LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB) – The new Kentucky football coach grew up going to Commonwealth Stadium. He sat in Section 128. He remembers bowl trips, the big wins and the heartbreaks. He’s true blue, even if he played for Louisville. He can tell you some stories.
But stories don’t win football games.
And sentiment doesn’t score in the Southeastern Conference.
If this hire works, it won’t be because Will Stein wore headphones in the bleachers as a toddler. It won’t be because he once lost his job to Teddy Bridgewater or led Trinity to a state championship. It’ll be because he brings with him a style and approach that Kentucky football has lacked.
A style built for 2025. Built for risk. Built to climb.
Athletic director Mitch Barnhart offered the line that stuck with me most on Tuesday:
“Conservative folks can win,” he said. “But risk-takers can win it all.”
That’s the gamble here — and the opportunity.
Mark Stoops won at Kentucky. That should never be minimized. He built the longest run of success the program has seen in generations. He brought stability. Respect. Identity. He raised the floor.
But the ceiling stayed out of reach. For all the wins, Kentucky still wasn’t outscoring Georgia, or making serious quarterback waves, or cracking the top tier of a changing sport. It got to base camp. But the summit — that final tier of relevance — never came.
Barnhart knows something about this. He climbs actual mountains, not metaphorical ones. He summitted Mount Ranier.
Will Stein, at 36 years old, is Kentucky’s bold attempt to climb.
He doesn’t look like a threat. He joked that Barnhart had to lower the podium mic for him. But what Stein lacks in height, he makes up for in velocity.
“I came here to win,” he said. “Not in five years. Not in 10. Now.”
Stein knows something about taking risks. He left a nice job on a college staff to become a high school head coach in Texas, just to learn more about leading a team.
On Wednesday, he talked about quarterbacks completing 70 percent of their passes just to get in the front door. About Kentucky’s place in the college football order.
“We’re a national brand,” he said. “There is no reason we can’t be successful. Zero. The excuses are done. It’s time to get to work.”
He’s not promising tradition. He knows the SEC is full of it. He’s promising trouble. For the other guys.
“Offense is going to light up the scoreboard,” Stein said. “Defensively, we're going to play relentless from point A to point B, attacking the football and having great ball excellence. Special teams? We want to change the game. I want a fake punt. I want to onside kick. I want to take advantage of opportunities to steal possessions in the game so we can maximize our points.”
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart hands new football coach Will Stein a jersey before his introductory news conference.
He is not coming to Kentucky to run what it used to run. He is not a system coach. He is turbo tactician. He showed at Oregon this season when injuries hit, he doesn’t always have to do it the same way. That’s the whole point.
That doesn’t guarantee success, of course. Kentucky is gambling on someone who’s never been a head coach. On someone whose experience skews younger than the median SEC coordinator. On someone whose SEC home games next year are against Florida, Alabama, LSU and Vanderbilt.
But Kentucky is also gambling for the first time in a long time.
That matters.
College football is not what it was three years ago. The transfer portal has turned roster management into triage. NIL has made fundraising a daily operation.
“Recruiting,” Stein said, “is like shaving. You don’t do it every day, you start to look bad.”
Playoff access has expanded, but only for programs that evolve.
Will Stein may not have been the safest hire. But safe wasn’t going to get Kentucky where it wants to go.
“Losers think about winners,” Stein told his team. “Winners think about winning.”
There will be a lot of hometown stories this week. And they’re fine. They matter in some ways. It’s nice to have a coach who knows the place and the people. It’s good that Will Stein’s son already owns a Kentucky football helmet and that his dad played there and that his mom has an open invitation from KSR.
But if this works, it won’t be because Stein is from here. It’ll be because he’s not like what Kentucky football has been. He’s what it has needed to become.
Urgent. Aggressive. Adaptable. Ready to take risks.
Kentucky reached base camp. Will Stein is here to push higher.
You don’t summit with a smile and a story. You summit by taking the kind of chance Kentucky just took.
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