Kentucky Football Media Day Press Conference
University of Kentucky Football Media Conference
Monday, August 3, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Will Stein
Press Conference
Opening Statement
WILL STEIN: I got cleaned up, as you guys can see. Fall camp; got the picture day. I looked in the mirror, and I was like, I kind of do look like J Batt. It’s a weird resemblance. Maybe we were long lost brothers; I don’t know.
Glad everybody is here. First, we had an elite summer, really did. We attacked it. We went four weeks on, a week off for 4th of July, and then another four-week block leading up into right now.
I thought Brandon Roberts and his staff did an excellent job preparing for guys for practice. That really is what summer is all about is to prepare your mind, your body, your soul for football practice, and they did a really excellent job.
Fall camp is here. It is here, and it’s very exciting. As much as I love talking to everybody in this room, I am more excited about practicing football. It’s amazing how quickly the off-season evaporates and you snap your fingers and you’re right back into football mode.
Football camp is all about details and execution of our scheme. That really is where we’re building currently and where we will continue to build throughout the next 30 days or so until we play on September 5th.
It is also time to get into playing shape. Like I mentioned, summer is about getting ready for practice. Now fall camp, it’s execution details and then playing ourselves into shape for that first contest.
There’s going to be a lot of competition out there. I know there was some talk about starting lineups and all that. There really is still no starters. We can project out where we feel like this team is going to be, but I want this team to be as competitive as possible from top down with the roster.
Why? Because we have to have strength in numbers. That, to me, is a key component to play winning football, especially in October and November where championships happen, is to have strength in numbers and to have winning football for multiple positions.
Our process really is our winning edge. When you think about what we do as a program, what separates us from others is our process, how we practice, how we meet, how we recover, how we eat, sleep, plan as a coach. All those are what I am going to double down on, and I’m not going to stop. The process is what makes us different and really excited about that.
As we get into fall camp, there’s a few players that I just want to note because I know I’ll be asked on it, just guys that initially will not be involved in practice and then are getting back. Nic Anderson is working back into full-speed work, had a really good summer. Jovantae Barnes as well. Jaden Smith is in that same category. Sam Greene to me is looking great. Expecting him to be a factor for us on defense this year. And then Tegra (Tshabola) had a minor procedure; he’ll be back within the next week or so.
So nothing that is a major season-ending setback, but I just wanted to point those guys out because I know everybody in this room will probably be at our practice on Thursday, and wanted to give you guys a little bit before you even get out there.
But very excited, obviously, about the opportunity to go out there with this 2026 Kentucky Wildcat football team. With that, I’ll just open it up.
This latest court decision in Colorado on Friday, are you all looking at any fifth-year guys at this point?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, we are looking to enhance our roster all the time, through high school recruiting, portal recruiting, junior college. If there’s a five-for-five option that we believe can make us better, we’re going to attack it full force.
I think it’s still a wait-and-see. People are not quick to act just because it’s something that’s reported on Twitter, and there are some judges that are ruling in favor of student-athletes getting their fifth year back. But anytime that we can enhance our roster, I’m going to be full steam ahead.
Speaking of enhancing the roster, you recently added a couple of JuCo running backs. Can you talk about the reasoning behind that, what you liked about them, and what the state of the running backs room is?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, it’s kind of what I just mentioned about having strength in numbers. Last season at Oregon we went through and played about six running backs. I love two-back sets. I love the ability to use those guys out of the backfield.
Both those players, if they would have been able to come out in January, would have had a multitude of offers throughout the entire country. I think they’re both really good players. They’re young, and they’ve got a bright future ahead. We wanted to exhaust everything that we can to keep enhancing this roster, regardless of availability of players. I thought those two could make us better.
You’ve had a lot of attention with your “because of me” comment at the media days. Were you surprised by that, and are you glad that that kind of was the headline across the country?
WILL STEIN: I mean, I’m not surprised about the attention. It was a statement that — I still think what I was able to see from a winning standpoint at Oregon, what I’ve been a part of my entire life, and then when you couple that with the coaches I was able to add to this first year at Kentucky, the players we were able to add, that to me is our winning edge.
But I’m not necessarily surprised that it got that type of attention. I know more than anything it’s about the people in our organization, and that’s really important to me, more than me.
