WATCH: Will Stein’s Main Room Press Conference at SEC Media Days

Will Stein is a natural in media settings, exuding confidence in his introductory press conferences and interviews on KSR and every other radio show, podcast, and YouTube show under the sun. So, we knew he’d probably do well at his first SEC Media Days, but he exceeded even our expectations on the main stage, outlining his vision for Kentucky Football and why he’s the man to take the program to the next level. Stein spoke for just under 26 minutes, beginning by outlining his background as a Kentucky fan and the son of a former player, and his whirlwind first few months on the job as he juggled his responsibilities with Oregon in the College Football Playoff and building a new team in Lexington. That wasn’t easy, nor is the task ahead: winning in the SEC. Stein made it clear that he’s not only ready for that challenge, he also embraces it. When Adam Luckett asked why we should believe Stein is the man to make Kentucky a contender, he delivered the best line of Day 1. “This is going to sound like really… I think because of me, to be honest. I think ’cause of me. I think I know what it takes. I have seen it at the highest levels. I know what it takes to recruit at this level. You just got to believe, man. You just got to put the ball down and play. There’s really nothing else to be said.” Hit play below to hear more of Stein’s confidence, which we can’t get enough of. Keep the party going with his remarks in the Electronic Media room and from the scrum with local media. More SEC Media Days coverage is on the way on the KSR YouTube Channel. Subscribe today to see press conferences, interviews, Rapid Reaction, and more. Transcript THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the podium, University of Kentucky’s head football coach, Will Stein. WILL STEIN: First and foremost, thank you for the introduction. Commissioner has set the standard for service in this ever-changing landscape of college athletics. I do want to recognize my wife, acknowledge and thank her for her constant support of me throughout this wild profession and this wild life that we live. Without her, none of this is possible. There’s very little, if any, balance in college football and what we do. Her sacrifices allow me to live out my dream of coaching football for a living. So thank you. I love you. I also want to thank a few people back in Lexington. First is Mitch Barnhart. Mitch recently retired after 24 years of service to UK athletics. He’s a true legend and mentor. He built championship culture at UK. He’s also the man that brought me home, back to the Bluegrass, to live out a dream. I want to thank president Eli Capilouto for his university leadership and his vision towards the future. Susan Lax, right here up front, she’s my right hand. She’s our senior director of athletics, communications and public relations. 29 years with UK athletics. She’s been unbelievable to me. I’m very thankful for you, Susan, how you have been taking care of me over the last seven months. I’m excited about the opportunity to work with J Batt. He’s our new athletics director and CEO of Champions Blue. He’s going to do great things for Kentucky as college athletics continue to evolve. He’s going to drive revenue. I’m really excited about working alongside J. I’m thrilled to represent Big Blue Nation as head football coach. As a Kentucky native, a kid growing up going to Commonwealth Stadium to watch the Cats, this is truly a dream come true to me. I am BBN. For 18 years of my life growing up, I was a member of Big Blue Nation. My dad played at Kentucky, my mom is a graduate. To come back to the Bluegrass State, being a fan of Kentucky football, athletics, is truly surreal. These first 230 days have been a complete whirlwind. We’ve constructed a roster with 45 new players, and 41 of these players have started at least one game in college football. I had to hire a brand-new coaching staff and recruiting personnel department while also being the offensive coordinator at Oregon through a Playoff run. We built a brand-new $3 million weight room, state-of-the-art. We installed new schemes for our players. We taught them how to practice, how to meet. We put a really big emphasis on high school recruiting for this ’27 class and beyond. This is what I signed up for. It’s been fun navigating these waters. I’m very excited to compete in the Southeastern Conference. This is where the best players and coaches come to play football. All 16 have a top-20 hardest schedule per ESPN, all 16. They say that I’m the fourth hardest, okay? If you want to compete against the best, you come to the SEC. You just do. It’s the closest thing to the NFL. It’s proven. Almost every game comes down to thine last possession. Home-field advantage is real in this league. I love it. Along with me today I brought three outstanding players that represent our DNA of our team. First is junior tight end Willie Rodriguez, from Covington Catholic in Northern Kentucky. Really excited about his growth. This guy is an elite player. Think he’s got the ability to be one of the best tight ends in the country. He was one of the players from last year’s roster that we had to retain. No-brainer. He can do it all. He’ll be a feature player in our system. Off the field he’s committed to community service. He’s a frequent visitor to Golisano Children’s Hospital UK where he meets with kids in need, families in need, of sick children. Fantastic person and player. Has an extremely bright future. Secondly, we brought junior quarterback Kenny Minchey. Kenny is from just outside Nashville in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Went to Pope John Paul High School. Came to us from three years at Notre Dame. Really impressed