The first day of officials at the Tennessee Titans practices put players on notice that getting rid of penalties will be more than just lip service.

“Guys know they can't make mistakes. We're not gonna allow false starts, we're not gonna allow holding,” quarterback Zach Mettenberger said. “We drew flags for both of those today. We're making it known that we're not gonna allow mistakes. That's just a culture that we've got to start putting on everybody that that's not gonna be allowed.”

The officials are from the Southeastern Conference and were replacement officials during the last referee's strike. They will be at practice for multiple days this week.

Tight end Delanie Walker said he had been through a similar situation during his time with the 49ers when an emphasis was placed on cutting down penalties and said it was good to have the officials at St. Thomas Sports Park.

“It's a good thing to have them out there. It makes you think twice on doing something illegal and causing us some negativity. They were pretty good today,” Walker said. “The San Francisco 49ers did it at one point. It's the same feel. You don't want to be the guy that's got to run after practice. That just shows everybody that you were the one that made the mistake. I think that's something that's in the back of everybody's mind.”

Coach Ken Whisenhunt said it is important to make players aware of penalties and to prepare them to cut down on the number of flags that are thrown in a game.

“If it makes them realize that they have to work on those things even more in practice, then we’re accomplishing what we’re setting out to do,” Whisenhunt said. “Let’s face it, there are going to be penalties called during the game. It’s going to happen. If we can have a better awareness of how we’re practicing and work to correct those, maybe we can minimize those, which is what we have to do.”

Veteran cornerback Jason McCourty was pleased to go through practice with no flags on Wednesday. He also didn't want to be yanked from practice as a potential consequence for an infraction.

“I didn't have any, so I was happy about that. I don't want to face those consequences of coming out or whatever it could be. I think we had a few flags out there. There was a false start, but it's good to have them on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays as opposed to Sundays,” McCourty said.