You had a change in your front office last week. Did you anticipate that move at all, and why the decision to quickly promote Pete?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, I’ve known Pete (Nochta) since I was 18 years old. He’s a Lexington guy, born and bred, dad played here, dad was a high school principal in Lexington, and Pete is somebody when I initially got here, he was one of my first calls.
Pete could be a GM across all of college football. He’s very smart. He’s extremely well organized, and he played football. I think that’s really important at the GM role. It’s not a necessity, but when you play the game, when you’ve coached the game at a high level, he was a quick move up. And so just like anything in life, the sun rose the next day, and we put our best foot forward to continue to make Kentucky football the best we possibly can. Really excited about Pete and his opportunity and building our personnel department even more now.
Did you decide a full-time position for Martels Carter? Is he going to be a running back?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, he’ll be at running back.
You guys had success at the quarterback position everywhere you’ve been since being an offensive coordinator. What attributes do you think Kenny Minchey has that fit so well into your offense?
WILL STEIN: Well, just tangibles, he’s really accurate. He throws on time. He’s got great feet, and he’s mobile. I think those are critical factors in successful quarterbacks in today’s modern football. Intangibles, loves the game, high football IQ, great leader. I’m excited about Kenny and what he’s going to be able to do for us this season.
It’s obviously his first opportunity, so will there be hiccups? I’m sure there will. There’s opportunities to improve after every single game, not just from a player’s perspective but from a coach and game manager’s perspective like I’ll be doing.
He’s got all the support in the world from his teammates and from his coaches, and excited about his opportunity.
When you look at your quarterbacks, are you more curious about what they do really well in growing that or how they react when things go wrong?
WILL STEIN: I think it’s all-encompassing. We obviously want to run the schemes and the plays that fit them, but whenever you fail, there’s an opportunity for growth. Not just at the quarterback position but every position.
On Sundays after games, we’ll what we call go to the doctor and figure out what we did well, what we didn’t do well and act accordingly to improve our program in all facets.
I think you’ve got to put them in all those positions that you can. You obviously don’t want them to fail in games, but some of the biggest learning moments happen within a stadium and not just out at practice. But we’ll put them in compromising positions throughout the week to make sure he’s ready to handle those moments on Saturdays.
Is there like NIL money and revenue share money available to bring more good players at this point?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, I think there’s always ways to combat that if we are given the opportunity. It’s just still early in that whole process. I think everybody is figuring it out across college football. I don’t think it’s as black and white as it might seem. I think there’s a lot of court rulings to still happen and injunctions and all those fancy words that I’m still trying to figure out what it all means.
Yeah, we’ll attack those issues when they arise.
We’re about a month out from you actually coaching a game. Will there be nerves, reflection? It’s like your whole life has led you up to this moment.
WILL STEIN: Yeah, I have butterflies before every game, even at my last — I don’t know how many stops I’ve been. I think that’s just human nature. It’s not nervous energy because of being unprepared or doubts or fear. It’s just the anxiety of getting that ball kicked and starting to play a football game. Once you get in the moment, you want to be so laser focused that you’re not worried about external factors that ultimately don’t matter like nostalgia or love of this program. You just have a job to do and that’s what’s most important.
Will there be emotions as I run out? As of now I haven’t even tried to think about that. I’ve thought about what I’m doing today to get ourselves in a better position than I was yesterday, but I’m sure there will be some of those.
As a former player at Kentucky, how are you ensuring 100 percent buy-in and not just compliance from your team?
WILL STEIN: I’ve talked about this a lot. It’s about connection; that’s number one. You have to know the guys next to you. In the day and age of college football where we added 45 new players, you have to start there with I know the man to my left and right’s story. I know where they’re from. I know the people in their story. I know the adversity that’s hit in their story. I know great moments in their life, bad moments in their life.
I feel like we’ve got through a lot together in our seven months and there will be plenty more moments for us to go through things together.
But connected teams are tough to beat. I think that buy-in to each other is where it all starts.
With all the new players on your roster, given how quickly teams across the country with those vast majority of new players have played for championships, is the word championship when it comes to the SEC talked about within your program this year?
