Stein, Cats Working on Daily Growth
Kentucky head coach Will Stein has been on the job for about eight months now and he admits that he’s learning every day. The one thing that Stein knows for sure is that he has surrounded himself with really good coaches and personnel, who are helping Stein and the Cats to develop their own system.
“I just literally try to trust our process, trust our coaches, trust the opinions of Pete Nochta and Josh Prewitt and Jay Bateman, Joe Sloan and Parker Fleming, the guys in these higher roles,” Stein said. “I can go to Jay and say hey, how did (Mike) Elko handle this at (Texas) A&M? What was the practice schedule? Or, hey Joe, what would Skip Holtz do here? Or I’ll call Dan (Lanning) and just use those guys because they’re very knowledgeable. They’re very smart, they’re high character, they have really great opinions on things. And I just use my people.”
Stein knows that there will be adjustments as he goes through his first season as a head coach. And he’s already had to switch things up early in fall camp.
“We’ve already adjusted,” Stein said. “Not because of anything besides I want Mondays and Fridays to be really good and have a longer break in between practices. Like Monday was supposed to be an afternoon practice. I changed it to Monday morning and walk (through) in the afternoon so we can have a longer break between Monday morning and Tuesday in the heat. Then we’ll go Wednesday in the heat, and then we’ll have Thursday off and then Friday will be in the morning, then Saturday will be in the afternoon. So, I’m trying to give longer breaks in between practices.”
The UK head coach knows that the bottom line is for his Cats to get better every day.
“What I’m focused on is doing what’s best for the team,” Stein said. “We’ve got to work. We’ve got to get reps. We’ve got to run our plays. We’ve got to trust our systems. So, that’s the biggest focus, is daily improvement, daily growth.”
Stein also knows that it’s important for his players, his staff and himself, to learn from their mistakes.
“I tell the guys all the time, we’ve got to go to the doctor after games,” Stein said. “Same with coaches. I’m going to the doctor every single day. What did I do poorly? What can I do better? What critical mistakes did I make today that I can fix? And then move forward and not think about the past but literally be totally present.”
How has the first week of fall camp gone?
“I would say it’s been pretty smooth,” Stein said. “A lot of our setup was like spring, so I’m able to show film from spring and be like, hey, this is how this goes. We’ll walk it in the indoor in the mornings in terms of a new drill before we go out there and do it.”
Stein and his staff will continue to adapt and do what they can to make the Cats the best team they can be when the season gets underway.
