Kentucky-Alabama Postgame Quotes
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE
September 12, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Will Stein
Press Conference
Alabama 45, Kentucky 17
WILL STEIN: First, I want to thank our fans. They showed out. They showed up. They were Loud. They were energetic. And that was amazing. So, I apologize to our fans for the way that we finished. I know our guys are hurting. I thought we ,obviously, started off really good and got some momentum early and the first half was, you know, we are right in it and we are up at halftime, which was huge, we come out in the second half and, obviously, stalled on offense. Our defense had short fields pretty much the whole game. It’s hard to defend. I know their points, 45 to 17 the scoreboard says, which sucks. But when you are defending a short field virtually the entire half. And we were not converting on third downs, that was tough on our defense. Can’t turn the ball over. We obviously created some turnovers, which was a major emphasis in this game, so I was proud of the defense to do that. And we’ve got to protect the ball better on offense. Listen, the good thing, the positive is we are 1 and 1. We are not 12 games in, this is the second game of the year. We’ve got a lot to improve on, which is good. The tape will tell us completely where we are at and we’ve got an opportunity to get better this week and go into a hostile environment in College Station and go attack this week. With that, I will open it up.
Q Will, can you take us through your decision for the fake punt? Was that just a kind of a catch them off guard trying to ignite the offense, because at that point it was still 23 17?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, it was a one score game. Listen, you play to win the game. I know that’s the old Herm Edwards quote, I believe. But it’s true. You’ve got to be risky at times. You know, if it worked everybody would think it was great, if it didn’t, nobody thinks it’s great. It’s a decision that I made. I felt really good about that fake going into this game. We had the look that we wanted, and we didn’t get it. That was disappointing not to get. But I felt it could spark us on offense and keep us on the field. You know, we want really changing the field in special-teams as much as we would have hoped for. I felt like that was an opportunity to take advantage of what they showed.
Q Will, the stalling on the offense in the second half, was that due to the adjustments that Alabama was making, or did you guys just quit doing things you were doing in the first half?
WILL STEIN: We were running a lot of the same schemes. They were plugging backers pretty quickly. All of our pin pull schemes were a little bit problematic. They had a TFL on one of those with just a backer plug. So whenever you pull people, those are tough to pick up. I thought they did a nice job against our duo schemes later in the second half. Yeah, you know, we’ve got to find ways to get the ball on the perimeter to some players and some space to help free up our offensive line. It was good in the first half. We just have to be able to adjust better in the second.
Q Can you just talk about what you saw from Kenney in his first SEC start?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, I think he did some nice things. Obviously, the ball was an issue. The interception, he’s got to take care of the football. And then obviously, he got sack fumbled as well. Listen, the kid competed. He’s our guy. We are going to ride with him no matter what. He’s an elite competitor. He’s really smart. And there will be plenty to learn from this tape.
Q Will, what did you see from the pass protection? It never seemed like he was really comfortable back there. He felt under duress most of the game.
WILL STEIN: Yeah, they had some good edge rushers and there was some duress. We scored on a movement pass to get him on the edge a couple of other times. Yeah, I mean you try to get in 7, 8 man protection and when they are uncovering 2 and dropping out it’s hard to get checked down opportunities. 5 out is usually a good answer to drop coverage or them playing shell and taking away deep shots and playing a lot of guys underneath. You want to flood their zones. But when you have a tough time in pass protection, that’s obviously an issue too. So, it will be something that we will look at and get corrected.
Q Will, other than the fact that Alabama is good, is there any consistent issue on the third downs? How much of it was just not getting the yards on the first and second downs?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, first down efficiency is huge to get yourself in favorable third downs. It’s hard to convert third and nines, I don’t care who you are, what level of football or who you are going against. It’s just tough to convert long downs. You know, first down efficiencies is huge. We did some nice things early on with some conversions, but obviously not enough.
Q Russell was as good as advertised. It looked like he got more comfortable as the game went along. What were you guys doing that contained him in the first half and what did you not do that allow him to get that kind of play?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, we were attacking his ball security early on and created some takeaways, which was good and then caged him in the pocket and a few times in the second half he got loose and made some plays on the field. So he’s a good player and it will be something that we will try to correct.
Q How do you ensure that the air doesn’t come out of the balloon moving forward?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, it’s the second game, it really sucks. It hurts. It hurt for our team, number one. It hurt for our fans, number two. Especially how they turned out and really showed up for our team. Our players are hurting. Listen, sometimes you need kind of a, I don’t know, shock to the system per se, to figure out some stuff. That’s not just players, that’s coaches, that’s everybody. I know our guys will respond because they done it this entire time that we’ve been here. And this isn’t just conditional coaching. This is unconditional. We are going to show up tomorrow and figure out what we need to do to improve.
