By Collan McCoy – Sports Writer
After 13 years, almost to the day, Kentucky will have a football coach not named Mark Stoops. Stoops was relieved of his duties early Monday, Dec. 1, and the coaching search quickly started for the next man to lead the Wildcats.
While I originally planned for this article to be a comparison of Brian Hartline (Ohio State offensive coordinator) and Will Stein (Oregon offensive coordinator), it looks like the administration at UK beat me to the punch. Multiple reports indicate that Will Stein is the next head man for the blue and white. Stein, 36, will be the youngest head coach for the Wildcats since Fran Curci in 1973 and is set to become the SEC’s youngest head coach by five years.
Unless you are one of the few keeping up with message boards, private jets and general scuttlebutt, you probably find yourself asking the same question many of us have recently: Who is Will Stein?
Stein, 36, is a Louisville native, Trinity High School graduate and lifelong Kentucky fan. After graduating from Trinity in 2008, he earned a preferred walk-on spot at Louisville and served as the backup quarterback to Teddy Bridgewater.
Stein’s playing career is not what earned him the spot as the 38th head coach of the Wildcats. His meteoric rise from high school offensive coordinator in 2019 to playoff-bound Oregon offensive coordinator has been fascinating to watch.
His offensive philosophy of “feed the studs” is evident in his team rankings during his four years as a coordinator. At Oregon, his offenses ranked No. 1, No. 5 and No. 4 nationally in points per drive in 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively. This season, Oregon ranked No. 9 in yards per play and No. 14 nationally in yards per game.
The biggest edge candidate Brian Hartline had on Stein was recruiting ability. While Stein’s full recruiting ceiling is yet to be seen, Matt Ponatoski, 2026 UK quarterback commit and the No. 25 quarterback in his class out of Cincinnati, has posted positively about Stein since the news broke. It also helps that Oregon was Ponatoski’s second choice — and Stein was his lead recruiter.
If stats or recruiting don’t convince you that Stein is the right man for the job, let me make one final plea. In a world of Curt Cignettis and Clark Leas, it’s proven that schools like Kentucky have an opportunity they didn’t once have. Sometimes swinging for the fences results in a home run.
If I’m going to swing for the fences, I’m going to swing for the guy from Kentucky who grew up watching games in Commonwealth Stadium from his parents’ season tickets in Section 128, Row 13. I’m going with the guy whose offense averages 38.2 points per game and is about to coach his team into the playoffs. To go from the longest-tenured coach in the league to the youngest may be a gamble, but it’s one I’m willing to take for long-term success in the NIL era.
Tell us what you think below.
