New Kentucky Coaching Staff Takes Atypical Collaborative Approach

Will Stein is modernizing the Kentucky football program. There are many facets to this, ranging from fundraising to new technology in the weight room, but that wasn’t the first big change BBN noticed.

In his first act as the Kentucky head coach, Stein hired Pat Biondo to be his general manager. Then he proceeded to hire approximately 75 other people to join his coaching staff. Okay, that’s a bit of a hyperbole. The actual number is somewhere around 30, but still, that’s a lot of coaches. Why so many?

Kentucky has five offensive linemen, but one man cannot watch all five positions at the same time. Ideally, there is a coach or a graduate assistant for every position.

Here’s the wrinkle that may surprise you. Even though it feels hyper-specialized, these assistants are not restricted to only coaching their specific position.

“The cool thing about what Coach Stein does is we coach everybody,” Justin Burke told Alan Cutler. “I’m the tight end coach, but I can go over to any of those offensive linemen, any of the defensive linemen, and nobody has any problem with us coaching those guys, too. I think that’s the connection that Coach Stein is really embracing with our program and our guys. They just all want to get so much better.”

Justin Burke is the tight ends coach, but a year ago, he was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at UTSA. He’s one of a handful of assistants with play-calling experience. Stein, the youngest coach in the SEC, is putting that experience to good use.

One way to make the most out of each coach’s perspective is by putting them all in the same room together to watch film. As an offensive play-caller, he can learn lessons from Jay Bateman when the defensive coordinator shares which calls really put stress on the defense.

“We’re not hiding things from each other. We’re all on the same team,” Stein recently told Seth Howard. “I think a lot of times in college football, because of egos, because of guys, and really the head coach not allowing freedom of thought, or camaraderie, or brotherhood, or connection, that it can be offense versus defense. That is the direct opposite here. This is one team. So we’ve all got to be on the same page, number one.”

“I also think it creates connection within your staff, and also the ability to just learn from each other, I think is huge. I learned more from Tosh Lupoi over the last three seasons, and Dan (Lanning), because I am literally sitting right next to them, watching the tape.”

The No. 1 DNA-trait of Stein’s Kentucky football program is connection. It isn’t just communication between the players before the snap. He needs the coaches to collaborate to put the players in the best position to succeed on Saturdays.