Former Vols OL Gerald Mincey says Kentucky's tempo on offense is faster than Tennessee's tempo

Former Tennessee Vols offensive lineman Gerald Mincey thinks his new team, the Kentucky Wildcats, will "shock the world" in 2024.

Mincey, who transferred to Kentucky earlier this offseason after spending the last two seasons at Tennessee, spoke to reporters this week ahead of the start of the regular season and he made some bold comments.

The former Vol told reporters that he thinks Kentucky's tempo on offense under new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan will be faster than the tempo he experienced at Tennessee.

"It's just the same, but a little worse," said Mincey when asked about the tempo at Kentucky compared to the tempo at Tennessee. "We've gotta run outside zone to the right and then we've gotta hurry up to the ball. When we had the scrimmages, we've seen that we can actually catch the defense off guard and stress the defense out and then throw it over the top. We just all bought in to the system. And we all bought in to what it takes to prepare to have our offense -- our rule is to just to be the No. 1 offense in the SEC . I think we have a good group of guys right now that we can do that [with] and we just gotta keep working."

When asked to clarify if he thinks Kentucky's tempo is faster than Tennessee's, Mincey said, "Probably a little faster, we going to see on Saturday, probably a little faster, we're going to try to really push the tempo".

"Us just buying into the offseason training and to what the coaches have for us, we're going to shock the world, best believe it," added Mincey.

The former Vol isn't just feeling confident about Kentucky's tempo, he's also extremely confident about the Wildcats' ability to win in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball.

"If we just do what we have to do, with our technique and our fundamentals, we'll move anybody off the ball," said Mincey. "That don't matter if it's Kentucky's defense (in practice), Bama's defense, Tennessee's defense, we're just going to go out there and play hard."

Mincey has exuded confidence all offseason since arriving in Lexington -- especially when it comes to playing his former teammates in Knoxville ( he's talked a lot of trash since transferring from Tennessee).

Talking season ends this weekend. It's time to deliver on the promises that were made during the offseason. For Mincey, that includes the promise he made in January that was directed at his former teammates.

"So when we go there Nov. 2 to Neyland and we bust them in the mouth, we can put the standard back over here ."

Tennessee's game against Kentucky on November 2 isn't the biggest game on the Vols' schedule, but it might be one of the chippiest after all of the talking from Mincey this offseason.

Related: Former Sooners QB Jason White offers strong comments on Josh Heupel's time at Oklahoma and Heupel's exit from Norman