WILL STEIN: No, we just talk about our process. We just talk about what we have to do every single day to be our very best and let the results speak for themselves. So we’re still trying to master that, and we’ll have to re-teach some things as we start practice because it’s been a little bit since we’ve been out there with helmets and eventually shoulder pads and full gear, how to stay up, how to stay off the quarterback, how to run from drill to drill.
But my hope is that throughout the last eight weeks in summer that we’re prepared for practice and that we can go out there and play our best football early in the year.
But we don’t necessarily talk about that. It’s not that it’s just a hidden message. We obviously have goals and aspirations, but you have to master the mundane, the little things every single day to even give yourself a chance at those moments.
Are there other quarterback options at this point?
WILL STEIN: I feel good. I feel who we’ve added to the roster and being able to get Callum (Wither) in there and Matt (Ponatoski) and Brennen (Ward) and JacQai (Long), I think it’s going to be a battle. There’s been nothing given in that room, so we’re excited about those guys to go out there and compete.
You probably knew more about the program than most new coaches coming in, but having been here, I’m sure you’ve seen different things. Is there anything that’s been maybe more positive than you thought it would be or is more of a challenge than you thought it would be at Kentucky specifically?
WILL STEIN: That’s a good question. You don’t understand completely how much everybody cares about football until you get here, and everywhere I go people are so excited about Kentucky football. That to me was very exciting, especially coming from where I was just at and then previously coaching in the state of Texas where football really is religion. So that’s been very positive.
The support from our fans has been incredible. That’s something I guess I knew, but when you get in this chair, like wow, I’m across the country, I’m traveling, whether it’s for recruiting or just even the last couple weeks with my family, and I mentioned this recently, that I was in Key West and the guy behind the counter was giving me a rental car, was a Kentucky grad and was excited about Kentucky football and then gave me a blue minivan to drive around the Keys. Not that it’s surprising, but it’s just reassuring that I’m in the right spot.
You obviously have a lot of guys on your staff who don’t have a background at Kentucky. Is this transition weird for those guys?
WILL STEIN: No, this is our profession. This is what we do for a living. Ultimately, wherever you coach, wherever you go, in our mind you’re so engrained in that team and what it takes to win because this is how we feed our families. The alliance is 150,000 percent to the University of Kentucky because it keeps our lights on and it keeps our kids fed and allows us to send our kids to good schools and allows our wives to be happy.
That’s what I think all of our guys on our staff are all about.
Just for you, what has been one thing you want to see? What do you want to see from your team?
WILL STEIN: That’s a good question. Like I said before, can we learn how to not beat ourselves before the play, meaning can we align properly out of the huddle or in a tempo situation. Can our defense get lined up. That is huge. I know that seems like elementary and little league, but that has to happen. We have to be masters of the details.
You have a winter, walk, you have spring football, you have summer, now we’re into fall camp. Like I mentioned, this is the fourth time through our install. Our guys now need to be ahead of the curve where we’re not teaching basic alignment. I want to make sure that is as important as how we take the field, as our execution and detail of offense, defense and special teams.
You dad played here. How much do you lean on him for support and advice going into the season?
WILL STEIN: I mean, he’s always very supportive. He doesn’t ever try to call a play or tell me what to do. He’s just there for support, like you just asked.
It’s obviously very exciting because of his ties to this university and his former teammates, but he’s just a dad and he’s been there way forever.
Jay Bateman was able to do some really good things over at Texas A&M specifically with the safeties. How much is it to have guys like Ty and Jordan leading the way? And talk about their skill set and how they complement each other?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, both are outstanding football players that have played thousands of snaps in this conference, Ty being an All-SEC performer last season. Jordan has played over 3,000 snaps in the SEC himself.
Yeah, our safeties are really good players. Jay does an excellent job with our entire defense. But even specifically with C-Y coaching the safeties who’s been with Jay before at a multitude of stops, so excited about all those guys, and our back end is strong.
You’ve embraced the challenge of an SEC schedule on multiple occasions, but it seemed like back in the day when your dad played, you’d play your non-conference games and work your way up to the SEC. Now you’re thrown in there really early. I know you can’t control it, but the calendar, the way it’s constructed, there’s little room for error.
