LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB) — Will Stein has seen ugly August scrimmages before.
He remembers one at Oregon with Bo Nix at quarterback and, by Stein's count, seven future NFL players on the field. The offense barely scored.
It wound up leading the nation in scoring.
So when Kentucky's first-year coach walked out of Kroger Field on Saturday and called his team's first full scrimmage of fall camp "sloppy," the football mistakes weren't what bothered him most.
It was the way the Wildcats went about making them.
"I'm more disappointed in our guys' enthusiasm coming out of the tunnel," Stein said.
Penalties, empty drives, big plays allowed by the defense. Those are all things that can be corrected.
What Stein didn't like was a team that seemed to be enduring a hot August practice instead of embracing an opportunity to play football.
"It just felt like survival out there a little bit instead of attack mode," Stein said.
And three weeks before Kentucky opens Stein's first season as head coach, that's not what he expects to see.
Saturday was Kentucky's first chance to move fall camp into Kroger Field and begin approximating a game. Stein didn't like what he saw from the beginning; not just the scrimmage, but the stretch, pregame work and seven-on-seven period that preceded it.
"It seemed like we let outside factors dictate how we were going to play today as a whole," Stein said.
The most obvious outside factor was the heat. But Stein wasn't interested in talking about it.
"This is going to be the temperature for the first game," he said. "We're on turf. It's going to be hot."
His larger concern was whether Kentucky can continue playing with the focus and energy he expects when bodies and minds start getting tired.
"The best teams do," Stein said. "Championship-level teams do. So we are, based on today, we're a little way from that standard."
That sounds considerably more ominous than Stein apparently intends it to.
He was careful to say Saturday's lack of urgency has not been a theme throughout camp. And his Oregon example offered some useful August perspective: First scrimmages can be terrible predictors of what an offense — or a team — eventually becomes.
Kentucky also is on the heels of installation. Players are thinking through assignments instead of reacting naturally, Stein said, and injuries and the normal attrition of camp have forced others into heavier workloads.
Offensive coordinator Joe Sloan said the Wildcats are largely through installing concepts. The next stage is cleaning up the details so the unit can conduct something resembling a crisp full game in its next major scrimmage.
There were positives Saturday.
Stein said the first-team defense got the better of the first-team offense, while work between the second groups was more even. The offense produced some explosive plays, including several runs from Deuce Austin with the second unit.
Sloan also saw explosive runs that he expects will look good when the staff reviews the tape.
There continues to be movement at receiver. Sloan singled out Kenny Darby for his consistency throughout camp and said Ja'Kaden Ferguson, Shane Carr, Brock Coffman and Prince Jean all have had good stretches. Stein praised Ferguson's toughness and versatility and said Kentucky is working players at multiple receiver spots while trying to identify its best group.
The offensive line also continues to sort itself out. Sloan said Jordon Knox has played his way firmly into the competition on the interior and praised the flexibility Kentucky has developed there.
Defensively, coordinator Jay Bateman liked Kentucky's third-down work and said the run defense improved after a tentative beginning. He was particularly encouraged by the cornerbacks despite Kentucky being without some of its top options.
But Saturday wasn't really about compiling a list of winners and losers.
No statistics were distributed. Stein himself said he'll let the film tell him more about individual performances.
The immediate lesson was simpler. Kentucky has three weeks before the mistakes count. That's enough time to fix penalties, sharpen assignments and polish installations.
What Stein wants to see sooner is a team that doesn't need ideal circumstances to look like the team he's trying to build.
"We can control our tempo," Stein said. "We can control our urgency in and out of the huddle. We can control our demeanor."
On Saturday, he didn't think Kentucky controlled those things well enough.
The first scrimmage didn't tell Stein what his first Kentucky team will become.
It did tell him what he wants changed on Monday.
ELIGIBILITY UPDATES: Kentucky got mixed news on the linebacker front. Transfer linebacker Atonio O'Berry, who arrived in the offseason from Gardner-Webb, has exhausted his eligibility, Stein said, and won't be available to play for the Wildcats. But another linebacker, Alex Afari Jr., will attempt to return for a fifth season and has been cleared to begin the "acclimation" process to join practices.
Afari was third on the team in tackles last season and has 26.5 career tackles for loss in 31 starts. His return will be contingent on the outcome of a federal class-action suit in Colorado which is under NCAA appeal at the moment. Bateman said he spoke to Afari early on, and believes he'll help the linebacking corps.
"I was surprised he didn't get drafted," he said. "He's got 31 career starts. I don't know many D-coordinators that would be, like real disappointed if a guy like that was able to come back. Look, I'm fired up about him. Hope it happens, but I feel good about the linebackers either way."
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