When Will Stein Knew Kenny Minchey Could be His QB at Kentucky

How successful will Kentucky be in Will Stein‘s first season as a head coach? The answer to that question depends on what you think about Kenny Minchey. If you don’t have a strong opinion on the Kentucky quarterback, it makes sense.

Big Blue Nation was closely monitoring Sam Leavitt‘s moves in the transfer portal when the Notre Dame quarterback committed to Kentucky. The abrupt announcement came about 24 hours after he committed to Nebraska. It felt like a big move by the new coaching staff, but why?

The tape on Minchey is limited. Over three years at Notre Dame, the former four-star quarterback attempted 29 passes in 104 total snaps. What can you actually learn from that? Will Stein liked what he saw.

“The biggest thing with successful quarterbacks, especially in college, is being able to throw on time and with accuracy into tight windows. Even though the games weren’t ‘gotta have it’ plays, must-have calls, you can still see somebody throw on time in a college environment, in a college pocket. When I saw that on tape, I knew this guy can process; he’s accurate,” the Kentucky head coach said recently.

We all know that Minchey received resounding endorsements from all of the coaches at Notre Dame, who believe they could have been just as successful if he had beaten out CJ Carr to be the starting quarterback. Even so, Minchey had to answer some of Stein’s questions in spring practice. Tthat’s exactly what happened.

“But you still don’t know. Then you get him in practice and see the operation. When I see a guy that can operate literally, meaning he can get the play in the helmet, communicate, it doesn’t look rigid, or he doesn’t know. It’s just clean. All right, we have something here.”

The most enlightening moment at Kentucky spring practice was actually an incompletion. Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman dialed up a blitz to one side of the line of scrimmage. Minchey flipped the protection, then the defense flipped the blitz. Minchey was able to react in time and change the protection once more before snapping the ball, then threw a pass from a clean pocket that was batted away near the sideline.

Will Stein takes a “players over plays” approach to play-calling. He wants to put his quarterbacks in a position to succeed. They just have to be able to operate efficiently. How good can Kenny Minchey be? We’ll be asking that until he takes the field, but we do know that he can make accurate throws on time within the system. That checks a lot of boxes.