Stein, Cats Use 'Preparation and Practice' to Get Ready for Road Contests

On its first road trip of the season, the Kentucky football team was successful, topping then-ninth-ranked Texas A&M at Kyle Field.

On Tuesday, Kentucky head coach Will Stein noted that the success his team had at A&M was not accidental.

“I go back to our preparation and our practice and what we do on a day-by-day basis to get our guys ready for these moments,” Stein said. “You try not to make it bigger that what it is. It’s still a football game and if you let the crowd or the atmosphere dictate how you play, I think that’s when you can become emotional. You’re not focused. You become very distracted.”

Stein believes that the stress that he and his staff can create in practice can prepare the Cats for any road environment, including the one at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, where the Cats will face the homestanding Gamecocks this weekend.

“We use crowd noise in practice and try to get them in that mindset,” Stein said. “Then, make the practice situations as hard or harder than the game.”

The national rankings came out on Sunday, and Kentucky currently sits at No. 24 in the Associated Press poll. Stein is the first first-year head coach to have a Kentucky team ranked since Blanton Collier did so in 1954. Stein was asked if being nationally ranked was important to him.

“I mean, not really,” Stein said. “I think it’s more important for the fans than anything. Our guys have got to go play well. It’s about playing well on Saturdays, not letting that dictate how we play. We should play to our standard regardless.”

Rather than focusing on rankings that don’t really mean anything, Stein wants to see his team to continue to get better each week, beginning on Saturday at South Carolina.

“What’s going to mean more to me is how we play this Saturday in Columbia and continuing to improve,” Stein said. “That’s the sign to me of a good football program, good football team. Do you get better each week? I felt like we improved in spots this past game, but not where I wanted it to be. So, we’ve got an opportunity this week to get better and go prove it on the field.”

Stein and his staff are preparing the Cats for another hostile road environment in the Southeastern Conference. Preparation helped Kentucky win at Texas A&M and the Cats will be looking for similar results on Saturday.