In Will Stein’s first season, these 5 games will decide UK football’s fate
In Will Stein’s first season as Kentucky head football coach, the former Louisville Cardinals quarterback will seek to defy Wildcats history.
Of the 10 UK head men who immediately proceeded Stein, not one of them had a winning record in his debut season as top Cat.
You have to go back to Blanton Collier’s 7-3 mark in 1954 to find the most recent time in which a Kentucky head coach produced a winning mark in his initial campaign leading the Wildcats.
For Stein to buck the trend, the coach and his team will have to surmount what is, on paper, one of the most challenging schedules in Wildcats football history.
Of Kentucky’s 12 scheduled opponents in 2026, nine had winning seasons last year; eight won at least eight games; four compiled double-digit victories; and three — Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas A&M — played in the College Football Playoff.
Assuming Kentucky can take care of business vs. FCS foe Youngstown State (8-5 last season) and Sun Belt Conference opponent South Alabama (4-8), then Stein’s path to a rare first-year winning season as UK coach likely runs through the following five games:
South Carolina
When and where: Oct. 3 in Columbia
Reason to worry: Since Shane Beamer signed on to coach the Gamecocks prior to the 2021 season, South Carolina has completely flipped a series Kentucky had been controlling.
UK had won seven of eight vs. South Carolina from 2014 through 2021, but Beamer has now won the past four vs. the Wildcats and is 4-1 overall vs. Kentucky.
Reason to hope: Perhaps the new Kentucky offensive brain trust of Stein, the former Oregon offensive coordinator, and UK OC Joe Sloan, who previously held the same role at LSU, will finally solve Gamecocks defensive coordinator Clayton White.
Under White, a former Western Kentucky DC, South Carolina has held UK to 16 points or fewer in five straight meetings.
Vanderbilt
When and where: Oct. 24 at Kroger Field
Reason to worry: Vanderbilt will be going for its third straight win over Kentucky. Coach Clark Lee’s Commodores humiliated UK last season, hanging a 45-17 smashing on the Wildcats and almost doubling the Cats in total offense (604 to 315).
Reason to hope: Star Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia, who threw for a ridiculous 484 yards vs. Kentucky last season, is finally exiting college football.
With Pavia as the Vanderbilt quarterback, Lea went 17-9. With QBs other than Pavia, Lea is 9-27 as Vandy coach.
Florida
When and where: Nov. 14 at Kroger Field
Reason to worry: The Florida football program is now under the leadership of former Kentucky linebacker and assistant coach Jon Sumrall. Ex-UK assistants Brad White and Chris Collins are now the Gators’ defensive coordinator and safeties coach, respectively. Given all those ties to the Cats, beating Kentucky figures to be a big priority for Florida.
Reason to hope: After losing an embarrassing 31 games in a row to Florida from 1987 through 2017, Kentucky has now subdued the mighty Gators five times in the past eight meetings.
The fact that many UK backers spent years pining for Sumrall to be the Wildcats’ head coach makes this a big game for Stein, too.
Missouri
When and where: Nov. 21 in Columbia
Reason to worry: Missouri is 9-3 in SEC home games since the start of the 2023 season.
Kentucky had beaten Mizzou five in a row before Eli Drinkwitz was hired as Tigers head man prior to the 2020 season. Since Drink came on board with Missouri, the Tigers are 2-2 vs. UK.
Reason to hope: The week prior to playing Kentucky, Mizzou will play at SEC kingpin Georgia. One week after facing UK, the Tigers are slated to play border rival Oklahoma.
That schedule set up potentially makes the Cats a “trap game” for Missouri.
Louisville
When and where: Nov. 28 at Kroger Field
Reason to worry: Over the past two seasons, Jeff Brohm’s Cardinals have outscored Kentucky by a combined 82-14, including last season’s 41-0 demolition of the Wildcats that was the final nail in the UK coaching coffin of Mark Stoops.
The fact that UK’s Stein, like Brohm, is a former Trinity High School quarterback who went on to start at QB for U of L will give the Governor’s Cup rivalry an even keener competitive dynamic.
Reason to hope: The same reasons that will give the game additional meaning for Brohm apply for Stein. Given how one-sided the past two meetings between the Cats and Cards have been, Stein pretty much has nowhere to go but up in his first time coaching against his college alma mater.
