LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Will Stein chipped onto the first green Thursday morning at Hurstbourne Country Club, watched his ball settle a few feet from the cup and turned toward the small gallery of reporters following his group.
"Did you get that on tape?"
He got a laugh. Then he tapped in for par.
The whole morning went about that smoothly.
There wasn't any awkwardness in seeing Louisville's former quarterback wearing Kentucky blue, walking a course a few miles from Trinity High School, where he was a star long before any of this. Mostly handshakes, smiles, people happy to welcome home someone who'd made it.
Because that's what Thursday was, underneath the golf. Kentucky's head coach, back in the city that made him. In a town where everybody eventually picks a side, Stein picked blue. His father played for Kentucky. He grew up making trips to Commonwealth Stadium.
In Louisville, there have always been plenty of kids like him. Does it feel strange coming back as Kentucky's coach?
"Not really," he said. "It's where I spent 24 years of my life, so you know, you see people from Big Blue Nation to Louisville fans, all really embracing me coming back, and I think that's what happens when you leave a place hopefully better than you found it. When I went to Louisville I treated people the right way, and coming back to the state, being now the head coach of Kentucky, it's — I think it's special for a lot of people."
Stein never attempts to rewrite his story. No pretending Louisville wasn't important. No pretending Kentucky wasn't. Home is home. Dream jobs are dream jobs. For Stein, they somehow became both.
Stein's group included J.B. Holmes and Randall Cobb, two more Kentuckians whose careers carried them far from home before bringing them back for a summer day at Hurstbourne.
"Obviously, two legends of University of Kentucky athletics," Stein said. Of Cobb specifically: "You can't say enough about him from a football perspective. Definitely should be on our Hall of Honor. One of the best."
Two different sports. Two different kinds of Kentucky excellence. Both standing on a fairway in Louisville with a coach who belongs, a little bit, to both places.
Stein is in a recruiting dead period, which means more time for golf and less time for third-and-four. But there's no such dead period for an SEC coach, not really. He's already taken a hand in what some might deem the smaller details. For instance, Kentucky's promotional schedule for theme games is out weeks ahead of kickoff, a change fans have welcomed.
"I definitely put a lot into it, because they matter, and our fans matter," he said. "We can schedule things out just like we do with football. We organize ourselves and try to set ourselves up for success. I think it's important that our fans get information earlier, that way they're prepared for that moment and not getting information 48 to 72 hours before kickoff."
It was a small answer. It also sounded like someone who understands that coaching now isn't just about Saturdays. It's about building something that feels connected to the people who show up for it.
That chip on the first hole never really stopped mattering.
"Did you get that on tape?"
We did. But the better picture was a little wider than that.
A Trinity kid. A Louisville quarterback. A Kentucky coach. Back home on a July morning.
Stein said he hoped people welcomed him because he had tried to leave Louisville better than he found it.
That's a hard standard to argue with.
Football will keep score this fall.
Home already has.
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