Stein Excited About Staff, Roster

New Kentucky head coach Will Stein has had a whirlwind of a month since being hired at UK. Stein spent more than a month working two jobs – his old job as offensive coordinator at Oregon, who was in the College Football Playoff, and his new job as head coach of the Cats.

Stein admits that he tried his best to give his full effort to both jobs, a seemingly impossible thing to do. And there was not a lot of sleep during that period of time.

“Not a lot of sleep. I mean, I have two kids that are 3 and 1, so that already takes off as a parent,” Stein said. “I’m in the College Football Playoff, I’m the head coach at Kentucky, so, yeah, there was not a lot of sleep going on. So, you just try to — if you can get to bed earlier, that’s probably the best. But that’s really not happening either. So, to answer your question, there was not a lot of sleep.”

Stein’s job in building the Kentucky roster was two-fold. First, he had to figure out which players to retain from the current roster.

“The first thing we did was to look at this current roster and who we really needed to dive in to make sure that stayed on this roster in the 2026 season,” Stein said. “It’s a bunch of film study, it’s doing our research, it’s seeing what type of person they are, do they fit the character that we want on our team. And then schematically are they what we look for in each position.”

Stein gave a lot of credit to new general manager Pat Biondo and assistant general manager Pete Nochta.

“So while I was at Oregon I was watching tape on our current team,” Stein said. “I also have Pat Biondo, who I think is the best GM in the country who has done a phenomenal job since arriving here in Lexington. And then adding Pete Nochta from Louisville as our Assistant GM. And those guys have really spearheaded building this roster along with me. And I like where we stand right now.”

While that process was going on, Stein and his staff were also building the roster through the transfer portal. A major point of emphasis was the offensive line, and Stein likes the additions that UK has made there.

“That was a major, major thing,” Stein said. “I mean, the teams that win in November, December, January, (are good) in the trenches. So, making sure that we are solidifying the offensive line was a major piece to this puzzle.”

Of course, quarterback is also a very important position for every team. Stein was able to add Notre Dame transfer Kenny Minchey Jr. Stein likes everything he has seen and heard about Minchey.

“Extremely accurate. He’s got great athleticism,” Stein said. “I think when you talk to him and you guys meet him, he is a phenomenal person, very smart. And, I mean, we did our background on him. Everybody we talked to, even guys on that staff felt like they still would have won 10 games with Kenny out there playing quarterback.”

Stein is settling in and is excited to be back in the Bluegrass.

“Obviously excited to be here, excited to finally have the blue and white on officially and don’t have to change colors at all,” he said. “Exciting times to be a Kentucky Wildcat.”