LEXINGTON — It’s officially a new era for Kentucky football.
Mark Stoops is gone. Will Stein is in.
Stein replaces the man who spent 13 years coaching the Wildcats, which was the the longest tenure in program history. Given how long he stayed at UK, it’s no surprise Stoops holds basically every coaching record of note at the school, whether it’s overall victories, home wins or bowl appearances.
Advertisement
But Kentucky had diminishing returns the past two seasons. In 2024, its eight-year streak of bowl berths ended with a 4-8 (1-7 SEC) campaign. Though the Wildcats improved by one game this fall (5-6 overall, 2-6 in league play), it wasn’t enough to punch a postseason ticket. And they couldn’t have ended on a worse note: They were outscored in their final two games — road losses to Vanderbilt and Louisville, respectively — by a ratio greater than 5 to 1 (85 points for the Commodores and Cardinals to just 17 for the Cats).
The Wildcats hope Stein ensures bowl trips are back on an annual basis. But the fan base yearns for more: Working into College Football Playoff contention, much like football also-rans Indiana and Vandy have done in 2025.
With all that in mind, here are two pros, and cons, of Stein’s hire:
Pro: Will Stein is an offensive savant
Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Will Stein throws during practice with the Oregon Ducks Saturday, April 6, 2024 at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in Eugene, Ore.
Points weren’t easy to come by for Kentucky the past two seasons under offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.
Advertisement
In 18 games versus power-conference competition — 16 SEC contests, plus two Governor’s Cup matchups versus Louisville — during that span, UK’s offense scored more than two touchdowns just two times (Tennessee and Florida this fall). The Wildcats never reached that threshold in 2024. And that drought lasted through the first four power-conference tilts in 2025 — a run of 13 straight games — before Kentucky’s offense posted five touchdowns in a 56-34 home loss to UT on Oct. 25. The Wildcats matched that tally two weeks later in a 38-7 romp over the Gators at Kroger Field.
Points have been as easy as breathing for Oregon in its three seasons under Stein’s direction.
The Ducks took national runner-up honors in scoring offense and total offense in 2023, Stein’s debut season. Last year, they were among the top 25 in the FBS in both areas. That hasn’t changed this fall, as the Ducks are scoring an average of 38.2 points (ninth nationally) and tallying 465.2 yards (No. 13 in the country) per game.
That’s not all.
Advertisement
He’s molded his past two starting quarterbacks, Dillon Gabriel and Bo Nix, into NFL draft picks. His current QB1, Dante Moore, is just a third-year sophomore. But he’s well on his way to being a pro as well. Perhaps as soon as next season. In an article posted by ESPN.com last week, NFL draft analyst Matt Miller cited Moore as a prospect to watch.
“Moore’s 2026 plans are not known at this time — he is a third-year sophomore and still has college eligibility — but the talk of him being a top-five pick should he enter this class is heating up,” Miller wrote.
That type of QB development should be music to the ears of a rising third-year sophomore — Cutter Boley. Should Boley choose to return to Lexington next season to play for a new staff, Stein’s history has shown he will help his fellow Kentucky native improve in leaps and bounds.
Con: He’s never been a head coach. At any level.
Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, left, former Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti and former Oregon coach Rich Brooks talk before the game as the Fighting Ducks face off against Mighty Oregon in the Oregon Ducks spring game on April 26, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.
Some might not view this as a mark against Stein. His predecessor, after all, hadn’t been a head coach, either, before UK whisked him away from Florida State in November 2012.
Advertisement
The biggest difference: Stoops had far more experience at that point.
Stoops was 45 at the time of his hire; Stein just turned 36 barely a month ago.
The other primary divergence between the two is that Stoops knew what true greatness looked like. He was the defensive backs coach for Miami’s 2001 national championship squad. A team always mentioned when the topic of “greatest college football team of all-time” is discussed. It’s not simply that the Hurricanes had overwhelming talent on the field. It extended to the coaches’ offices, too.
Look at Miami’s assistant coaches that season. Of the nine assistants, nearly half went on to become head coaches. That group: Stoops, then-defensive coordinator Randy Shannon (later became the Hurricanes’ coach), then-offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski (later the Cleveland Browns’ coach) and then-receivers coach Curtis Johnson (later hired as Tulane’s coach).
Advertisement
That’s an assistant-to-future-head-coach hit rate of 44%.
If Stein is able to hire a staff that produces head coaches at even half that percentage, he’ll have done well for himself.
Pro: Will Stein has a genuine love for UK
New Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Will Stein leads a drill on the first practice of spring for Oregon football as the Ducks prepare for the 2023 season. Eug 031623 Uo Spring Fb 15
Is a fervor for the place that hired you the most important attribute for a coach to possess? Not even close. A coach can care about a university to the ends of the earth, but that passion won’t save their job if they don’t win enough games.
Still, it never hurts to employ a coach who wants to set down roots. Who doesn’t view a job as a steppingstone. In that sense, Stein’s hire brings to mind that of Mark Pope on the basketball side; it defies logic to believe Pope would ever willingly leave UK for another gig.
Advertisement
From afar, Stein seems cut from the same cloth.
He attended countless Kentucky football games with his season-ticket-holding family as a kid. The program proudly touted his fan credentials in its offical release, noting “he grew up watching the Wildcats in the then-Commonwealth Stadium, section 128, row 13 to be exact.”
Don’t expect to see Stein’s name pop up for other jobs every time the coaching carousel begins to spin each year.
That’s peace of mind money can’t buy.
Con: Will Stein is a good recruiter. Not an elite one. (Yet.)
Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein jokes on the sidelines during the Spring Game at Autzen Stadium.
First things first: In the age of the transfer portal, high school recruiting isn’t the be-all, end-all endeavor it once was. Still, any coach would readily admit they’d rather sign a player out of high school and keep him in a system for multiple years — reaping the rewards that come from that continuity — as opposed to having to dip into the transfer portal every offseason, in search of what often are one-year rentals.
Advertisement
It’s this area where there’s the most glaring gap between Stein and the other candidate in the running for the UK job, Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline.
Per 247Sports, Stein has been the primary recruiter for a quartet of four-star prospects. Hartline has served as the primary recruiter for twice that many five-star receivers. (In addition to being a secondary recruiter for two more non-wideout five stars.)
Adding a talent-savvy general manager will be crucial for Stein.
Making sure at least one of his assistant coaches is an ace recruiter, a la the role Vince Marrow served in for a dozen seasons under Stoops, wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.
Advertisement
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Will Stein, new Kentucky football coach, brings pros and questions
