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What People Are Saying About Will Stein to Kentucky

Nick-Roush-headshotby: Nick Roush12/02/25RoushKSR

Will Stein is a Kentucky Wildcat. Big Blue Nation is celebrating the quick move to bring the lifelong Kentucky fan back to the Bluegrass. What are folks saying elsewhere? A lot of people believe the Kentucky football program is in good hands.

On3’s Chris Low: Kentucky Following a Successful Path

On3’s Chris Low is a news-breaking veteran who has seen successful trends replicated time and time again. Kentucky is following a path that has worked well for the best in the sport.

“When you look around right now at some of the more successful head coaches, those guys all came in as coordinators,” Low told Jacob Polacheck. “That’s Kirby Smart at Georgia, Dan Lanning at Oregon, Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame, and Clark Lea at Vanderbilt. They were all guys who came in as coordinators and have been ultra successful at bigger programs. Lea was a defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, who has elevated Vanderbilt to historic heights this year.”

Sports Illustrated’s Grade: B+

“It’s no easy thing to learn on the job in the SEC, but Stein is a fantastic offensive mind with a great track record of developing quarterbacks,” writes Bryan Fischer. “That’s a welcome sight in Lexington as the Wildcats go with the complete opposite of his predecessor and hope it’s enough to turn the team’s fortunes around in the next few years. 

Hot Stein Take from Big Ten Tom

If there is a bigger Big Ten personality out there, point me in their direction. The CBS Sports analyst is knee deep in that league and had a bold statement about the hire.

The Athletic’s Audible Podcast

Bruce Feldman is one of the original coaching carousel newsbreakers. He’s seen hires succeed and fail. The biggest question: How quickly can Stein get the engines revved up in Lexington?

“I like him a lot, it’s just, I think we have to frame what is success for Will Stein? Mark Stoops is the best coach they ever had there. They’ve had four double-digit win seasons in like 150 years of football and he had two of them,” Feldman said. “If you get in the playoff one time at Kentucky, Will Stein was a grand slam home run. I think Will Stein will be an excellent coach.”

Stewart Mandel joins Feldman on The Audible. Mandel is based on the West Coast, so he’s quite familiar with Stein’s work.

“Kentucky, right, was the surprise entrant into the market. We weren’t sure they were going to spend all that money to fire the winningest coach of all time. And by the time they came on the market, five other SEC schools had changed coaches,” said Mandel. “What if Kentucky ends up with the best one? I really like Will Stein.

“He’s obviously got ties there. I think the offense he runs at Oregon, I think probably gets taken for granted because they have had some form of explosive offense going back to Baladi and Chip, but I think his is particularly unique, and they’ve done a great job with the quarterbacks there.”

Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara

Chris Vannini’s Grade: B+

The Athletic reporter covers the Group of Five and believes Stein is just what this Kentucky offense needs.

“Stein is a Louisville native who grew up a big Kentucky fan (the son of a former UK player) and played and coached at Louisville. There’s no one out there who knows Kentucky better. The 36-year-old has had a quick and impressive rise — he was UTSA’s offensive coordinator as recently as 2022 and a high school coach in 2019. Stein has done a really good job as Oregon’s offensive coordinator in creating elite units with three different quarterbacks over three seasons. It would be huge if he can hold onto quarterback Cutter Boley. Stein has also figured out how to make the most out of a difficult situation. The Ducks have spent the past month without most of their top offensive weapons, and Stein’s play calling has adapted accordingly.”

He continued: “But we don’t know how he’ll translate to being a head coach, and he has never coached in the SEC (though he was a quality control assistant at Texas from 2015 to ’17). Much of Stein’s success will depend on the resources provided to him, at a school that prioritizes men’s basketball (Mark Pope has a reported $22 million roster this season). Kentucky is a very difficult job, but it landed a coach a lot of Power 4 schools had their eyes on in in the future.”

Stein is a Steal

Nicole Auerbach covers the Big Ten for NBC. Apparently, he feeds himself.

Fox Sports’ Geoff Schwartz

The former NFL offensive line appears on plenty of Fox Sports shows with Chris Fallica. He is also a former Oregon Duck who loves to quack about his team. He shared his insight on what Stein is bringing to Kentucky.

“For Kentucky fans looking for information on Will Stein’s offense and ability to create points you should look at the last month of Oregon football,” Schwartz wrote on Twitter.

“Down WR1, 2 and 4 + multiple OL injuries, and he adjusted the offense to score points. Games in the rain. On the road. Very controlled on offense. Continued to have success. And that’s what Stein does best. He uses the weapons he’s got to score. No ego. One game it’s heavy run. Next game it’s the pass. There’s balance. And creativity. Development of talent. He developed Bo Nix and now Dante Moore. The pass game is West Coast concepts. Read the triangle. It’s very NFL-based.”

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2025-12-16