This Kool Aid Tastes Different

LEXINGTON- Unlike Men’s Basketball, hope doesn’t spring from eternal optimism surrounding the Kentucky Football program. In fact, some might call the word “hope” a curse word if you’ve watched enough Wildcat Football over the years. We’ve all been in this position before. Every offseason has the buzzwords that fill social media and newspapers weekly. Phrases like “new energy”, “culture change”, and dare I say it “explosive offense” are thrown around to get clicks up and hype fans up before the first ball is kicked off of the tee. Then, by the time the leaves turn color — so does the Big Blue Nation.

Photo: UK Athletics

You’re lying if you can’t say you’ve stood in the Kroger Field parking lot playing the “what if” or “if only this happened” game after a deflating loss.

That is the reason I’ve tried to stay away from drinking too much of the Will Stein Kool-Aid. But darn it, the man has me excited.

Not because he wins press conferences, not because he has knocked recruiting out of the park thus far, and not because he is promising a completely new offense. All of those things have been done here under the last administration. However, it is because for the first time he has Kentucky feeling like they are trying to evolve instead of just survive.

That’s a monumental difference.

For years, decades even — Kentucky’s identity was built around trying to control the clock and win ugly. The formula worked well for Mark Stoops, and fans owe him gratitude for it. But just like every other sport, College Football has changed.

First, it was the transfer portal. Then, it was NIL. Now, it is having a multi-layered offense. Both sides of the ball have become faster, quarterbacks have become even MORE valuable than they already were. Offense became the currency to win. Kentucky needed someone to embrace all of those things.

That is why Will Stein made sense when it came time to replace Mark Stoops.

Look at where the 36 year old ball coach came from. At Oregon, he coordinated one of the nation’s most explosive offenses under Dan Lanning all while developing Quarterback’s at a high level and consistently producing game-breaking plays on his side of the ball. Even before that, he created some high horsepower offenses at the University of Texas San Antonio. To me, the latter shows that he doesn’t necessarily ‘need’ blue-chip talent to win (although it will certainly help).

Photo: UK Athletics

As he takes the wheel of the ship at Kentucky, he isn’t trying to copy Oregon or any of his previous stops. He is trying to bring the best parts from those stops with him to Lexington.

When he arrived, I immediately was intrigued by his talk about the pace of practices. Even going as far as saying he practices how to practice. Players themselves that have stuck around even talk about how much quicker and efficiently everything moves around the new staff.  The practices have little-to-no standing around periods and are designed to build conditioning and urgency instead of simply trudging through a script.

Be honest with yourself, how many times have you watched Kentucky football and felt like they were kicking it up into second gear?

How many delay of game penalties?

How many times (under multiple coaches I might add) did it seem like it was illegal to snap the ball with anything over five seconds left on the play clock?

Now I’m not saying tempo is going to automatically put Kentucky in the win column. I am saying that it forces a program to play to win the game instead of playing not to lose.

To me, that’s refreshing.

Confidence isn’t arrogance if it’s backed by preparation.

Let’s go Feed the Studs, Coach.