Q Will, obviously, mention the short fields in the second half. How do you feel about the defensive playing over all?
WILL STEIN: I thought those guys strained. To turn them over, was it three times? That was really impressive. And again, when you are defending 40 yards consistently, man, you just wear down and so we didn’t do a good enough job helping our defense out. The offense didn’t. And we weren’t changing the field as much on special-teams as I would have hoped. So, you could easily look at the statistics and say, well, they scored 45, they deserve to win the day. We didn’t play good enough. I thought those guys played good football, especially the first three quarters.
Q Will, in kind of the bigger picture of building the program how you wanted and playing against ranked teams like this. Was there anything that you observe today or in the process leading up to today that you were like, this is the way that we have to do it in order to compete at this level?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, the way that we practice, the way that we plan, the way that we do everything is what I know as a championship level standard. We are not going to change just based on one result. We really trust our process and how we go about things. This is a great learning lesson for all of us. You know, credit to Coach Deboer and his entire team. That guy wins everywhere he goes. You know, Alabama has really created a standard in this league of excellence. So that is what we are striving for.
Q Coach, can you talk about just the process of forgetting about this one and moving back to square one?
WILL STEIN: The first thing we’ve got to do is watch the tape and evaluate everything that just happened. Luck I’ve told you guys, we will go to the doctor and figure it out and create a good plan for this week of practice leading into, obviously, another hostile and really good opponent in Texas A&M.
Q Coach, you had about 20 targets to Kenny Darby and Willie Rodriguez. Was that what was going on in the game, or was that part of the plan?
WILL STEIN: Well, they are a big cover 2 outfit, what does that look like, really cloud on the outside, doubling the outside receivers with different variations of cover too. So you’ve got to really work in the middle of the field or the intermediate passing game. And then they play three deep zone in all corners. And so, we tried to take advantage of some man-to-man opportunities on some shots and didn’t get those thrown and caught. Yeah, so our slot receiver and appetite end ended up getting more targets.
Q One of the biggest positives out there was just the pass rush, it seemed like you guys were getting a lot of pressure on rushing, do you agree?
WILL STEIN: They were, yeah. You look at the scoreboard at halftime and it was 17-13, I believe. We were feeling really good going back out in the second half and we ended up holding them to a field goal on their first drive, which was huge. And then we just stalled on offense, which was disappointing. Again, it’s not for a lack of our players versus theirs. I think it was just some execution errors. When you get in third down opportunities and you don’t convert and you punt it back to a really good offense and wear down your defense. It kind of just took a little spin there. They caught momentum, we lost momentum, and it turned out with this result.
Q The bar has been set pretty high for this so long. How do you think they played, your general assessment?
WILL STEIN: I think, listen, our line has got what I believe is about 5 guys that are going to play in the NFL. I really firmly believe they are one of the best in the country. Might not have shown it statistically today. There are some things that we have to improve on as a whole. You know, when you have sack yards that are included in rushing yards, it obviously goes backwards. We’ve got to improve that. Cannot get the quarterback hit. We got to protect the football to give our guys better opportunities.
Q Will, what was the moment like when you come out and you see, just running out. Just that kind of show you what, I mean, give you hope of what you can build?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, I know we can build it, I know it’s a process. I know we have a good team right now. I know we can go disrupt people in this league. And I know we have the players and the coaching staff to get stuff done. So, again, it’s one game. It sucks, especially being at home with an elite crowd and BBN showing up. Yeah. So we will do a better job and put on a better show the next time we are here in town. Thank you.
KENTUCKY FOOTBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. ALABAMA
KROGER FIELD – LEXINGTON, KY.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2026
UK Student-Athletes
#81 Willie Rodriguez, TE
On preventing discouragement after a loss …
“I think we know what we have. We have the pieces. It’s not like we don’t have a good team or great coaches. It’s just mainly second half. Few things happened, we didn’t respond well. I think we have a great team, and I think we’re going to go back to work.”
On the atmosphere of the game …
“Yeah, I think it’s awesome. I think the fans were great today, and I think we are building something great. I would encourage everybody to come back and we’re going to keep working.”
On most catches by tight end since Jacob Tamme in 2007 …
“I think it’s awesome. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m willing to do whatever it is to win. I just want to win. Whatever he calls, I’m just going to do whatever he does to win.”
