{"id":781703,"date":"2026-02-28T07:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781703\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T07:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:52:15","slug":"spring-game-details-among-3-things-we-learned-from-will-stein-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781703\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Game Details Among 3 Things We Learned from Will Stein on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky is just a few weeks away from kicking off spring football in the Bluegrass. It\u2019s a quiet time in the college football calendar, but that isn\u2019t silencing Will Stein<\/a>. On Friday morning, the Kentucky head football coach joined the Chuck Oliver Show<\/a> and shared a few tidbits with the King of College Football. <\/p>\n

Kentucky Will Tackle in the Early Spring Game<\/p>\n

During his introductory press conference, Will Stein promised to deliver a spring game. Since then, the only detail Big Blue Nation has received is the date, April 18. Today, he shared a few more details. <\/p>\n

The Kentucky football spring game has a tentative kickoff time of 11 a.m. The early start gives the Cats a chance to secure an SEC Network broadcast window and allows fans to enjoy the baseball game against Vanderbilt that afternoon at 2 p.m. It won\u2019t be a game of two-hand touch. The early portions of the game will be full contact before they take their foot off the gas and \u201ctransition into fun mode.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to get good, get 11 versus 11 and play the damn game.\u201d Stein added: \u201cI want our guys to experience Kroger Field, experience our fans, experience an actual game clock, and officials out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior, when there was two transfer portal windows, I think every coach was afraid. You go out there, and you play, and it\u2019s on TV, and you\u2019re gonna get your guys poached by other teams, which is, I think, a fair point. I\u2019m a believer in playing the game. So it\u2019s important for me, especially in year one, to show Big Blue Nation what our team is all about, and get those guys out there on the grass and play in front of our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Line from Stein that will Fire You Up<\/p>\n

What will the Will Stein offense look like at Kentucky? He\u2019s been asked some form of that question a dozen times by now. The Feed the Studs mantra indicates that he is willing to tailor his scheme to whatever best fits his players. While he offered some of that to the SEC audience once again, he also added a line that I think will get folks fired up for Kentucky football. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a modern pro-style offense, so we can blend tempos and go super fast. We can huddle, we can speed break. We really dictate the pace of the game. And then, we\u2019ve been really explosive and consistent in terms of gaining first downs and scoring touchdowns, a very efficient offense,\u201d said the Kentucky head coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you want to be able to run the ball to win, but throw the ball to score. I like excitement. I like points. I like trick plays. I like making our guys love playing our offense. So it is multiple. It\u2019s never looked completely the same. I think the core fundamentals and the core schemes have shown up every single year with our inside zone, outside zone, be able to throw the ball vertically, and stretch the defense from sideline to sideline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prepare to see the annexation of Puerto Rico<\/a> next fall at Kroger Field. <\/p>\n

Stamp of Approval for Nic Anderson<\/p>\n

Kentucky made major transfer portal investments on the offensive line and at quarterback in the transfer portal. The question is, who\u2019s Kenny Minchey<\/a> going to throw the ball to? <\/p>\n

Kentucky signed five wide receivers from the portal, led by former LSU and Oklahoma pass-catcher Nic Anderson<\/a>. Last year, Anderson played for Joe Sloan<\/a> at LSU, but his best ball was at Oklahoma. In 2023, he caught 38 passes for 798 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Sooners. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love how Nic works. That\u2019s the one thing that to me has been consistent since he\u2019s gotten to Kentucky and gotten with us, his work ethic is unmatched. He\u2019s a pro in every sense: takes care of his body, studies his installs. I think the sky\u2019s the limit for Nick,\u201d said Stein. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when we took Dillon Gabriel<\/a> out at Oregon, and we watched a ton of Oklahoma film. The guy that continually jumped off the tape was Nic Anderson. Even just talking to Dillon the other day, he was like, \u2018Oh, man, you guys got Nic? He\u2019s a dog.\u2019 I\u2019m like, Yeah, he is. So I\u2019m excited about him, excited about what he\u2019s going to bring to our team, not just on the field, but from a leadership perspective as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein also spent time talking about Jordan Castell<\/a>, CJ Baxter<\/a>, and Ahmad Breaux<\/a>. You can hear the entire interview by checking out the podcast, starting around the 25:30 mark<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky is just a few weeks away from kicking off spring football in the Bluegrass. It\u2019s a quiet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,9392],"class_list":{"0":"post-781703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-nic-anderson-22-katy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}