WILL STEIN: Yeah, we have an in-state rival that you know the TV wants everybody to face at the end of the season, so like you mentioned, I think it probably used to be more non-conference and you’d just go right into your conference. But there’s still with the TV that is for sure out of my control, and I don’t know how many teams in the SEC have an in-state rival that’s out of conference, but we’re one of them. So that puts them at the end.
But you just control what you can, and they play we’re playing on September 5th at 1:00 against Youngstown State so I know I’ll be here for that game, and that’s all I can control right now.
How important is it to have the steadying presence of Coleton (Price) at center for what you’re going to do on offense?
WILL STEIN: Very important. Coleton Price is as good of a center as I’ve been around. We obviously haven’t gone through a game yet, but how he prepares, his mentality, his physicality, his athleticism, consistency, he’s a pro in every sense of the word. So I’m very thankful that we have Coleton because he really anchors that unit.
How much of this head coaching gig so far had you kind of scripted out in your head in advance or planned out, and what kind of audibles have you had up to this point?
WILL STEIN: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think you always have this vision and plan, but it definitely does change throughout the course of even a day. You have a schedule set, and then you’ve got to go patch this hole over here and patch this hole over here, but that’s what you sign up for. It’s not just calling plays or the football. It’s everything else.
I’ve already had to call audibles, and we’ve changed somewhat of how this fall camp is going to go based on our spring, based on our player load, stuff that we did with our sports science department that has given me some better direction with this current team.
So it’s different than what I learned, not entirely, but from what we did at Oregon last year during this time. We did four practices in a row last year, and I cut it to three because as you get to that fourth practice in a row, that’s when soft tissue happens, so we have adapted in that sense already, and then our model for practice is going to be three on, one off; two on, one off. So we’re going to keep that throughout fall camp. But I’m willing to adjust and adapt because that’s what you have to do as a coach. You can’t just say, we’re going to do it because this is how it’s always been. You have to see where your team is, meet them somewhere in the middle to still create toughness and get the reps that you need to go execute.
Did you come out of spring with anything — maybe not necessarily a concern but something that you thought had to be addressed real early in camp?
WILL STEIN: I mean, I don’t know. I think you still are trying to fight and see what happens throughout summer. I want to say there was like some major concern. Obviously backup quarterback we added somebody after the spring just because, like, I like having arms. I’ve been in situations where you don’t have a guy that’s necessarily ready to go into the game and then you look up and you’re in a bad position. So we added people there. We actually just — obviously you all asked about the running backs. We added spots there.
So there’s certain depth at certain positions that you look at. But there’s only one portal window now, so you can’t add people to the roster like you could a few years ago in May, which I like. I like one portal window. But there’s some depth at certain positions that you look at, you’re like, okay, can we hold up throughout the season, and that’s where I have to do a good job of how we practice to make sure that we’re in a good spot.
What are the expectations for DJ (Miller)?
WILL STEIN: My expectations for DJ is to turn the page. You’re not a young player anymore. Your job is to go out there and compete at the highest level of college football. He’s got the height, weight, speed. DJ’s biggest roadblock is himself. He’s got to go out there and perform, and that’s what I challenge him to do every single day is to be a pro. If you want to be a pro, you’ve got to act like it. You’ve got to be a guy that practices different than everybody else. You can’t be afraid to make mistakes. Go out there and cut it loose.
I’m really excited about him. He obviously has the ability. He’s got to continue to push himself to limits that he’s never been pushed.
That’s what fall camp is about for him, too, but my expectation for him is to go out there and be a guy for us.
You’ve talked about how excited the family is, talked about your situation in Key West. Obviously this being a foundation year for your program, what do you want the fan base to say at the end of the year? Obviously you want to win, but what do you want them to know and see about this team?
WILL STEIN: Just like every year in ball, I want them to see a team that gets better from week 1 to week 12, like truly improves, and that has been at every stop I’ve ever been. So this isn’t just based off of a projection that everybody is telling us how good we are or how not good we are. If you can get better literally every single day and every single week, that to me shows sustainability of a program, buy-in from the players, and it’s going to result in winning football.
That is what I want our fans to see more than anything, a team that gets better every single week, and then a team that just cuts it loose and plays with relentless effort and plays with one another.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
