I just got home from the game. My second time in Lexington and I can say the Kentucky experience is very different every other SEC team....and I've been to all but two SEC stadiums to watch the Gators. What's different? 1. The fans :: they are extremely friendly and every group welcomed us into their tailgates. They care as much about their bourbon, pre-game and making sure everyone is having a good time as they care about the game (Southern Hospitality). However, they were all pessimistic about beating Florida even when up three scores in the 4th. 2. The tailgate :: the pre-game is fantastic. Some fans tow a full bar on the back of their truck (with 10+ bar stools and bar tender), park it, and are drinking bourbon at 9a. There are no bars around the stadium so it's all about the tailgate. Imagine a space the size of 10 O'Dome parking lots filled with tailgaters. And they claim their spot in July/August, put up their tent, and use it all season. Next level tail gating. 3. Their band :: they do NOT play at all during the game. Kentucky plays "hype music" all game long. Every first down, TD, TV time out, need a stop, etc... hype music. And it's loud. We felt like we were attending a concert by the end of it. This was lame and shows they have almost no tradition at UK. Lame but effective. The crowd loved it and were going nuts all game. 4. Post game :: back to the tailgate. No bars within two miles so everyone just gets hammered in the gigantic parking lot. Eventually some migrate to downtown and the distillery district (which is really cool) but this is about getting smashed at the tailgate. Overall I give the Kentucky game day experience a 3 out of 5. If you don't attend a tailgate, there is nothing to do prior to the game. However, they are all extremely friendly so there is no reason you shouldn't be welcomed into someone's pregame (unless you are an obnoxious fan). The hype music is brutal and never stops. However, it was amusing watching 50 year old 'necks dance around to Grove St. Party. The game was rough. We couldn't match their intensity and the music/crowd kept their players focused and hyped. I watched our coaches after each play -- I hate to say it, but they were not ready for this game. Bring on Vandy.
Thanks Roswell. “I hate to say it, but they were not ready for this game.” -understatement of the season!
Definitely worth the trip. We had a great time even with the loss. It is a beautiful campus and everyone is extremely friendly. The distillery district is very unique and downtown Lexington is awesome. However, if I never see another glass of bourbon, I'll be okay. A&M and Missouri are my last two SEC schools I need to visit to watch the Gators...until next year and then I'll add Texas and Oklahoma to the list.
We’ve been to all of the current SEC stadiums. Been attending road games for 40 years. Some sites are better than others. We’ve seen stadium renovations at most if not all current member stadiums. We generally go the Thursday before game and visit the local sites/local eateries (uk example: have been to the majority of the stops on the Bourbon Trail/Louisville Slugger/caves under city of Louisville/Church Hill Downs/KY Horse Farm/casino across the river in Elizabeth, IN). Btw…..less expensive to fly into Louisville than Blue Grass in Lexington. Have to rent a car anyway. On game day; (this will sound harsh) I’m there to support my Gators, not make friends with the opposing fans. General pleasantries are exchanged, but that’s as far as it goes. I can’t give a clear favorite group, but a clear annoying group would be a tie between Lsu/Bama. Will need to add stadiums for our soon to be members TX and OK.
Last time I went to Usce was in 07, the Tebow game. It's probably changed by now, but they had troughs with ice for urinals still in 07.
Florida was the last SEC school to give in to piped in music. As you probably heard at our home games, we’re doing the same. I’m not a fan of it b/c it negates the college band tradition. I’m sure I’m in the minority. Lol
That was some game…..Percy didn’t play; I was worried. However, Tim and company had it all in hand. In 1995…..an extremely cold/windy game there. Their concession stand ran out of coffee by 1/2 time. Hot chocolate it was. By 3rd quarter, we made our way down to near field level seating. Most of the home team supporters had left.
You're not in the minority, well maybe we both are haha. I sat in a different section for the Charlotte game and I was right under the overhang for the box seats, and I couldn't even carry on a conversation with the person to my right because of the music. I'm all for noise on 3rd downs or scores, but every single play? I'd much rather listen to the band play. I think I only remember gatorbait maybe 3 times the entire game? My pet peeve as a kid, and I was convinced it was a bad sign, was when the band wasn't in place and doing the countdown CHOMP for the opening kick0ff. In the 90s they were in place and the chomp was stadium wide, now all I hear is Thunderstruck playing and it skips like the old cd player on its side half the song.
Yeah I was worried going into it, usce had us beat in 06 so I figured it would be a dogfight. Ended up being a pretty good game for Fayson I believe in the Percy role, was that the game we later found out those two got into a fight at practice?
The band part I agree as we've just never had a large band. I'm guessing we've never funded it at all. We do lack the tradition of schools with a big band and such, we've always been kind of a quiet fan base until the last 10-15 years. We watched Louisville rise up and they went all in on hype music and making it more of a party atmosphere. It got their fans into the game and it worked. We had to try some non-traditional ways to make our program interesting, because you can't create tradition out of nowhere. I think really the only "Traditional" thing we do is the Air-Raid siren when we score, which we added that when Hal Mumme and Mike Leach arrived in 1997. It went away and we brought it back for Stoops. We are a weird fan base as we're a state school that has a good amount of fans, but not necessarily like a deep south SEC team. We're close enough to Big Ten country where we have some of that mixed into it, but we don't have the academics to even be close to that place. Glad you had a fun time and glad we didn't have too many of our fans do and say embarrassing things that ruined the experience. It happens everywhere, but you just hate it when your fellow fans do it and makes your entire group look terrible.
