A total of six SEC jobs have come open heading into conference championship weekend, and the last one to open also happened to be the quickest one to find their choice to fill the job.
Multiple reports have shared this evening that Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein is expected to be the choice to replace Mark Stoops at Kentucky.
Renowned for both his creativity and efficiency, Stein has helped to develop quarterbacks like Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel as well as Ducks current quarterback and former five-star recruit Dante Moore over the last three seasons with the program.
Widely regarded as one of the best offensive coordinators in the sport, both of Stein’s parents attended Kentucky and his dad was a standout linebacker for the program.
Born and raised a product of The Bluegrass State, Stein was not only born in Louisville, KY, but also played his college football at Louisville for the Cardinals from 2008 – 2012. As soon as his playing career ended, he joined the Louisville staff as a graduate assistant and then a quality control coach before following Charlie Strong to Texas in a quality control role.
He spent a few seasons at the high school level breaking in as a play caller at renowned Lake Travis HS (TX), where he also mentored quarterbacks and served as assistant head coach, before breaking back into major college football with the pass game coordinator and wide receivers job at UTSA under Jeff Traylor.
After two seasons in that role, Traylor elevated him to co-offensive coordinator and Stein also moved to quarterbacks before being poached away by Dan Lanning and Oregon to become the Ducks play caller in Eugene in 2023.
At Kentucky, he takes over for the Mark Stoops who was let go after 13 seasons and back-to-back seasons on no bowl games.
Critics of Stoops have pointed to the thin numbers in the win column the last few years, but there is no denying that he flipped the mindset and culture of the Wildcats into a physical team that played hard-nosed defense, and that kept them in more games than they probably deserved to be in, winning some of those high profile games including knocking off 6th ranked Ole Miss in 2024.
The hire of Stein marks a departure from that philosophy in some ways, and while Stein’s offenses are fun to watch and explosive, they are anything but finesse, so he will bring an edge to Lexington on the offensive side of the ball that the fan base hasn’t seen in a while – dating back to at least when current Jaguars head coach Liam Coen was coordinating the team’s offense.
Dan Lanning is facing the very real possibility of replacing two coordinators, as defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi was immediately connected to the opening at his alma mater, Cal.
The good news though is Stein plans to stay with the Ducks through their College Football Playoff run, per ESPN.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.