There’s nothing quite like sleeping on a mattress as thin as a pancake. Getting your car keys taken away for a month certainly isn’t fun. And two-a-day practices? They’re definitely not something to look forward to.But the biggest thing the Kentucky football players dread about starting fall camp?”The heat, man,” senior linebacker Ronnie Sneed said. “When you just look out there at that field, there are heat waves. You’re like, ‘Man, I’ve got to do this all day.’ The heat and those back-to-back practices. They’re not really all in one day but after a while, towards the end it feels that way because your feet start hurting.”Kentucky football players reported for fall camp Thursday at the Nutter Training Facility. After a relatively quiet, upbeat and positive offseason, Thursday was the first day coaches could begin to offer instruction to the players for the 2011 season.”I’m really excited,” senior cornerback Anthony Mosley said. “It’s my last year to make a change on the program to try to get to a really better season, so I’m really excited to get started and get ready for the season.”Defensive players had their first meeting at 3:15 p.m. followed by the offense at 3:45 p.m. Players who hadn’t already been fitted for their equipment had that done as well Thursday.On Friday, shortly after a morning of interviews and photos at media day, the real fun begins for the first practice of the 2011 season.Sure, it’ll be hot, long and sometimes painful, but the grind of camp means the season opener against Western Kentucky on Sept. 1 is just a few short weeks away. For players like senior wide receiver Brian Adams, the eagerness to start the season overshadows the near month-long run of 90-degree days.”It’s football all day, every day. What more could you want?” Adams said. “You don’t have to go to school. You don’t have to do anything else. You just play football. It’s really what you’ve done since you were a kid.”While UK will deal with a wealth of offensive losses, including starting quarterback Mike Hartline, starting tailback Derrick Locke and the program’s career touchdown leader, Randall Cobb, there is a belief among the players that this team can improve upon its 6-7 season from a year ago because of positive offseason workouts.”We’ve got really good team chemistry, a lot better than we’ve had in the past,” Sneed said. “Before, we had a lot of people who didn’t take it as seriously as they needed to. This year, when we call an extra practice or an extra running session, everybody is out here. That’s really important because when it comes down to it on Saturday, your teammates are all that you have. You can’t look for coach to come out there on the field with you and play. Knowing that we have each other’s back and we’re willing to work hard to push each other when we’re down is great and it’s needed.”Make no bones about it, just about everybody was disappointed with the way last year ended.”It was a big disappointment, especially for us seniors because it was our first losing season,” senior cornerback Randall Burden said. “It was something we don’t want to happen again. We’re trying to have a way better season than we had.”If they’re going improve upon last year, the season starts with fall camp.On the first day of camp, most of the buzz centered on the depth and talent of UK’s incoming wide receiver class and the new scheme of co-defensive coordinator Rick Minter’s defense. Sneed is interested to see how much of the new defense his teammates have retained after a dosage in the bowl game, a spring full of installation and an offseason packed with studying.”We had the films that we were supposed to be watching and now it’s time to go in and see if everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing,” Sneed said. “It’s time to put everything to the test.”As eager as everyone was to start the football season, understandably not everyone was giddy to go through the rigors of practice after practice after practice. When the hours and days of work start to pile up and the muscles start to tighten and hurt, the promise of a new year can be overshadowed by the brutality of a month full of work.Sneed said the camaraderie they get out of camp makes it all worth it.”The most rewarding part is bonding with the team,” Sneed said. “Everybody comes together and we have a lot of fun. When you look past all the football stuff, you really build friendships.”To break up the monotony, several players have different tactics for creating a little fun. Burden arrived at camp wearing a straw hat while senior offensive lineman Stuart Hines continued a camp tradition of growing a mustache.”Camp is long and tedious,” said junior wide receiver LaRod King, whose new hairdo included the Dallas Cowboys logo buzzed into the side of his head. “There are a lot of intensity and emotions, but you’ve got to have fun with it.”Hines said he plans on growing his mustache throughout camp and welcomed anyone to join him.”It’s whoever wants to jump in on it,” Hines said. “It’s kind of been a camp tradition since I’ve been here. The older guys did it and I didn’t want to let it die out this year.”Sneed may be a veteran, but don’t count him in as a participant.”The linebackers don’t really do that,” Sneed said. “We’re too tough for that.”And if standing out isn’t fun enough, there are always freshmen to tease.”We try to scare the young guys,” Sneed said. (We say things like,) ‘Hey, man, you might not make it out.’ We try to shake them up a little bit.”Asked what he’d tell some of the younger players about what to expect at a collegiate camp, Adams said to soak it all in.”Don’t get caught up in the negativity of it,” Adams said. “Your body is going to get tired, but enjoy today and enjoy the opportunity you have. We’re all extremely blessed to be out here, so have fun.”Without naming names, King said a lot of the young players have really impressed him, but he said he’s not going to single anyone out until they can back it up in fall camp.”Camp determines whether or not you’re ready for the season, honestly,” King said. “It’s really like, you can talk all the stuff you want to now, but once you put the pads on and get hit for the first time it’s like, ‘Oh, OK, I know where I’m playing now. I’m playing in the SEC.’ You’re going to feel it in the morning.”