Wheels up: Tracking Will Stein’s private jet flights in Oregon-UK transition
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stein split Oregon–Kentucky duties from December into January recruiting period.
- Kentucky provided a private jet until Feb. 1, 2026 for the transition.
- Six Oregon‑related flights cost the athletic department $221,650.
There was no shortage of hectic days in Will Stein’s transition from Oregon offensive coordinator to Kentucky football head coach.
But the strain of managing both jobs while Oregon competed in the College Football Playoff and Kentucky worked to build a 2026 roster was never more evident than the 48 hours following the Ducks’ Orange Bowl win over Texas Tech on Jan. 1.
Oregon wrapped up the second-round playoff win at 3:38 p.m. Before Oregon fans at Hard Rock Stadium had even finished celebrating, Stein was on his way to Miami International Airport.
At 5:52 p.m., the Cessna twin-jet private aircraft sent by Kentucky to retrieve Stein in Miami took off for Lexington. Two and a half hours later, Stein landed at Blue Grass Airport, giving him less than four hours until the most important two-week period of his first offseason at Kentucky began with the open of the transfer portal window.
Included in the contract terms negotiated between Kentucky and Stein was an allowance that the university would provide him with a private jet for use during the transition period until Feb. 1, 2026.
Through the state’s open records law, the Herald-Leader obtained records of Stein’s private jet flights during that period. In addition to multiple flights between Oregon and Lexington, Stein bounced around the Southeast for recruiting visits with current players he was working to retain and then high school prospects later in January during the recruiting contact period.
The flight from Lexington to Eugene was more than 2,100 miles long. From the time Stein left Lexington following his introductory news conference to the end of January, he traveled more than 13,000 miles on private jets, according to the flight logs from FlightAware.com cross-referenced with the invoices obtained by the Herald-Leader.
“It’s hard to acquire players without the head coach on campus the entire time, but what we were able to do over a 12-day period — we had 66 visitors in 12 days — I mean, that’s, like, unheard of,” Stein told the Herald-Leader in a recent interview. “That is, like, absolute balls to the wall, work your ass off to do whatever it takes to get guys here on campus.
“We had 12 guys on the first day, which a lot of teams didn’t have any. Why did we do that? Because that was my one day I was really here in between Texas Tech and Indiana.”
With Stein in Lexington, UK pushed to get many of its top transfer targets on campus as soon as the portal opened Jan. 2.
That list included Baylor center Coleton Price, Arkansas linebacker Tavion Wallace and Texas running back CJ Baxter, all of whom would eventually sign with the Cats. Kentucky also landed the first visit from Arizona State star Sam Leavitt, the top quarterback in the portal according to multiple rankings.
The new staff eventually pivoted the quarterback search to Notre Dame’s Kenny Minchey when it became clear Leavitt was headed elsewhere — he ultimately signed with LSU — but even getting Leavitt on campus to visit with Stein and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan sent a clear message about the caliber of prospect Stein would pursue.
Stein’s time in Lexington that weekend did not last long, though.
At 10:54 a.m. on Jan. 3, Stein was back in the air, this time on a private jet headed to Eugene, Oregon. There, he would continue to balance prep for the Ducks’ playoff matchup with Indiana while fielding calls from transfers considering Kentucky.
“I’m amazed how seamlessly he did that,” UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart said. “I think having (Oregon coach) Dan (Lanning) having done that when he left Georgia to go to Oregon, they had a game plan on how to make that work. Dan was incredibly helpful in that process and kind to allow him the ability to come back and forth like he did.”
When Barnhart — who last week announced he’ll retire as athletic director this summer — offered Stein the chance to replace Mark Stoops as Kentucky’s coach, the conversation quickly moved to how Stein would approach the next two months.
Kentucky felt the pressure to quickly hire a coach who could begin the process of trying to retain the Cats’ best current players and then attract new talent to campus. High school prospects began signing the day Stein was introduced as Kentucky’s coach. Even though the portal did not officially open until Jan. 2, players began announcing intentions to transfer weeks earlier.
But Stein was clear he would not abandon his responsibilities at Oregon.
“It was important for me to finish what I started,” Stein said. “Very rarely do you have an opportunity to win a national championship in college football. … A major piece to me wanting to come here was the support from Mitch, and then support from Dan to be able to do both.”
