Nashville sports talk radio with some insight on Steins future at UK.

LongliveWildcatDon · Wednesday at 10:57 AM

If you don't know Jared Stillman, don't bother, if you do than you may know that he knows Coach Stein back from their UL days together. Monday he spoke on what he claims to know on Stein's future with UK. He stated that "Will thinks he can win a title at UK, and that renegotiations of his contract this summer will be more about assistant coaches salaries and a bigger NIL budget more so than money for himself."

For those to that care, he also tweeted about it.

Beatle Bum · Wednesday at 11:36 AM

Jared is obnoxious (if the same guy who was on Card radio) and talks out his butt often. I hope he is right.

CutNets · Wednesday at 11:47 AM

This would be the preferred mentality if true

NociHTTP · Wednesday at 12:23 PM

Every coach thinks he or she can win a title, until they can't. That's their competitive streak talking. Stein is a great coach, no doubt.

Cats_2010 · Wednesday at 12:33 PM

NociHTTP said:
Every coach thinks he or she can win a title, until they can't. That's their competitive streak talking. Stein is a great coach, no doubt.

Stein recruits well enough that he absolutely can win a title here. His coaching speaks for itself and as he amasses more talent on both sides of the ball he will build the depth needed which is really all that we are missing now.

BlueBomb · Wednesday at 12:36 PM

The most downtrodden college football program in America was Indiana. Before Cignetti got there, they had the MOST losses in the history of the sport. Then they won a title.

If IU can win a title in football then Kentucky can.

Wayne Dougan · Wednesday at 12:49 PM

With NIL, head coach salaries are going to be somewhat similar to NFL quarterbacks in that they may need to start considering what's left to pay everybody else after they get big checks.

The best advantage you can have in the NFL is to have a good QB still on a rookie contract. That's essentially what we have with Stein right now. At some point quite soon his salary is going up. And that means (all else equal) there will be less to pay other coaches and players.

I'm not saying it's not worth it as Stein is clearly increasing the revenue of UK football. But I always did wonder if NFL QBs ever thought, "you know, it might make sense for me to make $60M a year instead of $70M because that extra $10M will get me a significantly better right tackle and my life will be a lot easier". And I wonder if coaches ever think about that too. Doubt it on both btw.

SECualHealing · Wednesday at 1:11 PM

BlueBomb said:
The most downtrodden college football program in America was Indiana. Before Cignetti got there, they had the MOST losses in the history of the sport. Then they won a title.

If IU can win a title in football then Kentucky can.

Mark Cuban throwing millions at IU's NIL fund might of helped a bit as well

Catastic5 · Wednesday at 1:16 PM

You don’t need $50M to win a title. You look at Indiana and they’re estimated to be spending roughly $30M. You start to realize there are diminishing returns once you start to get into that $30M range.

LineSkiCat14 · Wednesday at 1:17 PM

CC_332 · Wednesday at 1:26 PM

Stillman is awful. He was a radio host who was a hot take engineer and a contrarian just to get people riled up. He even got his show cancelled and, recently, his credentials revoked by the Titans. But he's a Louisville guy so he might actually have some connections to know this stuff. Might be legit.

Goingfor9 · Wednesday at 1:32 PM

BlueBomb said:
The most downtrodden college football program in America was Indiana. Before Cignetti got there, they had the MOST losses in the history of the sport. Then they won a title.

If IU can win a title in football then Kentucky can.

Not too many people talk about him but mark cuban bought that team. That’s a uk problem we do not have a mark cuban.

Goingfor9 · Wednesday at 1:40 PM

Wayne Dougan said:
With NIL, head coach salaries are going to be somewhat similar to NFL quarterbacks in that they may need to start considering what's left to pay everybody else after they get big checks.

The best advantage you can have in the NFL is to have a good QB still on a rookie contract. That's essentially what we have with Stein right now. At some point quite soon his salary is going up. And that means (all else equal) there will be less to pay other coaches and players.

