<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alvin&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;predicted it would happen.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 6-foot-4, 264-pound defensive end, known as \u201CBud\u201D to coaches and teammates, paced&amp;nbsp;Kentucky\u2019s sideline on Saturday during the Wildcats\u2019 game against&amp;nbsp;South Carolina, exhorting his teammates. \u201CWe\u2019re&amp;nbsp;gonna&amp;nbsp;make a big play,\u201D he kept muttering. \u201CWe\u2019re&amp;nbsp;gonna&amp;nbsp;make a big play.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then, the senior went out and did exactly that.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tied 38-38 with 2:41 to go and the Gamecocks driving,&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;grabbed a tipped pass and rumbled six yards for the game-winning score. Another Kentucky interception on the ensuing drive deflated any remaining hope for South Carolina while the Wildcats celebrated a signature win. Never mind that the Gamecocks don\u2019t look to be up to their recent standards: For a program that\u2019s seldom experienced success, Saturday\u2019s upset win meant a lot in Lexington.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After back-to-back 2-10 seasons, the Wildcats are 4-1 and in a four-way tie for second in the SEC East. And if the officials had&amp;nbsp;paid closer attention to the play clock&amp;nbsp;three weeks ago in Gainesville, Kentucky would likely be among the eight remaining undefeated teams in college football. The Wildcats will take this week\u2019s match up with&amp;nbsp;Louisiana-Monroe&amp;nbsp;to fine tune any deficiencies before getting into a brutal stretch that includes&amp;nbsp;LSU,&amp;nbsp;Mississippi State&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;Georgia. And this, says&amp;nbsp;Dupree, is exactly why he came back for his last season.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022\u200B&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;STAPLES: Georgia suspends star RB&amp;nbsp;Gurley amid NCAA rules probe&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Labeled a \u201Cfreak\u201D athlete by various publications,&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;could have skipped out on his final year to enter the NFL draft. But something about second-year coach Mark Stoops and the recruiting classes he put together told&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;it would be a mistake to leave early. Some of his friends and family felt differently, chiding him for leaving millions of dollars on the table.&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;brushed it aside.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI think it\u2019s working out better for me in the long run. Now a lot of people are telling me if I left, I would have been crazy,\u201D&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;says. \u201CI didn\u2019t want to be selfish. It\u2019s about my teammates, too.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When he told Stoops he planned to return, the veteran head coach played it cool in his office. Ten months later, Stoops admits he was ecstatic.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThe special thing about him is, I didn\u2019t have to \u2018pitch\u2019 him anything,\u201D Stoops says of&amp;nbsp;Dupree. \u201CHe knew why he was here, knew what we were doing and wanted to come back. I still got him the (NFL evaluation) information and showed it to him, but he wanted to help change this program.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;STAFF: Week 7 picks: TCU-Baylor, Auburn-Mississippi State, more&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stoops arrived in Lexington in December of 2012 understanding that some would be leery of taking this job. The SEC is stacked with four- and five-star talent and boasts seven of the last eight national champions. In the first year of the College Football Playoff, while other conferences sweat whether they'll get one team into the bracket, the conference of heavyweights all but expects to have two teams make the cut. Stoops wasn\u2019t scared off by any of it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWhy not us?\u201D he says. \u201CI understood it was a great challenge, but that\u2019s part of what was exciting to me. We got a staff together and really worked a six-hour (recruiting) radius from Lexington. This is a beautiful place and a great college. I know what the potential is.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He got to work immediately, taking a recruiting class ranked in the&amp;nbsp;60s&amp;nbsp;and pushing it as high as No. 29 in under two months. The youngest in his family coaching tree -- older brother Bob runs the program at&amp;nbsp;Oklahoma&amp;nbsp;and is assisted by brother Mike, a defensive specialist, while oldest brother Ron is an assistant at&amp;nbsp;Youngstown State&amp;nbsp;-- Stoops has roots in Ohio and went into the Buckeye State to snatch three players for Kentucky's 2013 recruiting class. In 2014, he upped that number to 10 (the Wildcats signed 28 total in 2014).&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But perhaps Stoops' greatest recruiting job was when he walked into a team meeting for the first time and sent a message&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;bought into: Kentucky could compete in the SEC, and it would happen sooner than people thought.