Kentucky’s coach wanted to make bowl practice more fun. He has the welts to prove it.

It was something Mark Stoops had always wanted to try.

So, quietly, with Kentucky’s operations director, the head coach set up a secret team-bonding trip to Richmond Underground for an air-soft combat game last week.

Just a few minutes into the event, Stoops likely was regretting that decision.

“It definitely hurts,” UK’s coach said on signing day this week about the air-soft pellets that pelted him on the trip. “You can imagine 105 of these football players, too, there’s no mercy. It’s not like you got shot one time and you put your hands up. You’re still getting tattooed. I have welts all over me.”

Kentucky’s players and the UK coaches were divided into teams to roam the woods outside Richmond for three rounds.

So who was the worst coach at playing the game?

“Probably Coach Stoops but don’t tell him,” offensive lineman Bunchy Stallings said. “Coach Stoops is a camper and when you camp, it don’t always help you out. Coach Stoops likes to lean up against the trees and you know we’re about to find him, the first person. He had to put his red (surrender) towel on his head a couple times.”

In his defense, Stoops said some of the opposing players were up on the makeshift fort and had him pinned against the tree, not “camping” like Stallings suggested.

“I couldn’t move off the tree because they were blasting me and then he had me from the side, so I was in bad shape,” the coach laughed. “I don’t think they felt bad for me one bit either. They let me have it.”\

In a team meeting a day or two later, Stoops asked for the person that was blasting him next to the tree to own up to it.

“And very meekly (redshirt freshman defensive back) Michael Nesbitt was like, ‘That was me,’” Stoops recalled. “So I owe him a little something. Someday I’ll get him back.”

Stoops wasn’t the only coach targeted.

Offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said he must’ve gotten “pelted about 30,000 times” before he threw up his own red flag.

“They knew what I had on, trust me,” he laughed.

The first round was good for Gran, an avid hunter, and his team, but he went into a fox hole for the second round and instantly regretted that decision.

“As soon as I stuck my head up, I think they were all looking for Coach Gran,” he smiled.

Indeed, the goal was to take Gran out quickly, tight end Greg Hart said.

“People were at the coaches’ heads a little bit,” the senior said. “It was funny. They were at us, too. Coach Gran, he’s a hunter, so he’s got a good shot on him. You’ve got to make sure to get him out early.”

The outing was just one way that Stoops and staff are trying to make this time between regular season and bowl game on Dec. 29 fun for the players. Kentucky’s coach admitted he may have put too much on his team before last season’s TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

“I was definitely a little gung-ho at making sure we were really pushing the program,” Stoops said. “That’s still the case but there has to be some balance there. They have to enjoy what they’re doing. Camaraderie still counts and I think I had to be conscious of that.”

That’s meant shorter, more spirited practices and some chances to blow off steam — and pelt coaches — for Kentucky’s players before the Music City Bowl game versus Northwestern.

“It was fun. Really fun,” Hart said of the outing. “The team really enjoyed it. It was a good change of pace for all of us and getting the coaches involved, we all had a blast.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Kentucky’s coach wanted to make bowl practice more fun. He has the welts to prove it.."