First Down Kentucky: New Beginnings at Spring Practice

The first day of spring also marks the first day of spring practice for Mark Stoops’ Kentucky football team. After spending the chilly morning inside of the Nutter Field House, Kentucky’s head coach spoke with the media for the first time since the Cats fell in the Gator Bowl.

“Overall, the first day went very well,” he said.

It was a light, helmets-only practice, as will be the case when they return to action on Thursday. This week is less about physicality and more about how the team comes together. Dean Hood arrived this offseason as the Cats’ new director of player development, but team bonding exercises can’t replicate what actually happens on the field where veterans are introducing newcomers to Kentucky football.

“I’m just excited, really excited about this year,” said Mark Stoops. “I feel like we have a really good nucleus of players, players who have been here with good experience and understand our culture and what we expect. I think we have a lot of good additions.”

We’ll spend most of the spring talking about the new additions. Let’s get into those, and allow me to remind you of the news I shared earlier today: Courtland Ford is not practicing this spring, paving the way for Gerald Mincey to step in at right tackle.

Kentucky Wide Receivers Off to a Good Start

Mark Stoops stepped to the podium with a plan.

“I kind of decided today as I walked into this that I was just going to stay away from naming guys,” said Stoops, “because sometimes you say somebody had a great practice or whatever, then they listen to what you guys are saying and they don’t realize that it’s the consistency that’s going to make you a very good player. Over a couple months as a group, as a whole, we’ve improved… they’ve done a great job, but let’s just see where it goes.”

The Kentucky head coach is in the business of expectation management, however, when I asked him how the wide receivers have taken to new coach Daikiel Shorts, he could not lie. The pass-catchers performed well in front of their new coaches.

“I was really impressed today with our practice. I thought they had a big day. In particular, I thought the receivers stood out today, made some nice catches and really had a good practice. It was a really good start.”

Tempo is not just a talking point

Kentucky has talking about running more offensive snaps before the 2023 regular season ended. It was a priority for Stoops when he sought out a new offensive coordinator. Of course, some mistakes were made, but Bush Hamdan‘s first practice operated efficiently without any major hiccups.

“I feel really good about the tempo, which I’ve mentioned to y’all before, just the way we’re getting plays off quicker, getting through practice, ripping through a lot of plays in the same amount of time. Things are going well, off to a good start,” said Stoops.

It’s the fifth straight year Kentucky is installing a new offense during spring practice. Unlike the previous hires, the majority of Hamdan’s experience is in the college ranks. His offense still has pro-style features that have served as the foundation of the Kentucky offense in recent years.

“There still are all of those elements. Those pro-style elements are in there, but he has been in college so the operation — he’s gone through that, with the way to expediate play-calls, the way to get plays off quicker and still have the creativity where we want to be able to run and play-action pass.”

Kentucky Runs a Practice with New Helmet Tech

The NCAA is helping Kentucky get in play-calls quicker with a new rule change. Today was the first day Kentucky tried out the new helmet radio technology that allows an assistant coach to speak directly to one player on the field at a time. Stoops is not entirely sure what the consequences of the new addition will be, but he’s excited to experiment with it in the coming months.

“We used that today for the first time. It’ll be interesting. I’d rather reserve my comments until I get a better feel for it, ya know? The things we need to get answered is how that can benefit both players, the offensive player and the defensive player,” said Stoops.

“I think the challenge will be, as you’re playing tempo teams, they’re not going to slow down and I don’t think the headsets will make them go faster, because they already go about as fast as you can go. As fast as you can get lined up is as fast as they go. I don’t know how much of that will change for them, so for us, when you only have one guy on the defense with an earpiece, I don’t know how he can communicate it that fast.

“Offensively, the same way. One guy has it. It’ll be good to communicate with the quarterback. You can relay some messages possibly or alerts. It can help line up some people I think. Part of the signaling and things of that nature is still going to have to stay in the game. I don’t think one on offense or one on defense will take that away.”

WATCH: Everything Mark Stoops Said to open Spring Practice

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