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI believed in him,\u201D&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;says simply. \u201CI did my research, saw the things he had done at previous schools and figured it would work out for us, too. I saw the players he had sent to the NFL, the teams he had brought back from losing seasons, the guys he was bringing in. I knew we were on the way up. I wanted to stick around for it.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\nKentucky 2014 schedule\r\n\r\n&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tdate\r\n\t\t\topponent\r\n\t\t\tresult\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tAug. 30\r\n\t\t\tUT Martin\r\n\t\t\tW, 59-14\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 6\r\n\t\t\tOhio\r\n\t\t\tW, 20-3\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 13\r\n\t\t\tat Florida\r\n\t\t\tL, 36-30 (3OT)\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 27\r\n\t\t\tVanderbilt\r\n\t\t\tW, 17-7\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 4\r\n\t\t\tSouth Carolina\r\n\t\t\tW, 45-38\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 11\r\n\t\t\tLouisiana-Monroe\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 18\r\n\t\t\tat LSU\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 25\r\n\t\t\tMississippi State\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 1\r\n\t\t\tat Missouri\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 8\r\n\t\t\tGeorgia\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 15\r\n\t\t\tat Tennessee\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 29\r\n\t\t\tat Louisville\r\n\t\t\t?\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dupree&amp;nbsp;came to Kentucky almost 40 pounds lighter with plans of playing tight end. (Scout.com had him rated as the No. 45 tight end in the country.) The switch to defense -- which he also played in high school in&amp;nbsp;Irwinton, Ga., -- has served him, and the Wildcats, quite well.&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;has already totaled 196 career tackles, including 27.5 for loss. In 2013, he led all SEC linemen in total tackles with 61, more than No. 1 overall NFL draft pick&amp;nbsp;Jadeveon&amp;nbsp;Clowney&amp;nbsp;or No. 23 pick Dee Ford. And he\u2019s spent enough time terrorizing quarterbacks in the backfield (17.5 career sacks) to know he wants to do it even more.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWhen you hit someone good, you can see it in their eyes: They don\u2019t want to get up,\u201D&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;says. \u201CThose are the ones I like.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;THAMEL: A look inside Mississippi State program, its upset of Texas A&amp;amp;M&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dupree&amp;nbsp;tells a story about when he went airborne for a pass in high school, and a defender took him out from underneath.&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;landed with a thud -- and a new appreciation for big hits. Since then, he\u2019s worked to deliver as many as possible.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dupree&amp;nbsp;tries to sidestep all the attention he gets for being a freak athlete but acknowledges some of his numbers will draw eyeballs no matter how much he talks about team success: It\u2019s been reported that&amp;nbsp;Dupree&amp;nbsp;has a 40.5-inch vertical leap and 10-and-a-half-foot broad jump and can squat 550 pounds. Yet Dupree says his most athletic moment happened years ago on the basketball court. In high school, when he led Wilkinson County to the Class A state title as a senior, he caught a defender in the paint off guard when instead of jumping around him, he jumped right over him, slamming the ball through the hoop.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, he hasn\u2019t had a chance to recreate this during a pickup game on Kentucky\u2019s campus.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThey don\u2019t like us playing basketball so much,\u201D Dupree laughs. \u201CBut most definitely, I can dunk on everybody on my team.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BThe Wildcats' early success this season has already generated a change in attitude throughout the locker room. After a 4-20 record over the past two seasons, a heartbreaking triple-overtime loss to&amp;nbsp;Florida&amp;nbsp;could and would demoralize most teams. Stoops knew that and emphasized the good in postgame.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI think we grew up a little bit that day,\u201D Stoops says. \u201CWe\u2019ve developed the mindset of belief, and we\u2019re beyond that. Now it\u2019s about execution, technique and getting better.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He also hammered home the idea that if the Wildcats had taken care of little things, it might not have come down to the wire. After Week 6 offered one of the most chaotic Saturdays in college football history, Stoops is even more convinced Kentucky can make noise in the SEC. Dupree thinks so, too.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CDays like last Saturday, it gives us hope,\u201D he says. \u201CMaybe we can even get to the SEC championship.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First Dupree said Kentucky would be good this season, and the Wildcats are living up to it. Then he predicted the defense would make a big play when UK needed it and followed through. Now he\u2019s making title game forecasts?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don\u2019t bet against him. If Dupree has proven anything this season, it\u2019s not that he\u2019s a freak athlete. It\u2019s that he often knows what\u2019s coming next.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/college-football/2014/10/09/kentucky-wildcats-alvin-dupree-mark-stoops-sec>