Will Stein left Peter Burns a voicemail about pickleball while Burns was co-hosting KSR

Earlier this month, Peter Burns and Chris Doering played pickleball with Will Stein and his wife, Darby, as part of an upcoming SEC Network series on the league’s new coaches. Stein is still thinking about that match, to the point that he called Burns while Burns was co-hosting KSR this morning to talk about it.

Stein was clearly listening to the show, texting Burns to ask why he and Matt Jones were talking about paint (Matt inherited a lot of it with his new house). Stein then called Burns not once, not twice, but three times in a row, ultimately leaving a voicemail when he didn’t pick up. Burns played it over the air, allowing Big Blue Nation to listen in on Stein’s pickleball pep talk.

“I know you’re doing KSR right now, which is cool. I appreciate that. Shoutout to all those guys, but I’m just trying to figure out if you’re actually practicing pickleball or if it’s just like a fun story for you to tell everybody, or are you just going out there and playing golf? Like, we all know you’re good at golf, but can you have a growth mindset and get good at pickleball?

“I’m trying to be the next great pickleball duo. You and me, we’re like Serena and Venus. We’re like Agassi and Sampras.”

Stein’s praise is even more impressive when you learn that the match was Burns’ first time playing pickleball. They had originally planned to go golfing, but bad weather forced them to take the action indoors to PKL Lexington. Chris Doering paired up with Darby, a former lacrosse player, while Burns teamed up with Stein. Instead of a friendly match, Burns and Doering quickly learned how competitive the Steins are, especially with each other.

“He is unbelievably competitive. [She is] like maybe two times more competitive than him. There was a point early where, when I’m telling you, that he overhand smashed it directly right into her grill. And I’m telling you, as soon as Will Stein did this to Darby, it was not, ‘Oh, sweetie, are you okay?’ He was like, ‘3-1. Your serve now.’ Like in her face, talking trash to his wife. And let me tell you, she talked incredible trash back.”

Will Stein left @PeterBurnsESPN a SPECIAL voicemail on @KSRTHESHOW today… 👀🔥

Plenty of motivation in this one. 😭 pic.twitter.com/QgB4jTioP4

— Mario A Maitland (@MarioMaitland_3) May 19, 2026

Burns and Stein won the first set and Darby and Doering the second, setting up a “war” for the third. We’ll have to wait until the series airs this summer to see who won it all, but Burns’ performance clearly stuck with Stein, who is already itching for their next match.

“We’ve got to get this thing rolling, so the next time you’re in town, or we’re together and we’ve got a pickleball match, you and me, we can play Darby, we can play whoever, but the only thing I want to keep doing is winning,” Stein said on the voicemail. “So, if you’re not about winning, Peter, then I might have to change my partner.

“But I believe in you. I believe in your mindset. You’re a growth mindset type of guy. You love Kentucky. You love Lexington. You love Kentucky more than you love LSU. That’s what you told me, at least. By our next. So, I’m fired up about our next encounter, man.”

Stein loves pickleball so much that when he heard Matt Jones, famously a pickleball hater, dissing the sport on the show, he texted Doering a message for him.

“By the way, the follow-up text here: ‘Tell Matt that’s a loser mentality, if he doesn’t like pickleball and has never played it before.’”

Challenge accepted. Matt agreed to play with Stein, Burns, and Doering the next time they’re all in Lexington. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen, but if Stein can get Matt Jones to play pickleball, there really may be nothing he can’t do.

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Will Stein taking notes from LSU’s booster events

Pickleball wasn’t the only takeaway from Burns’ trip to meet Stein. Burns came to Lexington from Baton Rouge, where he hosted a booster event for LSU. As he told Nick Roush last week, Burns said that Stein wanted to know everything he could about the event so he could host something similar at Kentucky.

“I think he looks at this as a gem that’s waiting to be found, is how I got it,” Burns said of Stein’s view of Kentucky Football. “I had just told him that I had just gotten back from a huge booster event with LSU. We took a couple of private planes down to a golf course with a bunch of their guys, and it was a great event. And he was enthralled with it.

“He goes, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what did you guys do?’ I said this, this, and this. And he’s like, ‘Oh, show me pictures.’ And we talked about it for a couple of moments. And then later the next day, he’s like, ‘Hey, can you send me all those pictures?’”

Stein’s clearly not afraid to think outside of the box, whether it comes to recruiting, fundraising, or marketing, which is why Burns believes he was the right hire for the Wildcats.

“You’re dealing with a new world of college athletics starting basically in 2022, 2023. So basically, everybody has basically learned over the last three years a new version of college football. Saban had to do it, and he’s like, boom, I’m out. Kirby’s learning it right now. [Curt] Cignetti has kind of mastered it.

“So it’s almost like a brand new, like a crash at a NASCAR event. It’s like, alright, we’re starting right now, 2023, this is football. I think that’s why it’s a breath of fresh air. Not that — man, I love [Mark] Stoops. I mean, Stoops, I got along well with him. I’ve always gotten along well with Mitch [Barnhart], but I think at some point, no matter what industry, it’s time for something new and fresh and outside of ideas.

“And that stuck me more than any of the competitiveness was how he’s like, ooh, I think we could do this, we could do this, we could do this. Like the brain was already churning about how he could do that for Kentucky football.”

Great stuff. You can hear it all on today’s podcast.