Stoops: "Thank you to the BBN. That's for you."

Mark Stoops doesn’t have enough game balls for tonight’s MVPs. He needs one for each of the 61,632 fans in attendance.

The best he could do was thank the Big Blue Nation in his opening remarks following Kentucky Football’s win over the Florida Gators, the first on Kentucky’s home turf since 1986.

“I’d like to start by saying thank you to the BBN,” Stoops told a room full of reporters in the postgame press conference. “That’s for you. They really showed up in a big, big way today and had an impact on the game. They affected the football game in a very positive way, and I really can’t thank you enough.

“I’ve been working hard for a long time to provide that type of team,” he continued. “That’s what we need it like every week. We can recruit players when our stadium is like that. Our players will play hard and it affects (the opposing) offense like it did tonight with some of those pre-snap penalties. A big shout-out to you. I mean it. It definitely affected the game and playing at Kroger Field was a home field advantage tonight.”

Florida was called for 15 penalties to Kentucky’s four, and over half of Florida’s miscues were false starts. The Gators were flagged for an early jump eight times in the game—five times on 3rd or 4th down—plus a delay of game penalty on a 4th and 4 in scoring territory.

The atmosphere in Kroger Field created those penalities.

The fans did that.

“I’m really happy for our players, our fan base, our coaches,” Stoops added. “Once again, just a great, great team effort. It was beautiful in so many ways. It shows the character of this football team and the resiliency they have, the toughness.

“Things like that aren’t easy. It hasn’t happened in a while because it’s not easy.”

It hadn’t happened in 35 years to be exact. Not in Lexington.

But Stoops kicked down another door and it was a team effort by everyone, fans included.