'I was focused on everything': Will Stein's coaching double-dip was not easy

College football has a schedule problem. There is no denying that. The sport’s tournament is going on during the entire free agency period. There’s also the head coach hiring cycle that takes place. This structure forces individuals to do two jobs at once. Head coaches and coordinators in the playoff were all forced to double-dip. The public answer from these individuals would be that they are focused on their current job during the day and then shift focus to their next job later at night. Kentucky head coach Will Stein admits that wasn’t the case.

During Oregon’s three-game run in the College Football Playoff that ran all the way until Jan. 9, Stein was doing both jobs at the same time all of the time. Things really got crazy when the portal opened on Jan. 2.

“After the Orange Bowl,” Stein told KSR on Monday when asked about the craziest moment while doing two jobs at once. “I had like a day here. In the heat of portal. Or no, that might have been the first day. Was that the first day the portal opened? Yeah, and we had like 10 guys here. We were like the only team in the country that just like grinded to get guys here. I was on like no sleep. Yeah, that was probably the wildest day.”

During that first weekend, Kentucky had some very big visitors. CJ Baxter Jr., Coleton Price, Ahmad Breaux, and Tavion Wallace were all visitors during that time who ultimately signed with UK. Despite Stein’s short stint in Lexington during that first big weekend, the Cats got some important recruiting work done thanks to the staffers who were working full-time at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility.

“I truly have some of the best people in the world that were here, that were grinding through it. That were on the phones constantly. Getting kids to campus. A recruiting staff that had never really worked together that were just figuring it out,” Stein explained. “And that was really encouraging for me to see. Knowing that I’m not here but things are getting done. But that was probably the most chaotic day.”

So what about when Will Stein was in Eugene during playoff prep or at the bowl site? The 36-year-old was immediately shifting from Oregon offensive coordinator to Kentucky head coach. Sometimes the Oregon gear stayed on as Stein tried to get some important recruiting work completed for the Wildcats on Zoom. There was never really any doing just one job at a time.

“A lot of times I just had Oregon gear on and I just took my hat off. But yeah, that was happening every single day. I was definitely lying to you guys and everybody that I was focused on one thing at one time. I was not,” said Stein. “I was focused on everything at the same time. So you can imagine what that’s like.”

For a wild few weeks, Will Stein had to do two jobs. There was no on/off switch to be flipped. Luckily, Kentucky had the core of its staff in Lexington to complete essential roster-building. Now the UK head football coach is at his new job full-time and mostly has his first full roster set thanks to not much sleep and a good staff.

What a sport.