{"id":555576,"date":"2026-03-31T05:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/555576\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:20:09","slug":"anwar-stewart-thrilled-to-still-be-at-kentucky-i-bleed-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/555576\/","title":{"rendered":"Anwar Stewart Thrilled to Still be at Kentucky: “I Bleed Blue”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kentucky football program went through an offseason transformation. The Wildcats added 34 new players in January with a new head coach in command. Will Stein<\/a> brought in new technology, a new strength staff, and two dozen new coaches. There has been one constant: Anwar Stewart<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A few staffers stuck around for the transition, but Stewart is Mark Stoops<\/a>\u2018 only position coach who will see the first year of the Stein era. Why was the defensive line coach compelled to stay in Lexington? <\/p>\n

\u201cI bleed blue. I really do. I love it,\u201d Stewart said after Saturday\u2019s spring practice<\/a>. \u201cCoach Stein got here, he sat down and talked to me. When he said that he needed me to stay, it was a no-brainer for me. I love Kentucky. I played here. There\u2019s nothing like it. There\u2019s nothing like Big Blue Nation. I\u2019m blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long before he got into coaching, Stewart was a standout on the defensive line at Kentucky. From 1996-99, he tallied 64 tackles, nine tackles for loss, and eight sacks. His most memorable moment as a Cat actually happened on special teams. He recovered a blocked field goal and returned it for a touchdown<\/a> in Kentucky\u2019s 40-34 overtime victory over Alabama in 1997, just the program\u2019s second-ever victory over the Crimson Tide. <\/p>\n

After his time in Lexington, Stewart played professionally for 13 years in the CFL, where he won four Grey Cups. Stewart logged a couple of years as a graduate assistant in 2017 and \u201918, then returned to Kentucky as the defensive line coach in 2020. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it. I\u2019m very fortunate to still be here and want to continue to build and push Coach Stein\u2019s vision,\u201d said Stewart. <\/p>\n

Kentucky Prioritized Returners on the D-Line<\/p>\n

When Will Stein was tasked to build a new roster, he sought out big-name players in the transfer portal to add to the offensive line. He didn\u2019t have to look far to fill out the defensive line. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta recruit the building,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe got some really good young men, we got some really good players, and we didn\u2019t want those guys going anywhere because we know we\u2019re really close. We\u2019re really close to getting to the next level, getting to the Playoffs, so we had to keep all of those guys. We were fortunate enough to do that. We brought in some other guys to come in and build the nucleus, and that spells success. We just want every day to continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mi\u2019Quise Humphrey-Grace<\/a> was one of the Cats\u2019 top priorities. The defensive end led the team in tackles for loss (7) and sacks (3.5). Jay Bateman<\/a> made it abundantly clear that Kentucky needed him to stay out of the transfer portal, traveling to Cincinnati to meet with Humphrey-Grace the day after Texas A&M lost to Miami in the CFB Playoff. <\/p>\n

Bateman pitched an aggressive style, one that\u2019s enticing to Humphrey-Grace. Stewart is relying on the pass rusher to take another step forward in 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs he goes, we\u2019re gonna go,\u201d said Kentucky\u2019s defensive line coach. <\/p>\n

Playing alongside Tavion Gadson<\/a>, one of the most defensive tackles in the SEC from a year ago, Kentucky has the right pieces to win battles in the game of trench warfare. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose two are the leaders. Those are the young men last year who performed very well for us, and now we gotta take it to the next level,\u201d said Stewart. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kentucky football program went through an offseason transformation. The Wildcats added 34 new players in January with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,200150,398,396,397,99,246861],"class_list":["post-555576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-miquise-humphrey-grace-22-princeton","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports","tag-tavion-gadson-23-jenkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}