I'm not saying it's not worth it as Stein is clearly increasing the revenue of UK football. But I always did wonder if NFL QBs ever thought, "you know, it might make sense for me to make $60M a year instead of $70M because that extra $10M will get me a significantly better right tackle and my life will be a lot easier". And I wonder if coaches ever think about that too. Doubt it on both btw.

Tom Brady took pay cut after pay cut from NE for exactly what you say. Mahomes too and many more re-do contracts to stay under the cap. It’s happened with lots of qbs many time you don’t hear about a contract restructure. So the answer to your curiosity is yes. They think about it but most qbs in the nfl right now aren’t in a place to have to do that because many now are in the first 4-5 years and not making enough to give up anything. The guys who are in position to sacrifice to stay under the cap they already do

The Nightman2 · Wednesday at 1:47 PM

Goingfor9 said:
Not too many people talk about him but mark cuban bought that team. That’s a uk problem we do not have a mark cuban.

Look at last year's roster . They didnt out spend us by much last year. It was a veteran team. Well coached and made few mistakes. Their recruiting now is on the up of course. People were saying we couldnt move do better than Stoops because we didnt have the money to compete. Cignetti proved you don't have to spend the most to win. Just have a great coach who gets his team to play at a high level. It was not a Mark Cuban spending spree that got the title .

bigblueinsanity (the real) · Wednesday at 3:11 PM

BlueBomb said:
The most downtrodden college football program in America was Indiana. Before Cignetti got there, they had the MOST losses in the history of the sport. Then they won a title.

If IU can win a title in football then Kentucky can.

I saw this all over for more than a year. It just isnt true. IU is a very unique case where they have great coaching, incredibly easy schedule, and top notch nil.

The coach is an important variable of the equation but far from the only. That first IU team of cigs and this one would both be middle of the pack in the SEC.

davtay · Wednesday at 3:27 PM

BlueBomb said:
The most downtrodden college football program in America was Indiana. Before Cignetti got there, they had the MOST losses in the history of the sport. Then they won a title.

If IU can win a title in football then Kentucky can.

I see this stated over and over. Are we sure that it can be done again? (I'm not talking Cignetti at IU, he now has momentum and a track record.) I'm saying can a great but unknown coach take a traditional bottom feeder program to a National Championship in Football?

Can someone take Kansas? Will Stein take UK? Even if the money is there, there are a lot of other things that have fall just right. Easy schedule for one.

Until it is done more than once, it is just the exception not the rule.

Yes, if IU can win a title in football then UK can, I can also win the lottery, but chances are insanely small that I do. I hope UK can...and I win the lottery.

UKGrad24 · Wednesday at 3:32 PM

The Nightman2 said:
Look at last year's roster . They didnt out spend us by much last year. It was a veteran team. Well coached and made few mistakes. Their recruiting now is on the up of course. People were saying we couldnt move do better than Stoops because we didnt have the money to compete. Cignetti proved you don't have to spend the most to win. Just have a great coach who gets his team to play at a high level. It was not a Mark Cuban spending spree that got the title .

I think people say this and don’t actually look at what the numbers likely were. That Indiana team wasn’t near the top in NIL. Not near it.

There are many similarities between Indiana last year and Kentucky this year. Now granted, their schedule is much weaker. And that’s the main problem with the comparison playing out in the end.

Mark Cuban didn’t buy that roster or it would have had much better players / recruits than it did.

I also have thought to myself something I haven’t seen mentioned that gives me goosebumps. Almost like Cig and Stein knew something nobody else knew. The confidence from their press conferences:

“google me”
“Because of me”

Both eerily similar in confidence and style, like they knew something none did at the time. Not a massive deal I guess, I just sort of made a mental note that it seemed odd.

UKGrad24 · Wednesday at 3:34 PM

davtay said:
I see this stated over and over. Are we sure that it can be done again? (I'm not talking Cignetti at IU, he now has momentum and a track record.) I'm saying can a great but unknown coach take a traditional bottom feeder program to a National Championship in Football?

Can someone take Kansas? Will Stein take UK? Even if the money is there, there are a lot of other things that have fall just right. Easy schedule for one.

Until it is done more than once, it is just the exception not the rule.

