Josh Pate is a big fan of the Will Stein hire: 'I respect Kentucky for taking the swing'

Josh Pate knows football. And Josh Pate loves the Will Stein hire for Kentucky, which is even more reason to be excited about it.

The popular football personality spent some time talking about Kentucky’s big moves this week on his College Football Show. As someone who has spent some time around the Oregon program, and therefore Stein, Pate is a big fan of what he brings to Lexington — and the boldness of Kentucky’s administration to pursue an exciting young coordinator with no head coaching experience. Stein is now the youngest head coach in the SEC.

“Really sharp guy. I love the idea of Kentucky going after Will Stein,” Pate said. “It’s a great hire. I have no idea if it will work out. I do love the concept of it, though. And the concept is, stop trying to find a sure thing. Stop trying to find a guy that’s already an established winner as a head coach, because they aren’t really out there, and if they are out there, respectfully, it’s Kentucky, and you’re probably not landing them. You’ve got to go land the next guy.”

Pate was able to sit in on Oregon’s meetings as recently as last month alongside his wife, fellow college football pundit Savannah. While watching the Ducks’ coaching staff prepare for USC, Savannah asked her husband about Stein and noted that he gave off head coach energy. Pate was struck by how Stein’s players responded to him throughout the meeting.

“How prepared does the room feel, is always what I compare, because I go to a lot of these places,” Pate said. “It doesn’t matter what you know if you can’t put it in their heads, and if what’s in their heads doesn’t come out on the field. You can be the smartest football savant known to man, but it doesn’t matter. Will Stein’s really good at knowing the game, calling the game, coaching the game, but then his players executing the game at a high level.”

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Kentucky struggled to develop quarterbacks under Mark Stoops, so this next part about Stein will really get you excited about the possibilities with Cutter Boley and, eventually, Matt Ponatoski. At Oregon, Stein developed Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel into Heisman finalists; current Duck signal caller Dante Moore isn’t too shabby either.

“The other thing that stands out about Will Stein’s offense and being in his meeting rooms is how readily those quarterbacks could finish his sentences for him,” Pate said. “They just know the system, so he knows it, and what he knows is in them, so it’s not a guarantee of anything. I’m just giving you an observation. Dude is really sharp offensively, and his team plays accordingly.”

Boley has yet to announce his plans now that Stein is in charge, but you could see the excitement on his face (and Mitch Barnhart’s) during Kentucky’s team meeting last night.

Of course, it won’t be easy. Pate noted the challenges that Kentucky always faces when it comes to recruiting and playing in the SEC; however, he gives the Cats credit for going after Stein when they could have punted (and saved $37.5 million) with another year of Mark Stoops.

“It’ll come down to the same things for him at Kentucky,” Pate said. “You’re probably not going to swing shot for shot with the Georgias or Alabamas or Texases. Can you place a premium on evaluation and on development, sort of what [Mike] Elko did at Duke? Not to apples-to-apples compare the programs, but that’ll matter a lot here.

“But at least they took a swing. I respect Kentucky for taking the swing.”

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