Will Stein grew up a fan of Jeff Brohm. Now it’s his job to beat him
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stein came from Oregon to become Kentucky's head coach; he played at Louisville.
- Recruiting focuses on keeping top in-state juniors, especially Louisville-area talent.
- Rivalry, staff moves and recruiting affect Kentucky’s path back to postseason.
The history of the Governor’s Cup football rivalry between Kentucky and Louisville is full of classic performances and bitter emotions on both sides.
But the dynamic between the two rivals has never been quite as strange as the past three months.
In December, Kentucky fired Mark Stoops, the program’s all-time winningest coach, and replaced him with Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, a Louisville native who grew up rooting for the Wildcats but walked on to play for Louisville after not being offered a roster spot by UK. Stein was quick to embrace his roots as a Kentucky fan but has not shied away from the gratitude he feels for his time at Louisville, which helped launch the coaching career that eventually led him back to Kentucky.
Stein’s first Kentucky staff is full of coaches who used to wear red, too.
Tight ends coach Justin Burke, running backs coach Kolby Smith and assistant running backs coach Keith Towbridge all played at Louisville. Strength and conditioning coach Brandon Roberts and passing game coordinator Andrew Coverdale previously coached there.
Coverdale and assistant general manager Pete Nochta came directly to Stein’s UK staff from Louisville, where they worked for Jeff Brohm.
Meanwhile, longtime Stoops assistant Vince Marrow has been charged with helping build Brohm’s Louisville roster since he left UK for a job as executive director of football personnel and recruiting at Louisville last summer.
Marrow and Brohm signed seven transfers from the January portal window who previously played for Kentucky. Kentucky added former Louisville wide receiver Brock Coffman to Stein’s first roster.
As the two rivals battled for transfer targets, Marrow and Noctha, who worked together at Louisville last season, engaged in a public spat on X after Kentucky landed former Ohio State offensive guard Tegra Tshabola, who Marrow unsuccessfully had tried to recruit to Kentucky out of high school.
“Everybody sees that stuff,” Stein told the Herald-Leader in a one-on-one interview Wednesday when asked about the exchange between Marrow and Noctha. “I just know it’s about us. It’s about us, not about anybody else. We got to take care of ourselves, farm our own land and let our play on the field do the talking.”
The passion that comes with college football rivalries can be one of the most entertaining parts of the sport, but the new dynamic between Kentucky and Louisville could have much to say about Stein’s success at UK on the field, too.
Stoops and Kentucky won six of seven games against Louisville from 2016 to 2023 but lost the last two rivalry games of his tenure in blowout fashion. It was the 41-0 defeat at Louisville in November that essentially forced UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart to make a coaching change.
With the SEC moving to a nine-game schedule in 2026, winning all three nonconference games will be even more important in Kentucky’s quest to return to postseason play. That means closing the gap from the past two meetings with Louisville.
The recruiting battles between the two programs will only grow more intense, too, with the current sophomore and junior classes in the state considered among the best crops of power conference talent Kentucky has produced in years. Marrow was in charge of UK’s in-state recruiting efforts when he worked for Stoops, and Brohm was a major factor in recruiting the city of Louisville even when he was coach at Western Kentucky and Purdue.
“That’s the No. 1 job for us in recruiting, is to win the state of Kentucky,” Stein said. “...It’s about keeping the best players at home. It always will be. It always has been. When Kentucky’s at its best, it’s had great in-state talent playing for the Wildcats.
“Just means a little bit more to those guys. I mean, they grow up watching the Cats. Our state is a vast majority of Kentucky fans, so I want to make sure the … Will Steins of the world that grew up rooting for the Cats can come play for them if they have earned the right to be on this roster.”
Louisville already holds commitments from four-star Trinity cornerback Allen Evans and three-star Trinity defensive lineman Sebastian Blue in the class of 2027. Stein’s first two UK commitments in the class (three-star Pulaski County offensive lineman Brady Hull and three-star Jeffersontown safety Larron Westmoreland) are both in-state talents.
There are five Kentucky high school juniors rated as four-star prospects by the 247Sports Composite who remain uncommitted. Thanks in part to its national championship, Indiana has become more of a factor in the state, too, already landing two of the top-10 juniors, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Stein will have to do more than keep the best local talents home to win at Kentucky, but his path to success certainly becomes easier if he makes the most of a state that is not known for producing large numbers of elite recruits.
“The good thing is, our state right now, they got some really above-the-line players that can come in and help you win football games in the SEC,” Stein said. “So that’s where it’s got to start.”
Kentucky has long held the advantage recruiting in-state players outside of Louisville, but the bulk of the talent in the next two high school classes is located in the state’s largest city. Marrow was key in building UK’s connections there while he worked for Stoops, so Stein will have to use his own ties to the city to make inroads.
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Doing so won’t be easy considering the Brohm family name is synonymous with Louisville high school football.
Like Stein, Brohm starred as a quarterback at Trinity High School before playing at Louisville. His younger brother Brian, now the Cardinals’ offensive coordinator, followed the same path.
Brohm was Stein’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator when he played at U of L. His father, Oscar, was Stein’s quarterbacks coach at Trinity.
“I haven’t had much conversation with Jeff (since I was hired), but I love Jeff,” Stein said. “...Grew up a giant fan of him and his brother. … So nothing but respect for Jeff and what he’s done at Louisville. He’s won nine games every single year he’s been there. He’s set a standard in the state of what winning football is, and it’s our job to match and exceed that.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 2:34 PM.