How Will Stein’s early recruiting success has changed outlook for UK football
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Will Stein’s first high school class is ranked 14th by 247Sports Composite.
- The class includes eight consensus four-star prospects.
- Stein called the portal a supplemental tool and emphasized high school recruiting.
The list of dramatic changes in the Kentucky football program after seven months of the Will Stein era is not short.
The roster has been overhauled. The offensive and defensive schemes are more aggressive. Practices are more intense.
But the biggest change in the program might not be anything that has happened on the field so far or will this fall.
It’s the difference in high school recruiting philosophy and success.
“I am not afraid to talk about it anymore,” former UK coach Mark Stoops said at his final Monday news conference last season. “Let’s not dance around it: There are some schools that have a boatload of money to buy high school kids.
“I need to make sure those kids can help us win next year. … I only have so much money. You have to get your team, you have to get fillers for next year and then you have to be able to recruit high school kids. There is a lot to it.”
Stoops’ comments came with one game left in the 2025 season just more than a week before Kentucky was set to sign a high school and junior college class that was ranked 69th nationally and contained only 13 pledges at the time.
Even then, it looked likely that Stoops was going to return for a 14th season in charge of the program. An embarrassing 41-0 loss to arch rival Louisville five days later would ultimately end Stoops’ tenure as UK coach, but the Monday news conference offered a clear look at what he felt was his most viable roster-building strategy moving forward.
Stoops was choosing to devote the largest portion of his NIL and revenue sharing resources to retaining the core of young talent he felt had shown promise in 2025. From there, he would prioritize adding instant-impact players in the transfer portal. Kentucky did not appear to be seriously recruiting any more high school players and was instead combing the junior college ranks in search of low-cost depth for 2026.
Fast forward seven months, and Stein has seemingly silenced doubts about whether Kentucky could still be a major player in high school recruiting in an era when roster budgets continue to soar, following through on a promise he made at his introductory news conference.
“The portal is a great supplemental tool,” Stein said when asked about his recruiting philosophy. “It’s not the end all, be all. But I would like to think it always starts with high school ranks. That’s where your development happens, retention. That’s where you get to know these people the best, their parents, the people that matter to them. Then they want to stay at your university longer.”
After adding a commitment from four-star Ohio prep offensive lineman Dominic Black on Wednesday, Stein’s first high school recruiting class is ranked 14th nationally by the 247Sports Composite, which averages the ratings of the major recruiting services. The class includes eight players rated as consensus four-star prospects.
Stoops drove Kentucky to unprecedented success thanks in large part to a similar hot start in high school recruiting, but only one of his classes finished in the top 20 nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite.
So, what has changed?
Stein certainly deserves credit for building a staff that is heavy on young coaches willing to put in the grueling work of recruiting, much like Stoops did when he was hired in 2012. Kentucky’s new coaches have made the most of relationships they built with the 2027 recruits at their previous stops.
The crown jewel of the class is Illinois prep quarterback Jake Nawrot, the No. 2-ranked quarterback in the class according to Rivals, so Stein’s reputation as an elite offensive coach has already made an impact. Stein coached quarterbacks Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore as Oregon’s offensive coordinator. UK offensive coordinator Joe Sloan was the quarterback coach at LSU during Jayden Daniels’ Heisman Trophy winning season.
Stein has revamped Kentucky’s recruiting efforts behind the scenes, too. General manager Pat Biondo (Oregon), assistant general manager Pete Nochta (Louisville), director of player personnel Jerret McElwain (Alabama) and director of recruiting Erynn Love (Tulsa) are among the new staffers leading the charge in making the most of Kentucky’s recruiting efforts, especially when prospects visit campus.
But in the current college sports landscape, those connections and efforts might still not be enough without adequate financial resources.
In the same way Stoops was able to use the momentum of his hire to help push through stadium renovations and the construction of a new practice facility in a way previous coach Joker Phillips could not, Stein’s hire has surely led to an increase in financial support compared to the picture Stoops painted with his blunt assessment of the state of high school recruiting in November.
“We have every resource that we need right now to go build an elite ‘27 class,” Stein said during spring practice. “We’re building the relationships”
Of course, June rankings are not the final verdict on the success of a high school recruiting cycle.
The summer before Stoops’ first season as UK’s coach, the Cats’ 2014 recruiting class was actually briefly ranked No. 1 nationally in June by Rivals. That class finished at 22 in the 247Sports Composite.
Even at the height of Stoops’ high school recruiting efforts, Kentucky often fell victim to late flips where prospects who had committed to UK decided to sign with a traditional power.
If the recruits Stein and company have landed commitments from shine during their senior seasons, it would not be a surprise to see powerhouse programs up their NIL/revenue sharing contract offers as positional needs become clearer in advance of the December signing day. In that scenario, UK coaches would then have to decide if they have the budget and/or desire to match or exceed any increased offers.
If Kentucky struggles in Stein’s first season, rivals will certainly use those results against the Cats in any pursuit of the current commitments. But the opposite outcome exists, too: A Kentucky team that surprises this fall could open the door for the new staff to make late charges for top targets committed elsewhere, like five-star Boyle County tight end Seneca Driver, who picked Oklahoma over UK in March.
The story of Stein’s first recruiting class is far from finished, but the floor already looks much higher than it did seven months ago.
“We are going to recruit the best players in America,” Stein said after UK’s spring game. “Our job is to sign the absolute best players that we can, and we are not going to back down to anybody.
“I think when (recruits) get that vibe and when they see the confidence from our entire staff and our players, they are like, ‘Man, I want to be a part of this.’ It’s been great so far. Winning in the spring is one thing. It’s about winning games on Saturdays come fall.”
