To win at South Carolina, Kentucky football will need to overcome this hurdle

LEXINGTON – Long before he was the Wildcats All-American right tackle, Darian Kinnard was a freshman making the first road trip of his college career in a Sept. 2018 game at Florida.

The Wildcats would make history that day, snapping a 31-game losing streak in the series versus the Gators, but before the celebration came the noise.

“Not being able to hear what (the play call) was and he was standing right next to me, I just think it was a crazy experience, great environment,” Kinnard said.

The 2021 Wildcats will make their first road trip of the season this weekend to South Carolina. While the Gamecocks are not a ranked opponent like Florida was in Kinnard’s first road game, Williams-Brice Stadium is considered an underrated road environment in the Southeastern Conference with more than 70,000 fans expected and the program’s signature “Sandstorm” anthem blaring throughout the game.

It is not just Kentucky’s 2021 signees who will experience a packed SEC road stadium for the first time. The Wildcats’ second-year players will suit up for a game in front of a close-to-full road stadium for the first time as well after playing their debut season amid COVID-19 limitations on stadium capacity.

“Because we do have two classes and a significant amount of guys that haven’t been in this environment, we are going to address it,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “I’m not going to overdo it, but they have to understand.”

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Stoops pointed to Kentucky’s 2017 trip to South Carolina as an example of the type of impact a hostile environment can have on a team.

South Carolina opened that game with a 68-yard touchdown pass to Deebo Samuel on the first play from scrimmage. Two plays into Kentucky’s first drive, quarterback Stephen Johnson threw an interception to send the 82,493 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium into full roar.

Kentucky was able to weather that early storm though, scoring 20 unanswered points to take control of the game before holding on for a 23-13 win.

“You got to take those shots sometimes in these environments,” Stoops said. “…They just need to understand that ‘Hey if we get hit on the chin you gotta stand back up and play the next play.’”

To help prepare Kentucky’s offense for the environment expected at South Carolina, Kentucky has played recordings of artificial crowd noise and Sandstorm during the 11-on-11 portions of practice this week.

Offensive coordinator Liam Coen was pleased to see his players respond to that noise with greater focus, but he knows no matter how loud the noise is turned up in practice it will be difficult to simulate the real thing for the two classes of players who have never played in a full-capacity road game before.

During his playing career at Massachusetts, Coen practiced with artificial noise designed to simulate the noisemakers that would be used by Montana fans in the upcoming FCS semifinal game.

“I just remember I said to my teammates, ‘It’s not going to be this loud, guys,’” Coen said. “Then we get in the game, it’s like 10 times louder.”

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The last time Kentucky played a road game in front of more than 25,000 fans was a 21-0 loss to Georgia on Oct. 19, 2019. Only nine players who started that game for Kentucky on offense or defense are still on the roster.

Of the 56 players listed on Kentucky’s two-deep depth chart, 28 have never played in a road game with more than 25,000 fans.

While noise will be a bigger factor for Kentucky’s offense in Columbia, even defense players have to be wary of getting caught up in the environment, defensive coordinator Brad White and senior safety Yusuf Corker said.

“It’s more of a momentum thing when you’re playing on defense on the road that you can’t let it affect you,” White said. “You can feel how a crowd is affecting the game with momentum. Our guys have to be a little bit immune to that.”

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Kentucky enters the game as just a 5.5-point favorite despite blowing out South Carolina, 41-18, in the 2020 regular season finale, and the Gamecocks’ 40-13 loss to Georgia last week.

The presence of a new South Carolina coaching staff is one reason to expect a closer game than the 2020 meeting, but the how Kentucky responds to the environment might be the more importance ex-factor in the outcome.

“I think it’s one of those things if you love the game and you love to play, you get up for these kinds of games,” Coen said. “To get on the road in a hostile environment against a great opponent, how can you not? I have no concerns about us getting up for this game. I think the guys will rise to the occasion and go out and play a sound football game.”

Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com; Follow him on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.