Negotiating double duty between Oregon and Kentucky was not easy.
There were days Stein did not even have time to change out of his Oregon clothes after stepping off the practice field in Eugene before logging onto a Zoom call with a Kentucky transfer target.
If he remembered in time, Stein at least tried to take his Oregon hat off first.
“I call in the morning, I’m waking him up,” new UK offensive coordinator Joe Sloan said in December. “Me or Pat (Biondo), our GM, will call him, and then at night he’ll be rolling for about an hour, and it’s like 11:30 (in Lexington). That’s OK.
“Just a lot of phone calls, and I think it speaks to who Will is. He’s doing a great job wearing two hats.”
After being introduced as UK’s coach on Dec. 3, Stein spent three days in Lexington.
He flew back to Oregon on Dec. 6. The Ducks hosted their first-round playoff game against James Madison on campus Dec. 20. Stein remained in Eugene through Christmas, then flew with Oregon to Miami on Dec. 29.
“After the Orange Bowl, the good thing is that I was in this time zone,” Stein said. “Going from Miami to Lexington was easier than going from Miami just to Oregon straight. So it was doable.
“Some long hours, some late nights, but it was worth it.”
Stein flew to Atlanta with the rest of the Oregon team Jan. 7 for the Peach Bowl matchup with Indiana. Two days later, his tenure at Oregon ended with a 56-22 blowout loss to the eventual national champions.
UK sent the same private jet that had flown Stein to Lexington from Miami after the Orange Bowl to Fulton County Airport just west of Atlanta just before the start of the Peach Bowl. That game ended at 11:08 p.m. Just less than two hours later, the jet took off with Stein on board. It landed in Lexington at 1:38 a.m.
Six days remained until the deadline for transfers to enroll at UK for the spring semester.
That night, Stein was back in Rupp Arena alongside a handful of transfer visitors for the men’s basketball game against Mississippi State. There, in front of the eRupption Zone student section, Stein landed a commitment from Texas linebacker Elijah Barnes.
“I was definitely lying to you guys and everybody that I was focused on one thing at one time,” Stein said after returning to Lexington full time. “I was not. I was focused on everything at the same time. So you can imagine what that is like.
“But somebody told me, too, there is no crying from a yacht. I was the offensive coordinator at Oregon playing in the college football playoffs, and I’m the head coach at Kentucky. I think a lot of people would want to be in my shoes.”
Even though Stein’s tenure at Oregon was finished, his travel was not.
The transfer portal window closed Jan. 16, but the contact period for visiting high school prospects remained open until the end of the month.
On Jan. 21, Stein began a multi-day recruiting odyssey with a trip to multiple Louisville high schools. He then flew from Louisville to Fairhope, Alabama. Recruiting stops in Chicago, Chattanooga and Nashville followed before returning to Lexington on Jan. 23. The next day, Stein flew to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After a three-hour stop there, it was on to Florida, with stops in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.
From Ft. Lauderdale, Stein flew to Shreveport, Louisiana, then to Dallas on Jan. 27. The next day, he flew from Dallas back to Oregon. He spent two days there before flying to Somerset on Jan. 30.
Charting a private jet for recruiting travel is nothing new for Kentucky football and men’s basketball coaches, but the extra trips to shuttle Stein between his Oregon and UK responsibilities were a new expense for the athletic department.
Three flights to Eugene, two from Oregon playoff games to Lexington and one from Eugene back to Kentucky cost $221,650, according to the flight records provided to the Herald-Leader. That cost included more than $14,000 in crew fees for the flights to Oregon.
Kentucky was not alone in working to accommodate a new coach with playoff responsibilities. Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi had been hired as California’s head coach. James Madison coach Bob Chesney was hired as UCLA’s new coach before the playoff. Numerous coaches were splitting duties between Ole Miss and LSU after Lane Kiffin’s move.
“The fact that Will and his group did that fairly seamlessly at this point in time, it’s amazing,” Barnhart said. “I’m hopeful we can figure the calendar thing out and get that so it’s, No. 1, not as difficult on the coaching profession. And, No. 2, in terms of getting everyone where they need to be — young people, staffs, families, stuff like that — we can find a little more ease in that.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 6:31 AM.