Upon becoming Indiana’s coach ahead of the 2024 season, Curt Cignetti told fans and writers to “Google me,” a mantra that became one of the most famous sports quotes of the 2020s. Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea insisted at the SEC’s spring meetings in May that he took the Commodores job with the intent of winning the national championship.
It is into this realm—the realm of football coaches at non-traditional football schools who radiate a confidence that may scan as delusion to outsiders—that Kentucky coach Will Stein stepped Monday with his comments at the SEC’s annual media days.
When asked why he thought the Wildcats could win under him, Stein didn’t mince words.
“I think because of me, to be honest,” he said.
Stein, just 36, brings a bevy of experience to Lexington, Ky.
“I know what it takes,” Stein said. “I have seen it at the highest levels. I know what it takes to recruit at this level. You just got to believe. Is it going to happen overnight? I don't know. ... One thing I refuse to do at Kentucky is to wait.”
Stein was born in Louisville, played his high school football there, and saw action at quarterback in 25 games over four years for his hometown Cardinals. That’s also where he got his start in coaching, as a graduate assistant on Louisville’s 2013 team—the most recent Cardinals squad to win 12 games.
Leaving the Bluegrass State after the 2014 season, Stein spent eight years in the high school and college ranks in Texas. His breakthrough came in 2022, when he served as the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of an 11–3 UTSA team that averaged 36.8 points per game. Oregon hired him to a similar role in December ‘22, and he spent three years with the Ducks before securing his current gig.
Football success has been fleeting historically at Kentucky, but Mark Stoops showed it could be sustained
When gridiron glory comes to the basketball-crazy Wildcats, it tends not to stay long.
Coach Bear Bryant led Kentucky to its greatest successes in the immediate aftermath of World War II—including an 11–1 mark in 1950—but bolted for Texas A&M after eight years. A probation-addled Wildcats team went 10–1 in 1977, but regressed to 4-6-1 a year later.
Stoops, who led Kentucky from 2013 to ‘25, seemed to find a tentative breakthrough. He won 10 games in ‘18 and then again in ‘21, and—this part is crucial—stuck with the Wildcats despite reported interest from bigger names. That’s to say nothing of his willingness to needle then-men’s basketball coach John Calipari, a testament to the equity Stoops earned in Lexington. The problem for Stoops became that he raised the bar so high that Kentucky felt compelled to fire him after two straight losing seasons in ‘24 and ‘25.
The Wildcats, then, need Stein both to succeed and to stay.
So—can Stein lead Kentucky to consistent contention?
As the new coach of a Power 4 football program, you need to do two things before you step on the field—you need to win your first transfer class, and you need to at least gesture in the direction of winning your first high-school recruiting class.
For the time being, mission accomplished on both fronts for Stein. The Wildcats signed the No. 10 transfer class in the country per 247 Sports, nabbing six four-star players (including starting quarterback Kenny Minchey, formerly of Notre Dame) in the fourth-best haul in the SEC. On the recruiting trail, Kentucky ranks No. 21 in the Class of 2027 pecking order, having inked five four-stars thus far. That total includes three in a 17-day period in June alone, all from either Kentucky or bordering states.
In fact, Stein’s Wildcats are one spot ahead of coach Tosh Lupoi’s California squad in the ‘27 recruiting rankings. Stein and Lupoi were Oregon’s offensive and defensive coordinators a year ago; their immediate success pitching high-schoolers speaks to the strength of the Ducks under coach Dan Lanning.
We might not see an auto-rebuild like Cignetti’s Hoosiers—Kentucky has the Aggies along with Alabama and LSU to contend with in the first six weeks of the season alone—but the Wildcats seem headed in the right direction. If Minchey proves dangerous as a starter, Kentucky could punch above its weight and surprise a team or two this season.
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