Will Stein, a man of the people, is not only keeping the Louisville game -- but wants it moved back up

The shift to the nine-game SEC schedule is set to begin in 2026, setting up a historically difficult slate for Will Stein in his first season leading the Kentucky Wildcats. Youngstown State on September 5 and South Alabama on Sept. 26 are the only cupcakes you’ll find out of 12, with the Governor’s Cup waiting for the Cats and the Louisville Cardinals to put a bow on the year on November 28. Elsewhere, it’s varying levels of haymakers to the jaw within the best league in college football, starting with Alabama on Sept. 12.

Ready or not, here comes the competition, Coach Stein. Time to see what you’ve got — and that’s exactly the way he wants it, telling KSR back in March that it’s why he left his cushy post as the best play-caller in college football at Oregon to take on the grind of leading his own program in the SEC. There is no better way to challenge yourself as a coach.

“Quit being scared, Matt (Jones). If you’re scared, go to church, bro. Come on,” Stein said. “What are we supposed to do? You want me to call schools and say, ‘Hey, can you please not play us? I’m so scared.’ Golly, man. I signed up for it. This is the SEC. … We have good players and we have good coaches. So cut it loose, man. Don’t be scared. Cut it loose. Whatever happens, happens. I’m not being scared.”

He’s doubling down on that talk a few months later, confirming that Kentucky’s gauntlet of a conference schedule won’t impact how he sets up the rest of the slate, particularly when it comes to the rivalry battle Big Blue Nation holds near and dear to its heart. When the SEC moved to nine league games, Greg Sankey opted to force schools to schedule at least one additional high-quality non-conference foe from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Notre Dame each season, allowing the Governor’s Cup to survive between the Cats and Cards — but not specifically required, if Stein and the Wildcats wanted to do something else.

That something else won’t be happening, says the first-year coach. As a former Cardinal QB himself with skin in the game as a lifelong BBN member outside of his brief detour wearing the wrong colors, the in-state matchup means everything to him, and he’ll be keeping it right where it belongs on the schedule.

Those comments came in a Tuesday morning interview with Michael Bennett of Just The Cats.

UK head coach @CoachWillStein tells @justthecatradio that he never plans to drop the UofL series and wants to move it to the beginning of the season (where it belongs).

— T.J. Walker (@TJWalkerRadio) May 12, 2026

“There are nine conference games, plus Louisville,” he told Bennett … I love the game, why would you not? It’s the home-state rival, it gives people something to cheer about, regardless of what’s happening during the season.”

One change he does want to make, however? Move the game back to the beginning of the season, serving as a kickoff event with both teams at their healthiest and hungriest with everything to play for and all of the bragging rights on the line. It’s just not the same around Thanksgiving, which has been the case every year since 2014, with 11 straight November meetings.

Before that? 16 battles in September, out of 20, dating back to the series revival in 1994. The other four came at the end of August.

“I used to love it when we played it first,” he continued. “That’s what I would do, I would move it up to the opening weekend or early in the season. But you have to play it. If you don’t, that would be not good for the state of Kentucky as a whole.”

Louisville has won the last two Governor’s Cups by a combined score of 82-14, but before that, Kentucky won five straight with an average margin of victory of 25.8 points. The Cards won six of seven leading up to that marvelous run for the Cats, as the program transitioned into the Mark Stoops era. Stein saw two wins and two losses in red as a gunslinger under Steve Kragthorpe and Charlie Strong.

It’s time to flip that back toward the good guys in blue and white.