{"id":806483,"date":"2026-03-11T13:52:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/806483\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:52:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:52:27","slug":"practicing-the-practice-pays-off-as-kentucky-kicks-off-spring-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/806483\/","title":{"rendered":"Practicing the Practice Pays Off as Kentucky Kicks Off Spring Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky kicked off six weeks of spring football on Tuesday morning with the first practice of the Will Stein<\/a> era. Before seeing his team in action for the first time, the new Kentucky head coach needed his players to see how it would operate. The Wildcats practiced practice. <\/p>\n

On Monday morning, the Wildcats went through a walk-through designed to teach them the flow of practice. There\u2019s only so much time a team is allotted on the field together. It cannot be wasted moving from one drill to the next team period. <\/p>\n

\u201cFootball energy when you\u2019re practicing is different than a walk-through. Everything\u2019s heightened. You\u2019re going faster and harder than you were before,\u201d Stein said Tuesday morning. <\/p>\n

The Kentucky football team was moving fast on Tuesday. In the Wildcats\u2019 first practice, Stein liked the speed at which his team was operating together. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought out coaches did a nice job with the transitions in between periods. Players were responsive to coaching, and we got a lot of work done; good first day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

How Kentucky Spring Practice Will Work<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one big difference in spring practice vs. fall practice. An opponent isn\u2019t waiting for Kentucky on Saturday. There will be a couple of scrimmages in April, but it\u2019s not quite the same as what his players should expect later this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see great strain, great commitment, connection within our team,\u201d said Stein. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to reinvent football during spring ball. It really is fundamentals, technique, and can we run our base install really well, and do it so well we can\u2019t get it wrong during a high-stress level on Saturdays?\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though there isn\u2019t an opponent waiting down the road, Kentucky is installing its playbook over the next six weeks. Players will learn something new about the scheme in every practice. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe install something every day. We\u2019re whole-part-whole mentality. We\u2019re going to throw a lot of stuff at the wall, see what sticks, especially schematically, learning our team,\u201d said the Kentucky head coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis setting is different than a walk-through setting in the winter. We install every day. We\u2019ll have a new one tomorrow and have about 15 installs over 15 practices. Now, how many players or schemes that is \u2014 it\u2019s not like everyday has 15 new plays. It might be two or three here or there.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Wildcats are operating in survival mode this week. A lot is happening quickly. They\u2019ve seen the plays on paper, but it\u2019s a whole different ballgame when you\u2019re actually moving around on the football field. There are plenty of guys on the roster<\/a> who have the athletic tools to compete in the SEC. It\u2019s their job to prove to Will Stein and his coaching staff over the next six weeks that they can execute within the scheme. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan they get lined up? You\u2019re in a new scheme, so everybody\u2019s at square one right now, base camp. It\u2019s important that they can get lined up, hear the call, and just go execute the call. Once they learn that, understand it, next thing you know, you\u2019re going to see them popping off on tape and playing really fast.\u201d <\/p>\n

Stein on Hardley Gilmore\u2019s Return<\/p>\n

Kentucky football fans were surprised to see a familiar face back on the roster. Hardley Gilmore<\/a> entered the transfer portal in January. He initially committed to Louisville before flipping to Baylor. As he did a year ago, the wide receiver ultimately decided to return to Lexington. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an opportunity to bring him back, which was really exciting for us,\u201d Stein said. \u201cThere\u2019s never ill will. You can\u2019t have any ill will. Stuff happens in college football. There\u2019s too many moving parts, so we had an opportunity to bring him back and was really excited to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky kicked off six weeks of spring football on Tuesday morning with the first practice of the Will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,46485,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-806483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hardley-gilmore-24-pahokee","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116210876276702256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}