Yes, if IU can win a title in football then UK can, I can also win the lottery, but chances are insanely small that I do. I hope UK can...and I win the lottery.

It’s not that simple. Indiana who’s one of the worst power 5’s there is coming into a premier program in 1 season is not just an exception. It’s a signal that in the era of NIL it can be done. The comparison to the lottery isn’t a good one.

one things for certain, all of us telling the “stoops is as good as it gets” crowd that they don’t know what they’re talking about, is finished in fact. They didn’t.

davtay · Wednesday at 3:39 PM

UKGrad24 said:
It’s not that simple. Indiana who’s one of the worst power 5’s there is coming into a premier program in 1 season is not just an exception. It’s a signal that in the era of NIL it can be done. The comparison to the lottery isn’t a good one.

Of course it is a good one. Yes, it can be done...it already has. But, is it an outlier or a sign of things to come? That has yet to be answered.

I hope that UK is the one to prove that it can be duplicated. But it is not yet proven to be repeatable.

UKWildcats1987 · Wednesday at 3:41 PM

CC_332 said:
Stillman is awful. He was a radio host who was a hot take engineer and a contrarian just to get people riled up. He even got his show cancelled and, recently, his credentials revoked by the Titans. But he's a Louisville guy so he might actually have some connections to know this stuff. Might be legit.

Because he asked Cam ward to assess his preseason play and he didnt like what stillman said when cam answered a question with a question. I dont like still man either but hes been right most of the time on cam and the titans.

He is super negative and people dont like that. I dont personally as its 99% of the time but I think the titans looked dumb doing what they did.

BBPirate · Wednesday at 3:46 PM

He gone

LongliveWildcatDon · Wednesday at 4:09 PM

UKWildcats1987 said:
Because he asked Cam ward to assess his preseason play and he didnt like what stillman said when cam answered a question with a question. I dont like still man either but hes been right most of the time on cam and the titans.

He is super negative and people dont like that. I dont personally as its 99% of the time but I think the titans looked dumb doing what they did.

Stillman is like a rock in your shoe but does put out good info. For years he was telling Titans fans that if you wanted info ask Diana Russini because she was really close to. Vrabel. Also was the first to call out ownership while everyone else stayed quiet.

As well, he has been pushing Stein for HC for a couple of years so makes me think he has some relationship with him.

Laparkafan · Wednesday at 7:36 PM

Wayne Dougan said:
With NIL, head coach salaries are going to be somewhat similar to NFL quarterbacks in that they may need to start considering what's left to pay everybody else after they get big checks.

The best advantage you can have in the NFL is to have a good QB still on a rookie contract. That's essentially what we have with Stein right now. At some point quite soon his salary is going up. And that means (all else equal) there will be less to pay other coaches and players.

I'm not saying it's not worth it as Stein is clearly increasing the revenue of UK football. But I always did wonder if NFL QBs ever thought, "you know, it might make sense for me to make $60M a year instead of $70M because that extra $10M will get me a significantly better right tackle and my life will be a lot easier". And I wonder if coaches ever think about that too. Doubt it on both btw.

Many qb have taken that approach - isn’t Mahomes on a team friendly deal? Isn’t that how they could get the rb from Seattle?
Brady maybe too?

KYAnywhereEverywhere · Thursday at 9:08 PM

davtay said:
I see this stated over and over. Are we sure that it can be done again? (I'm not talking Cignetti at IU, he now has momentum and a track record.) I'm saying can a great but unknown coach take a traditional bottom feeder program to a National Championship in Football?

Can someone take Kansas? Will Stein take UK? Even if the money is there, there are a lot of other things that have fall just right. Easy schedule for one.

Until it is done more than once, it is just the exception not the rule.

Yes, if IU can win a title in football then UK can, I can also win the lottery, but chances are insanely small that I do. I hope UK can...and I win the lottery.

This is a really well written, well conceived post

Cleatortoises · 2026-10-30T06:38:46-0500

Can it be done again?
Perhaps.
That scheduling thing is the fickle mistress here.

Nashville sports talk radio with some insight on Steins future at UK.

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