I like going to see our opponent’s stadiums, see their traditions, interact with their fans, ect. Kentucky is one I’d like to do as it is relatively close to where I live. And I like bourbon. Friendliest fans I’ve come across to date were at Mississippi State, I enjoyed my trip to their place. It was Tebow’s senior season. Our bus got stuck in mud near the stadium and a group of State fans pulled us out of the mud and refused to accept any money for it. Very nice folks.
It was a beautiful day in Lexington. A little on the warm side… we were hoping for some fall-like weather but whatever. -The stadium is sort of isolated from any bars/restaurants/etc. Great tailgating scene but if you don’t have a tailgate or join one you’re SoL. We walked to the strip of bars at the northeast corner of campus after the game… was surprised at how relatively dead they were. A solid 30 minute walk from the stadium. I guess everyone just keeps tailgating? House parties? I dunno. We made our way downtown after that. It’s much nicer and more built up than Gainesville. They just need a strip of bars closer to Grocery Store Chain Field. -Overall the UK fans were harmless. Our seats were towards the UK student section, so we were near them entering and leaving the stadium. A few students were hostile to us, but a “we both know you couldn’t get in to UF” tended to shut them up quickly. Their female students apparently have a uniform they all wear to the game, some sort of white cocktail dress with cowboy boots. That was nice on quite a few of them, but that’s not a flattering look for the more Kentucky Fried demographic if you know what I mean. Also, that has to be the whitest student body (and fan base?) I’ve ever seen. That’s not supposed to be political, that’s nether good nor bad but it was definitely noticeable and many in our group commented on it. Most of the older fans we met didn’t actually attend UK, interestingly. Maybe that was just coincidence. -You wouldn’t know UK has a marching band if you didn’t see the sun’s reflection of their instruments, or stick around at halftime to see their performance. I couldn’t tell if they ever played during the game… if they did the constant blaring music drowned them out. It looked like they had a male cheerleader who doubled as some sort of EmCee or DJ. Sad… this is where the entire CFB world is gravitating too, but at least UF isn’t THAT bad at it… yet. -You think the concessions and bathrooms at BHG are bad? Grocery Store Stadium says “hold my first year beer sales!”. What a mess. Absolute chaos. They don’t sell beer at the upstairs concession stands, so they had lines of people waiting for the roaming beer people that would cut across the lines waiting for the restrooms, which blended with the lines for the food… and then they’d run out of beer or food after 20 minutes in line, too bad, maybe someone will bring some more up, maybe not, maybe you can walk to the other side of the stadium and they might have something other than a plate of tortilla chips… oh yeah, we ran out of nacho cheese and jalapeños, but that’ll still be $15 for your tortilla chips. The friendly UK fans agreed that it was embarrassing, and this is their first year of beer sales and the UK AD completely bungled it. -The game itself was never in doubt. I’m hard pressed to think of a worse UF football team (outside of 4-8 Muschamp). UK plays disciplined, tough, physical football. UF is… just sort of content to exist. Soft all around. We made a weak QB look great, again. UK better hold on to Stoops as long as they can.
I certainly agree. I’ve been to 3 games in Lexington and they were all terrific experiences! I stopped driving a few months ago so I did not go to this year’s game and that hurt. My first experience about 12 years ago or so would be difficult for some to believe is true. At that time there was a UK fan on GC who noticed i mentioned at the time I was planing on going to Lexington to see a Gators game there but had never been there. The rest was amazing! I told him I’d be flying up to Lexington and told him I had already had a rental car and hotel reservation. (AAA is great here in Lakeland for me! So he told me he’d pick me up at the hotel I would be at. Fortunately the hotel was on the east side of Lexington because he (his name is David and we’ve become great friends over the years) he lived in Winchester which is just a few miles east of Lexington. So on game day morning he picked me up at my hotel. And not just that, I thought I was pushing my luck, I showed him I Gator car flag with me! He put it on one side of his car and placed a UK flag on the other side! Then we drove to the area of the stadium at the UK campus. A big grassy area (near maybe the south side stadium. ( a bunch of UK fans tailgating! And his car was the only one I saw that had a Gator flag on it with a UK flag on it And I certainly had more great experiences with the guy and his family and relatives, including being invited for an outside BarBQ in his back yard. One time I drove up and stayed at motel in Winchester. I had gotten a Lexington and Kentucky map at my AAA. So I saw how to get to his place. So I pulled by the curb in fron of his place, and I saw a boy, maybe 6 or 7. And he said, “Sir, my instructions are to show you how to get to the backyard where we are having a Bar BQ. So I learned my lesson. He was not a boy, he was a “Gentleman from Kentucky “. Have had other great experiences in Winchester and Lexington. I sure learned good lessons from my times in Lexington. When I would be at Gator games in “The Swamp” I would give welcome greetings toVisitors I would see near me and answer questions they may have about the Swamp and maybe Gainesville. So just like that 7 year old “gentleman from Kentucky,” I try to be a “Gator Gentleman.” from, Lakeland, Florida.