with Kenny since he got here. He’s somebody that feels like he’s been in our system for a long time. Has elite processing skills, high football IQ, very accurate, has the athletic ability to make plays with his feet. He’s also natural leader. He’s got great poise, great communication skills. This will be his first starting job. He knows that, I know that, you all know that. I know he’s going to be ready because how he prepares in the classroom and on the field. Lastly but not least, senior safety Ty Bryant. Ty is a hometown kid from Lexington, Kentucky. Went to Frederick Douglass High School. Second Team All-SEC last season. Led the league with four picks while also making the dean’s list. Another player from last year’s team I had to keep. Do everything I can to keep Ty Bryant. He represents Kentucky football to the fullest. It is in his DNA. Natural leader. He’s almost like a coach on the field for us. Kind of fun fact, our dads played together at Kentucky. So I don’t know if that’s how young I am or that’s how old maybe Ty’s dad is. I don’t really know. Cisco, love him, glad that his son plays at Kentucky as well. Ty has a bright football future. When he’s done with football, hopefully he has a long career in the NFL. I’m sure he’ll be out there in media row working with media. I’m excited about this team. We laid a strong foundation. The DNA we’ve built within Kentucky football centers around connection. As a coaching staff, the first thing that I had to do, that we had to do, was develop a real connection with these players. A connected team is a dangerous team. They typically play the longest, the hardest, or hardest the longest. Our guys needed to get to know each other. They had to. They need to know their coaches had real investment in them as people. They needed to feel a coaching staff that actually likes coaching with each other. That’s huge. They needed to feel connection to Big Blue Nation, to our fans, see how passionate they are. We built a strong connection up to this point, and we will continue to grow together throughout the season. This is going to be a tough program. Football is the toughest game played by tough men. It’s physically demanding and mentally exhausting. Guess what, life is tough, too. The one thing I refuse to be is soft-minded. I understand, I’ve already accepted myself that there will be tough moments this season. There always are in every year that I’ve ever coached. Our response as a team will dictate the outcomes. I cannot wait to fight adversity with this group. Our process on the field also centers around accountability. Do your job. It takes all 11 being on the same page in all three phases for us to maximize success. We first have to learn to not beat ourselves as a team. That’s number one. That takes elite focus and preparation. So far our players have fun a great job learning our system, scheme, how we practice. That extends to the classroom, too. Something I’m proud of. Our players posted the highest GPA in program history this past thing. We’ve added 45 players. It’s my job as head coach to play for the name on the front of their jerseys. It’s a selfish world. Our players must understand and be fully invested in sacrificing personal glory for team success, to wear the blue and white is an honor. To represent the Commonwealth and Big Blue Nation is a privilege that our players and coaches will not take for granted. My coordinators, Joe Sloan, Jay Bateman, Parker Fleming, along with my head strength and conditioning coach, Brandon Roberts, have all done a phenomenal job of instilling these DNA traits into every single player. Kentucky football has a cast of new characters, including me. What happened in the past has zero to do with the future. Our players and coaches have worked extremely hard up to this point to put a team on the field that Big Blue Nation will be proud of. It’s my mission to create, develop and maintain championship-level standards at the University of Kentucky. Like I said in my opening press conference, when I was hired, I didn’t take the job to be closer to my family. I didn’t take the job because my dad played at UK. I took the job to win, and to win at championship levels. Our process has to be elite from top down for that to happen. There’s still tons of work ahead, but that’s where you really find out what you’re made of. We have 47 days until we kick off against a great opponent in Youngstown State. 1 p.m. in front of the best fans in college football. Inside Kroger Field. I’m excited, so excited, about the 2026 Kentucky Wildcats. With that I’ll open it up to questions. THE MODERATOR: If you have questions… Q. I’d like to know what did you learn at Lake Travis to prepare you for where you’re at today and what maybe you learned about University of Texas football and maybe Texas A&M? WILL STEIN: Yeah, I mean, one of the great joys in my life was spending two years with Hank Carter at Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas. It taught me how to call plays. I was put in a situation where they already won six titles I believe up to that point, a coaching staff that was veteraned, seasoned, knew what winning looked like. Took a young 28-year-old know-it-all offensive coordinator from the University of Texas into their staff. It taught me that you can be normal and still coach football. You can have a family and life outside of football, when you can. That brotherhood is still part of the coaching world that still exists. So I’m forever grateful for my time at Lake Travis. Obviously being a Texas high school football coach for two years, it truly is religion in that state. Coached at Texas for three seasons. Never got a chance to face off against Texas A&M, but we had our state tournament for seven-on-seven on A&M’s