3 at the time, and there was doom and gloom for Tubby (Smith)'s basketball program. Look what happened after that for those two programs. Louisville still had a very good year, but Kentucky had a great year. They went through the SEC totally undefeated.

"Now I'm not suggesting we're going to do that in football, but what I am pointing out is one game doesn't make a season. I believe this team still has a lot left in it, and I promise you, we're going to get better."

To do that, Brooks and his staff will try to improve weaknesses in preparation for UK's first-ever game with NCAA Division I-AA Murray State. The Racers, who shared the Ohio Valley Conference title last year, blanked Valparaiso 34-0 on Saturday in their season opener.

Brooks said Kentucky's offense and defense made "normal mistakes," but that "catastrophic mistakes" occurred on the punt unit. Kentucky had one punt blocked, resulting in a Louisville touchdown, and punter Sevin Sucurovic dropped a clean snap on another attempt, leading to a safety.

"That just shouldn't have happened," Brooks said. "We'll have an awful lot of practice on the punt team this week. Now, can I catch the ball for Sevin? No. But if Sevin doesn't catch in there, then we'll put somebody else in and let him catch it. Sevin can punt it if he's protected and he catches it."

Louisville frequently pressured Kentucky quarterback Jared Lorenzen, but Brooks said breakdowns in protection were not necessarily always the fault of the offensive line. He said at times, Lorenzen failed to look for secondary receivers or correctly read the defense. But he did have praise for Lorenzen, who completed 18 of 31 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns.

"He made things happen. He is an unbelievable guy. This guy is a big-time player," Brooks said.

The Wildcats emerged from the loss without many injuries, Brooks said. Standout wide receiver and return specialist Derek Abney re-aggravated a hamstring injury that cost him two weeks of preseason practice, but he planned to practice Tuesday.

Starting tight end Jeremiah Drobney has a bruised hip, starting outside linebacker Deion Holts suffered a slight concussion and backup linebacker Dustin Williams has a strained neck. Brooks said all of them should be available to play Saturday.

The loss to Louisville will not keep the team from focusing on preparing to play Murray State, guard Sylvester Miller said.

"We'll be able to get our confidence back," Miller said. "Losing the opener doesn't mean we don't trust the coaching staff that we have. We just have to get more into the system and keep on grinding out in game-type situations."

Up next

Game 2: Murray State at UK

When: 7 p.m. Saturday.

Radio: WSAI-AM (1530).