#14 Ty Bryant, DB
On what he thought changed in the second half …
“I don’t know, I just think that we did punch them in the mouth in the first half. We just got to sustain that with the new guys on the roster. I think that also comes with chemistry, and just knowing what to do and how to push through adversity, and we’re going to be alright.”
On what was working well for defense at the start of the game …
“I just felt like we just had the momentum, and kept the momentum. Keith, that boy had a pick six on one of the first few drives of the game, and that was like okay cool that’s what we needed to spark up the crowd, spark up the sideline. I mean I think we just got the momentum early.”
On what the talk in the locker room was like during halftime …
“We just got to come out, a brand new ball game. Basically 0-0 and come out and punch them in the mouth. Like I said, like it was 0-0.”
On what the keys for next week’s game are …
“I mean the key is simple, we just got to play 60 minutes. Hard 60 minutes, like I said earlier, I feel like we show that we can keep up for the first half. Then the second half we just got to show that we can keep up as well. For the fan base, don’t give up on us.”
#90 Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace, DL
On the defense at the start of the game …
“We were just hungry. The crowd did a phenomenal job at making it difficult for them, and giving us that juice. So I think we were just hunting, just ready to get out there.”
On putting the loss behind and moving forward from there …
“It is extremely hard, but in this conference you know, we just bring it every week. “
On Coach Stein’s aggression on the fake punt …
“It’s our coach, we rally behind whatever it is. He’s behind us, so we’re gonna be behind him regardless of what it is. I was excited for it. We’re defense, that’s what we’re here to do.”
Alabama Head Coach Kalen DeBoer
Opening Statement:
“Far from a perfect game, but one of those games that I’m just really proud of the guys and just told them that, and it’s not indicative of the things that we have to clean up, but we faced a lot of resiliency in different ways. A lot of things, even the stuff you don’t expect to come up and losing coms even in the 3rd quarter from coordinator to quarterback, just about everything we had to face was thrown at us. I’m just really proud of the way the guys fought. I felt like at halftime it wasn’t this crazy energy that we had to have. It felt like it was kind of almost getting locked in, getting refocused, and just knowing the game was going to be ours. We just got to go and execute and the turnover battle, obviously that was a big part of the swing. First half, giving Kentucky a chance with the interception for a touchdown, obviously we got one back. That’s a huge part of what winning football is all about. So, Dan Hill getting 100 yards, I just saw that and that’s exciting. I want to mention Jireh Edwards, 19 days out of a broken arm post-op, going out there, getting a sack. We got a lot of tough players and that’s toughness physically and that’s toughness mentally. I think there’s some emotional maturity, we had some penalties, but it wasn’t anything as far as just foolish, late hits and things like that. So we’re going to get better as we keep playing and even just getting young guys out there on snaps, on offensively probably in particular. Getting those guys those reps, getting familiar with everything that’s because they’re being part of where we’re at right now, we’re only part into the season so, doing what we did and going into the 2nd half builds belief, builds trust. You have to go through those experiences to shape and build your team.”
On running the ball in the second half…
“I felt like the ability to run the ball was there, a couple outside runs that we took some negative plays on and he (Daniel Hill) even had the sacks, so we were behind the chains a lot. It kept us from being able to find a groove. Sometimes Keelon (Keelon Russell) in an RPO game just needs to hand it off and let these guys wear them out. So, those are all learning experiences that we’re going to be able to watch film on and he can, from a management of the game. In those areas, he’s going to learn and we can do some things for him too. I mean, we’re taking needless pressures on sprintouts and you just got to block the edge. It’s not that hard so there’s some things that we get better at and again, there’s younger guys that are going to learn from their mistakes because I know they’ll want to there and we got the athletes to do it. I got smart guys that will get it done.”
Alabama Student-Athletes
#7 Rico Scott, WR
On the hype around Kentucky vs. Alabama game…
“Seems a little repetitive. I feel like a lot of teams we play at least have something to say about us. Usually, it’s not positive. So, I’m kind of laughing about it, but we pay attention to it, this is what they’re saying and how they feel, so we just got to show them that it’s not what they think.”
On Kentucky’s defense in the first half…
“They were capitalizing on mistakes, which any good defense is gonna do, but I don’t think we got out there and were surprised by anything.”
On what was said during halftime…
“Just control, we control, do our job, because obviously, our defense has played great, in my opinion. But offensively, we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. And that was just the main focus, just, you know what I mean, making the defense earn it, not just giving them anything.”