campus. I remember how giant their stadium was. Got nothing but respect for that state, the football that’s played in that state and specifically Lake Travis. Q. Being one of six total newcomers in the SEC, what separates you from the other new coaches in the conference? What is the best advice you got from Dan Lanning? WILL STEIN: I mean, I can’t speak on what anybody else is doing in our league. I’m focused on us as a team, a program, building this thing the right way. Dan is one of the most consistent people I’ve ever been around. He’s relentless in recruiting. He’s a phenomenal coach. He’s always growth mindset oriented. There’s a reason he’s been really successful because of those attributes. Q. A lot of people in college football look over at Indiana. They see a massive turnaround there. You can pick what you want to answer. Does it take having a Mark Cuban come dump a bunch of money into your program to get good real fast? What do you think the ingredients are to making that huge turnaround? WILL STEIN: I mean, there’s a lot of factors in winning and losing at this level. I can’t speak on Indiana specifically in terms of their processes or who they have backing them, how they recruit or coach. I do know facing them twice last year, they’re extremely disciplined. Coach Cignetti obviously has done a great job with the culture. They had the first overall pick playing quarterback for them. That helps. They had eight other guys drafted, maybe two other guys in the first round. You look back in the history of the winners of the national championship, they typically have the most guys drafted. Ohio State in ’24, faced them. I think they had about 16 guys. Michigan the year prior, about 16. Georgia the year prior, the most. When you have great players and you add a great culture and coaching staff and scheme, typically good results happen. Q. You had a couple transfers from Texas, CJ Baxter and Bo Barnes. Want your take on those two. WILL STEIN: I’m sure you know them personally, as well. Both phenomenal people, number one. I’m very impressed with CJ, just from a mentality standpoint, what he’s brought to our offense, a veteran leadership, a guy that’s played at a really high level. Obviously dealt with some injuries. Something I’m really excited. Running back is a core position on our team. The best teams I’ve been on have been able to run the football. So excited about him, what he brings not only on the field but off the field. Bo has crazy talent. He has the height, weight, speed for the position. It’s a matter of building him up, giving him belief he can go out there and play at a high level. Been very pleased with Jay Bateman, my defensive coordinator, what he’s been able to do with out backers. It’s a younger core, but I think very talented. Both have done a tremendous job so far, looking forward to see what they do for us this fall. Q. You’ve had a pretty massive upgrade in talent at the offensive line. You brought in a lot of players with a lot of starts at high-level football. What is your expectation for the offensive line this year? WILL STEIN: I mean, the expectation for every position group is to play really well. Very excited about them, very. The last three seasons I’ve been fortunate to have three elite offensive lines with draft picks and Joe Moore finalist. This group in particular is as talented as I’ve been around, all the way across the board. We did bring in guys with a lot of experience, height, physicality, size. The Big Blue Wall is something that is talked about constantly within our program. The legacy of Coach Schlarman, what he was able to do as a player and coach at Kentucky is on our walls, in our building. To be able to run the football when it matters in November when games are of the utmost importance, you have to have an offensive line. People talk about the quarterback play that I’ve been a part of the last really four seasons. But look at the O-lines that we’ve had. There’s a reason why there’s good quarterback play. Yes, those kids have played really well in the heat of the moment, but the offensive line has protected them, and we’ve been able to control the line of scrimmage running the football. Excited about Lance, Tegra, Coleton, Olaus, Malachi, Mark, Jordan, Max Anderson. We have a whole slew of guys up there that I think we can play winning football with. Q. You mentioned the running game, how important it is in your philosophy. Do you feel like it’s taken a backseat to passing game as a trend in college football, and are running backs slightly devalued in the NIL market? WILL STEIN: I definitely don’t think it’s taken a backseat. I mean, just got to watch who won it last year, right? Indiana’s running the ball in the championship game. It’s not like Fernando had some crazy stats. Miami has that big back, the big offensive line, controlling the line of scrimmage. I just go back to, like, what just happened. I think we have a narrative out there that everything’s about air yards, throwing as far as you can. It’s about first down success rate. You have to get first downs, have to, right? That is critical. Points per possession is huge. Are you scoring when you have the football? That’s huge. Turnover margin and explosive plays, right? Those things to me win and lose football games. Is the running back market devalued? I mean, the best ones in the country are making a ton of money. I think it’s like NFL. You got the Ezekiel Elliotts of the world when he was making a crazy deal. Jahmyr Gibbs, all these premier players in the league are getting paid. So are the running backs in college football. I had to have five running backs last year. We were able to run and throw the ball. That’s what I’m expecting to be able to do here at Kentucky, is control the line of