Grading the hire: Will Stein offers Kentucky hope of fresh air
He may have been a Louisville Cardinal, but Will Stein grew up a "die-hard" Kentucky Wildcats fan . Now, the former Oregon offensive coordinator will lead the Wildcats football program after being hired to replace Mark Stoops .
Stoops was the all-time winningest coach at Kentucky, racking up 82 wins. He barely finished his career there above .500, going 82-80 in that span. Kentucky missed bowl games in consecutive years for the first time in 10 seasons, exacerbating the urgency to show Stoops the door.
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Here's how we grade the hire:
Grade: B
Going the hotshot offensive coordinator route makes sense for Kentucky when you consider realistic options. The Wildcats landed a coach who’ll need no introduction to Kentucky. Stein is a Louisville native who played for the Cardinals — but, hey, he says he grew up rooting for the Wildcats, so all good there.
Mark Stoops served up some of the best seasons in Kentucky football history, but those days were finished. With the program heading in reverse, Kentucky swallowed a $38 million buyout to pull the plug.
Stein, 36, shot up the ranks quickly. As recently as 2019, he was an assistant coach at a Texas high school. His fast rise speaks to his success and ability to impress.
At Oregon, Stein coordinated one of the nation’s best offenses the past three seasons. He won’t have the same caliber of athlete at Kentucky, but after the Wildcats consistently produced one of the SEC’s most meager offenses under Stoops, Stein offers hope of fresh air — and hope of success through the air. Perhaps with Stein, Kentucky finally will produce a quality quarterback, a position that’s plagued Kentucky for years.
Stein coached Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore at Oregon. That’s a heck of a run.
He’s shifting from a program awash with NIL resources to a basketball school, and Stoops persistently grumbled he didn’t receive enough financial support. This is one of the SEC’s toughest jobs, and it’s not getting any easier. The Wildcats were on a downward trend throughout the NIL era, but sometimes a new hire can galvanize more booster bucks.
Stein’s lack of head coaching experience makes him a bit of a gamble, but he’s a gamble worth taking for Kentucky. ― Blake Toppmeyer
Grade: C+
This typically isn't a recipe that works in the big, bad SEC: hiring a coach who has never led a program ― not even a high school program ― and expecting rare results.
Stein is one of the game's top young offensive minds. His offenses at UTSA and Oregon have been impressive, his development of quarterbacks just as proficient (hello, Frank Harris, Bo Nix, Dillion Gabriel, Dante Moore).
Maybe Kentucky simply wanted a drastic change from the crawl ball days of Mark Stoops, and frankly, who could blame athletic director Mitch Barnhart? Stoops did some phenomenal work at Kentucky, but so did Rich Brooks when his teams were throwing the ball all over the park in the 2000s.
The offense will certainly change for the better under Stein, but it's the defense he better not ignore. Want to know why UK was so consistent under Stoops? Because the defense could stop teams, and get off the field.
Stein must hire a top-level defensive coordinator, preferably one who knows has coached in the SEC and knows the landscape. ― Matt Hayes
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kentucky football hires Will Stein as head coach. Expert grades
