An SEC East team that is not Tennessee will have checkerboard end zones in 2015.
Kentucky, which is renovating Commonwealth Stadium, revealed its new field design on Thursday and it includes a blue checkerboard design for the end zones.
“Though final decisions about the design of the new field were made by athletics administrators in conjunction with head coach Mark Stoops, fan opinion was taken into account throughout the process,” Kentucky said in a release. “For example, the painted blue end zones were mentioned frequently in feedback received through BBN First. Based on this feedback, blue end zones were tested for the final home game in 2014 and eventually embraced as part of the new field design.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops took some criticism in 2013 from UT fans for talking about building the program “brick by brick” – a slogan regularly used by Butch Jones. Naturally, Tennessee fans also have not taken well to the decision to mimic one of the most iconic traditions held by the Vols. Here are just a few of our favorite responses:
@UKAthletics Checkerboard because that's Original lololol
— Shawn Finchum (@ShawnFinchum) May 14, 2015
@UKAthletics y'all have lost 15 straight games with checkerboard endzones. Sure this is a good idea?
— Jacob (@vfl__94) May 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/HeathCofer/status/598888048240242688
