‘The players are here’: Watch Will Stein’s UK football Super Bowl commercial
New Kentucky football coach Will Stein’s roots as a UK fan were the theme of the annual Super Bowl commercial promoting the program.
“The players are here,” Stein says in the commercial as a highlight reel of former Kentucky stars plays. “They always have been, and we’re going to continue that tradition.”
Stein, who was hired as UK’s new coach in December, grew up a Kentucky fan. His parents were season ticket holders at Commonwealth Stadium, and his father played for the program.
In his first months on the job, Stein, who played at Louisville, has used that connection to the program to build a bond with fans.
UK began showing a local commercial during halftime of the Super Bowl in Mark Stoops first offseason as coach in 2013. That tradition continued throughout Stoops’ tenure, but in recent years the ad was distributed online only.
With the excitement of a new coach helping drive interest in the program, Kentucky once again purchased local ad time on WLEX in Lexington during the first commercial break of halftime. The ad was simultaneously released online for fans outside the market to see.
The ad closed with a shot of the web address for season ticket purchases.
Even before the ad aired, excitement for Stein’s tenure had translated to increased ticket sales. UK had received more than 1,000 deposits for new season tickets packages, which often translate to multiple tickets per package, as of Jan. 15, according to UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
You can watch the full ad below.