Through his staff choices, we’re learning interesting things about Will Stein
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stein staffs Kentucky with a youthful group to inject energy and new ideas.
- Staff hires signal a recruiting shift toward Texas and Louisiana talent pipelines.
- Stein imports multiple Louisville connections into Kentucky staff and recruiting.
Lots of people work two jobs. One surmises that new Kentucky football coach Will Stein is one of the few working one job each in the Eastern and Pacific time zones.
While Stein in his old role as Oregon offensive coordinator worked to get the No. 5 Ducks prepared for their College Football Playoff opener Saturday vs. No. 24 James Madison, he has also been building out his coaching staff for his new job.
“I call (Stein in) the morning. I’m waking him up,” new UK offensive coordinator Joe Sloan said Wednesday. “... Then at night, you know, (Stein will) be rolling for about an hour, and it’s like 11:30 (in Lexington), you know what I mean? That’s okay, but it’s just a lot of phone calls.”
For a fan base trying to learn about a first-time head coach such as Stein, one of the first “tells” is the choices the head man makes in staffing his new program.
The personnel decisions Stein has made since accepting the job as Mark Stoops’ successor at Kentucky have been intriguing on at least three fronts.
1. “We are young.” Stein, the former Trinity High School and University of Louisville quarterback, is 36.
Sloan, the former LSU offensive coordinator, is 39.
Cutter Leftwich, officially announced Thursday as the new UK offensive line coach, graduated from high school in 2017.
Ohio State aide Tony Washington Jr., who has been reported but not yet officially announced as joining Stein’s defensive staff at Kentucky, is 33.
What UK is giving up in grizzled experience by debuting such a youthful staff in Southeastern Conference football, the Wildcats will aspire to make up through youthful energy and new ideas.
In a time when the entire enterprise of college football is in a period of unrelenting change, Kentucky will hope that a staff filled with young coaches is equipped to adapt to different ways of doing things at a time when an older staff might struggle.
2. “Choosin’ Texas” (and Louisiana). Historically, Kentucky football recruiting has largely relied on homegrown products of the commonwealth and players from the nearby states of Ohio and Georgia.
Judging solely by the backgrounds of the coaches Stein is bringing to UK, one would think the states of Louisiana and Texas are about to become far more important to Wildcats recruiters.
Prior to going to Oregon, Stein himself coached eight years in the Lone Star State. New UK defensive coordinator Jay Bateman is coming from Texas A&M.
Leftwich, the Cats’ new offensive line coach, spent a season each at Texas-San Antonio (2021 as a graduate assistant) and North Texas (2024 as offensive line coach).
New wide receivers coach Joe Price III is coming from UTSA and has deep ties into the city of Houston and to Texas high school football.
Though not officially announced yet by Kentucky, Josh Christian-Young, who it has been reported will come to UK as a defensive assistant, is currently on the staff at Houston.
Meanwhile, Sloan has deep recruiting ties in Louisiana after working at LSU (2022-25) and Louisiana Tech (2013-21).
Before he went to Houston, Christian-Young coached at Tulane in New Orleans.
When he met with Kentucky reporters Wednesday, however, Sloan emphasized that, while relationships are the key to recruiting, new ones can be cultivated in whatever geographic footprint in which a coach works.
“Recruiting is a ‘people business,’ coaches and mentors and family members. They want to know that you have a plan for their son, on and off the field, to develop them to their fullest potential,” Sloan said. “What I look forward to is the opportunity to develop relationships in all the areas that we’re going to recruit.”
3. “Eight more miles to Louisville.” Based off hires that have been announced and/or reported, there will be at least three former Louisville Cardinals holding important roles within the Kentucky Wildcats football program in 2026.
After growing up a UK fan with parents who were both University of Kentucky alumni, Stein, of course, became starting quarterback at U of L as a walk-on after UK did not offer him the chance to join its team.
Kolby Smith, reportedly the choice to be Kentucky’s new running backs coach, was a U of L ballcarrier from 2003 through 2006.
Meanwhile, Pete Nochta, officially announced as the UK football program’s new assistant general manager, is a former Louisville tight end (2008 through 2010) and a longtime employee in the U of L football program’s recruiting department.
Given his ties to Louisville, it is hardly a surprise that Stein is drawing on his Cardinals connections to “staff out” his first head coaching job.
For UK backers, one of the defining changes of the new coaching era is that there will be a tad more “Louisville” in the “Kentucky football experience” than they are accustomed to.
