Three promises UK needs to make to help Will Stein succeed
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky hires Will Stein as head coach, betting on his high-octane offense.
- UK must fund competitive player compensation and commit resources to recruiting.
- University should appoint an empowered general manager to build a modern roster.
You could construct an opening act of a movie from the path that has led Will Stein to becoming the next head football coach at the University of Kentucky.
The son of former UK player Matt Stein, Will grew up attending Wildcats games at the venue then known as Commonwealth Stadium.
After becoming a standout, if undersized, quarterback at Louisville’s Trinity High School, Will Stein aspired to nothing more than joining his childhood favorite team as a preferred walk-on.
When UK did not give him that chance, Stein instead went to Kentucky’s archrival, Louisville. There, Stein not only worked his way into becoming U of L’s starting QB, but in 2011 started against the Wildcats in Lexington in a game the Cardinals won.
Now, after rising through the coaching ranks to become offensive coordinator at West Coast power Oregon, Stein, 36, has been named the head man of his childhood favorite team.
How’s that for a theatrical twist?
On Monday night, national reporters from Yahoo Sports and ESPN.com reported that Stein and UK “were working toward an agreement” to make the Oregon OC the replacement to Mark Stoops as top Cat. At 11:10 p.m. EST, the University of Kentucky made the hiring of Stein official via news release.
“I’m honored and excited to become the next head coach at Kentucky,” Stein said in that UK release. “Growing up in Kentucky and sitting in the stands at UK games as a kid, I could only dream of one day leading the Wildcats. This is truly a dream come true.”
Given that UK only officially announced that it had moved on from Stoops Monday morning, Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart and his brain trust clearly entered the search with a clear vision for what they sought.
In Stein, Kentucky is getting an up-and-comer who, first at UTSA (Texas-San Antonio) and now at Oregon, has developed a reputation as one of the nation’s best offensive playcallers and as a keenly effective developer of quarterbacks.
Seeking a replacement for the defensive-oriented, 58-year-old Stoops, Barnhart seems to have prioritized offense and youth.
“Will Stein brings an outstanding track record of developing elite quarterbacks and leading some of the most dynamic and successful offenses in college football,” Barnhart said in UK’s news release.
It appears that Stein and 38-year-old Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, the older brother of ex-UK QB and current Wildcats offensive quality control assistant Mike Hartline, were the two candidates given the greatest consideration by Kentucky.
Because of Brian Hartline’s reputation as an elite recruiter and his deep roots in the state of Ohio, some UK backers may be disappointed that Kentucky did not give him its head coaching nod.
The thought was Hartline could have immediately restocked the UK roster with high-level talent.
Instead, Kentucky is betting that the high-octane offenses Stein has coordinated in his three seasons at Oregon — the Ducks are presently eighth in the FBS in scoring at 39.3 points a game — will attract talent to the Wildcats.
There is risk when you hire a first-time head coach. Yet it is interesting that, of the top 10 teams in the current College Football Playoff Rankings, six are led by coaches who are in their first college head coaching jobs.
For a head man, such as Stein, with an offensive background, the most important staffing decision will be who he tabs as UK defensive coordinator.
One surmises Stein would also benefit from having at least a couple of well-seasoned veterans on his Wildcats coaching staff.
Kentucky’s disappointing past four seasons — starting in 2022, UK is 23-27 overall, 9-23 in SEC games — cannot be laid entirely off on coaching.
In the rapidly evolving college football environment created by NIL, revenue sharing with players and unlimited free transferring for athletes, it has often felt like Kentucky was playing catch up.
During the negotiations that were making Stein the head coach of the Wildcats, he needs to have used his “new coach leverage” to have gotten promises from UK to do things differently in at least three big-picture areas:
1.) Kentucky needs to hire and then empower a true general manager whose primary focus is roster building.
College football at the power-conference level now is far closer to the NFL than it is the traditional collegiate model.
The UK football program needs to build a player-procurement infrastructure that reflects that reality.
2.) Kentucky needs to commit to fund its football player compensation efforts at a level that suggests UK understands it is in the Southeastern Conference.
Some Wildcats fans were angered when Stoops pleaded for more resources for use in attracting more talent. Kentucky would do well to figure out a way to keep Stein out of that predicament.
3.) The powers that be at UK need to level with their basketball-centric fan base about the need for Kentucky to be all-in on football.
Even at UK, football is the most lucrative sport. It is football relevance that determines how university athletics departments are valued in league realignments and in prospective “super-conference” scenarios.
Kentucky’s number one athletics goal should be to field a consistently “SEC relevant” football program. That is actually the most important thing UK could do to secure the future of its historically regal men’s basketball program (and all its other teams).
For Stein, job one as the head coach of the team he rooted for as a little boy is to bring an entertaining brand of offense back to Kroger Field while not losing all the defensive identity that Kentucky built under Stoops.
This story was originally published December 1, 2025 at 11:46 PM.
