Big Blue Nation has fallen head over heels for Will Stein during his first offseason as the Kentucky head coach. The future looks bright, but in the here and now, many are skeptical of what Kentucky can accomplish in 2026.
Preseason college football magazines will soon be on the shelves, and when you flip through the pages, you won’t see too many folks ranking Kentucky among the best of the best in the SEC.
In Stein’s first season, the Wildcats will host Alabama, LSU, and Louisville, who will all be ranked in the Preseason Top 25. Kentucky will travel to Texas A&M, South Carolina, and Tennessee, three of the most difficult venues in all of college football. The challenging schedule and the power rankings are not kind to the Cats, which is why they’ll be double-digit underdogs in almost every game this fall.
On3’s Chris Low isn’t using a mathematical formula to rate every team in the SEC. A veteran reporter in the league, he ranked all 16 SEC teams and Kentucky came in at No. 15.
First-year head coach Will Stein knows what good offense looks like, and it will be fascinating to see how quickly he can get his system up and running this season at Kentucky. Stein brought in one of the top-ranked transfer portal quarterbacks in Kenny Minchey, who battled with CJ Carr down to the wire last preseason for the Notre Dame starting job. Receiver Nic Anderson (LSU) is another addition in the portal who’s much more talented than he played a year ago. Stein addressed just about every key position in the portal, including offensive tackle Lance Heard (Tennessee) and nose guard Jamarrion Harkless (Purdue). Hiring a veteran coach like Jay Bateman away from Texas A&M as defensive coordinator should also pay dividends for the Wildcats.
Outside noise is omnipresent throughout the summer. Many across Kentucky will provide plenty of hype, while the outsiders feed Stein’s program bulletin board material. It may not make a difference in wins or losses, but it should fuel these Wildcats throughout the long, hot summer workouts as they prepare to prove the doubters wrong this fall.
via @On3
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