scrimmage, run the football. Ultimately it gets cold, and quarterbacks and receivers get a little cold fingers. You have to be able to hand the ball off, call and haul a run, block it up, get four or five yards. You have to. Q. You said you came here because you believe you can win here. Why is that? Kentucky historically has fought against a narrative, perception. Why do you think you can win big here? WILL STEIN: This is going to sound like really… I think because of me, to be honest. I think ’cause of me. I think I know what it takes. I have seen it at the highest levels. I know what it takes to recruit at this level. You just got to believe, man. You just got to put the ball down and play. There’s really nothing else to be said. Is it going to happen overnight? I don’t know. I really don’t. If I had a crystal ball, everybody in this room would be really, really rich now. The best determination of what you’re doing is working is putting the ball down and playing football. There’s going to be bumps in the road. I mentioned it in the speech. I am prepared for tough moments and tough times. I’m succumbed to that in our process, right? I already do self-talk myself about how can I stay neutral. When stuff is bad, I can stay as neutral as possible and be very diplomatic in my approach. That’s why. Growing up a fan is great. It’s one thing. I know the players that we can get here. I know we can recruit north, south and east. People come to Lexington, and love it. The longer I live there, the more I am like, wow, this place is incredible. It’s got everything that you want. It’s great food, nightlife, community, university. It’s safe. Big Blue Nation. I takes some TLC. You have to go attack. You can’t sit back and wait. That’s one thing I refuse to do at Kentucky is to wait. I’m really excited about our administration, the direction that it’s going. Again, I said I was so fired up that Mitch brought me here. I’m also excited about what the future holds. That’s why I’m excited. That’s why I believe. Or else I wouldn’t have taken the job. I would have stayed at Oregon, coached Dante, stayed out there. Q. You talked about attacking early. You assembled a top-10 transfer portal class in your first month on the job. What kind of momentum does that do for you and your program? WILL STEIN: I mean, it definitely gives us momentum obviously for this current year. I was just really proud of our staff because, shoot, half that time during the portal I was still in Eugene coaching the Ducks, FaceTiming, Zooming, trying to get everything built. We did it with a minimal staff at that time. I mean, I think it shows that our process works in how we recruit, how we acquire talent, retain talent. It’s the lifeblood of our program. We won’t be anything without good players, I promise you that. The best teams I’ve ever been on have really good players. That’s what we have to do at Kentucky is bring the best of the best in here, go big game fishing, not sit back and wait for somebody to decide they want to go to Kentucky. Get them on campus four or five times, win over the parents, win the recruiting battle like we always had to do, then go close it when we need to. Q. I wanted you to speak to the quarterback room in particular, Kenny, where you think he is heading into the fall. WILL STEIN: I’m very excited about Kenny. Mentioned it, that it feels like he’s been in our system for a while. When we first started doing our walk-throughs, installing the offense, he just had great command and poise. That’s something as a coach, you can’t have an on-edge quarterback. Have to be very even-keeled. Very impressed with his football IQ, his intelligence, leadership, his poise. Ultimately the intangibles of playing the position, he’s very accurate. Very accurate. I don’t believe that we should be okay with less than 70% as a passer. I don’t. Will it happen? I’m sure it will. I’m sure somebody will call me out if it doesn’t happen this year for us. That is the standard. That’s the best in the country can throw for over 70%. When I look at him, looked at him in the transfer portal and recruiting, I saw a guy that can be that. It’s getting our play-makers the football, getting first downs, staying on the field, elite points per possession, let him go cut it loose. There’s going to be some ups and downs with me, first-time head coach. There will be some ups and downs with Kenny. That is part of the learning, the growth. We’ll go to the doctor after every game and figure out what went wrong, what did we do well, try to do what he does best on the football field. Q. You hired Joe Sloan this off-season. What strengths have you seen out of him and what are your expectations for his offense in year one? WILL STEIN: Joe is one of the best quarterback coaches I’ve ever been around. Joe and I would battle in recruiting for kids not only at Oregon, but we were both in Conference USA. He was at LA Tech, I was at USTA. I think he’s a phenomenal teacher, especially at the quarterback position. I’m talking about mechanics, quarterback reads, protections. I think he’s one of the best in the country. Elite communicator. Especially for a coordinator, communication is huge. Presence, confidence that he has. I’ve been very impressed with that. Then, I mean, the man can recruit. He can really recruit. He can move the needle. He seems to know everybody. He’s already part of the mayor of Chevy Chase in Lexington. I’m fired up he’s on our squad. We would talk ball probably the last three, four years in the off-season. We shared a lot of similar philosophical thoughts on offensive football. He’s excited to be at Kentucky, to help lead this offense. I’m really excited about Joe. THE MODERATOR: Coach Stein, thank you for your time. WILL STEIN: Thank y’all. Go Cats.