One of the first things visitors to the Joe Craft Football Training Center notice when checking out a Kentucky practice prior to an SEC road game is the migraine-inducing level of noise coming from massive speakers around the complex.
The goal is to force the Wildcats to be far more uncomfortable during the week than they will ever be at the actual game.
Kentucky put the process to a monumental early test on Saturday at Florida, and passed with flying colors. Playing in front of almost 90,000 raucous fans at The Swamp -- traditionally one of the most challenging venues in college football -- the Wildcats were flagged for just two penalties en route to a 26-16 win over the No. 12 Gators.
One of the flags was intentional, taking a delay of game penalty to create more space prior to punting in the first quarter; the other occurred on a false start with only 1:38 remaining. It was the lone pre-snap miscue of the night, and that was after UK shuffled its offensive line by moving guard Kenneth Horsey to left tackle at the beginning of the week.
“Yeah, it was really clean," UK head coach Mark Stoops said during his weekly Monday press conference. "There was one penalty in the second-to-last play, or right at the end there. But, yeah, that says a lot. We really worked hard to put our players in a position to be successful. You obviously work crowd noise, but the communication that we had during the week, I thought our coaches did a really good job."
The scenario contrasted greatly with Kentucky's 20-13 win over Florida last season at Kroger Field in which the Gators committed eight pre-snap penalties while facing one of the rowdiest atmospheres of the Stoops era in Lexington.
According to Stoops, UK quarterback Will Levis approached him early in the week and said he wanted the practice noise as annoying as possible.
"He understands when he's on the road, just the communication from the huddle, regurgiatating and spitting out the entire play call, there are some lengthy calls in a pro system. To be able to do that relatively clean (is impressive)," Stoops said.
The UK boss pointed out that a lot of good teams have struggled with communication and penalty issues early in the season. On Saturday, previously top-ranked Alabama committed 15 penalties for 100 yards of losses in a 20-19 win over three-touchdown underdog Texas.
"That’s a good sign that our coaches had them prepared and our players were focused and really diligent," Stoops added.
In some cases, the discipline may have worked against the Cats.
Stoops noted that the Kentucky offensive line may have been so dialed in on not jumping the snap count that they got caught on their heels at times.
"I think, if anything, we were a touch late off the ball, which happens in that environment," he said. "And that added to some of the negative yardage and some of the lack of success in the run game as well. And then in the pass game, just in the silent count, when it’s that loud, we were a touch late off the ball, and we have to continue to improve in that area."
Overall, it was a positive step forward for the Kentucky O-Line. After allowing three sacks in the first quarter -- one that Stoops attributed to play design and another the fault of Levis -- the Cats did not surrender another the remainder of the game. And after struggling to get the ground game going in the first half, UK was able to grind out the victory by rushing for 107 yards and almost five yards per carry in the second half.
“Much more consistent in the second half," Stoops said. "I felt like we settled down. There were some guys that settled in, got their feet on the ground, started playing more physical, targeting the right guys, with our play-actions and boots and things of that nature, slowed them down a bit. It gave us some access to have some success in the run game. So, you put those things together, and we will continue to build on that.”
