What Anonymous Coaches are Saying About Will Stein's Kentucky Football Team

Kentucky football fans are drinking Will Stein‘s Big Blue Kool-Aid. The new head coach is bringing one of the most explosive offensive schemes in college football to Lexington. He added proven players in the trenches and a talented quarterback from the transfer portal. Since spring practice has ended, the Cats continue to rack up high school recruiting wins.

It’s easy to buy into the Will Stein hype from inside Big Blue Nation. Are outsiders seeing it the same way?

Each year, Athlon Sports asks coaches to share candid opinions of other programs. They are granted the condition of anonymity, giving us a few more kernels of truth than normal coach-speak. Steven Lassan shared those remarks with Michael Bratton on That SEC Podcast, and at least one head coach is intrigued by what quarterback Kenny Minchey is bringing to the table.

“I haven’t seen a ton of [Kenny Minchey], but I’ve heard good things about him as an athlete and as a person. He clearly has legit talent, and those guys are hard to find.”

No other position can elevate a team’s ceiling like the quarterback. Stein has a proven track-record for developing quarterbacks into game-changing pros. If he can do it with Minchey, the Cats might surprise some teams around the SEC.

However, there’s one other thing we probably should consider. Stein didn’t just develop great quarterbacks at Oregon. The Ducks’ roster was loaded with talent. One anonymous coach questions how effective Stein will be without a clear talent advantage.

“With the talent base that (new head coach Will Stein) inherited, the only thing I wonder about is the fact that he had more talent than everybody else at Oregon for most of the games. It’ll be interesting to see him going from one of the haves to one of the have-nots and how that’s going to transition while still not losing your enthusiasm, your connection with the players and all of those kinds of things.”

It’s a fair question. It’s also worth asking, how big is the talent gap between Kentucky and its SEC foes? The recent record does not tell the full story. As Stein has said often, Kentucky was close to getting over the hump; the Cats just didn’t score enough points to upset teams like Texas or Georgia. It’s his job to change that and prove that there is enough talent in Lexington to win in the SEC.

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