{"id":639402,"date":"2026-05-12T22:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/639402\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:43:08","slug":"will-stein-gets-candid-about-nil-arms-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/639402\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Stein gets candid about NIL Arms Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this point, it\u2019s getting hard to find a sports talk show that Will Stein hasn\u2019t appeared on. After starting his morning talking about the Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry<\/a> with Michael Bennett on \u201cJust the Cats,\u201d Stein called into \u201cThe Locker Room\u201d on 680 the Fan in Atlanta to promote his program. And, on an out-of-state show, it doesn\u2019t come as a surprise that Stein fielded a question about Kentucky Basketball. As he\u2019s done with just about everything since taking the job in December, Stein knocked his answer out of the park. <\/p>\n

One of the hosts asked Stein about his relationship with Mark Pope and whether the two have butted heads over NIL, specifically, a scenario in which the football program may need more money than the basketball program. Stein started by sharing what a diehard Kentucky Basketball fan he is before launching into a commentary on the current recruiting landscape. He said that while Kentucky Football has enough NIL support to be competitive for now, the money in the sport will continue to snowball.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, there\u2019s no bigger Kentucky basketball fan than me, okay? When I say I was like \u2014 listen, I\u2019d watch the TV, but I\u2019d mute the TV because\u00a0I didn\u2019t want to listen to those announcers, and I\u2019d put on Tom Leach and I would\u00a0listen to him while I was watching the basketball game, so there\u2019s not a bigger Kentucky basketball fan than the head football coach of Kentucky.\u00a0So that\u2019s number one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI control what I can, and I know what we have is enough currently, but everybody\u2019s\u00a0pushing. The $35 million-dollar rosters used to be the highest. Now it\u2019s like $50 [million].\u00a0Right?\u00a0And it\u2019s not stopping. So everybody thinks it\u2019s going to end, and all this stuff. Like, show me that it\u2019s going\u00a0to stop.\u00a0If it\u2019s going to stop, then I think everybody would be like, \u2018Whoa, put a hold on it,\u2019 but nobody is, so continue to push.\u00a0And it is what it is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein continued, saying that money isn\u2019t everything in recruiting, that relationships remain paramount. After working for Dan Lanning at Oregon, he learned that when adversity hits, players want to know three things: will they be developed, is there a plan to get them to the NFL, and are they going to win in college. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf a kid comes in and wants me to throw money at him right away, I don\u2019t want that kid on\u00a0my squad,\u201d Stein said.\u00a0\u201cI just don\u2019t.\u00a0And it\u2019s a part of the process, though, now. It is, so don\u2019t shy away from it.\u00a0There is a point in time in recruiting when it comes down to a closed-door meeting with\u00a0either me and the player or my GM and the player.\u00a0And that\u2019s what we do. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is a part of it, so you have to be competitive in that space, but it\u2019s not the first thing that can create a belief in a player that he needs\u00a0to go to your university.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI never would have left Oregon if I didn\u2019t feel like I could win\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of the interview is mostly stuff we\u2019ve heard before \u2014 again, when you do as many interviews as Will Stein, it\u2019s impossible not to recycle quotes \u2014 however, it never gets old hearing him talk about how much he believes he can turn Kentucky into a contender. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never would have left Oregon if I didn\u2019t feel like I could win, even though\u00a0my dad played at Kentucky, my mom went to Kentucky,\u00a0and I grew up a Kentucky fan. Like, that\u2019s like a cute story, but you want to go to a\u00a0place where you can win. And so I felt like I had the support needed from our administration that we can get this\u00a0place turned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein mentioned the highs of the Mark Stoops era and the talent that has come through the program over the past decade as proof that you can win in Lexington. He also used what Curt Cignetti has done at Indiana as an example of how quickly that can happen in the NIL\/Transfer Portal era. Stein didn\u2019t have a chance to put his stamp on the 2026 recruiting class, which signed the day after he took the job. He\u2019s proud of the portal class his staff was able to put together a month later. We\u2019re really getting to see his vision with the 2027 class<\/a>, which is up to No. 16 nationally, with 15 commits. The real results will come this fall \u2014 and adversity will inevitably hit at some point \u2014 but so far, Stein is pouring every ounce of his relentless energy into building the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I looked at the job, it was just a job that I always felt like \u2014 I\u2019m\u00a0like, gosh, it can happen. You\u2019ve just got the right mindset consistently.\u00a0You\u2019ve got to recruit a certain way, and you\u2019ve just got to coach fearless, you know. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike, I don\u2019t\u00a0know how else to do it. This is how I\u2019ve been my whole life. Everywhere I\u2019ve ever been, I\u2019ve been a part of a winning culture from high school football through college, and\u00a0now as a coach, you know, it\u2019s my job.\u00a0So I don\u2019t really know any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lock in for a pivotal Kentucky Football offseason with KSR Plus! We\u2019re giving you behind-the-scenes intel you won\u2019t find anywhere else. Join the most vibrant online community in the BBN for the exciting start of the Will Stein Era.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At this point, it\u2019s getting hard to find a sports talk show that Will Stein hasn\u2019t appeared on.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-639402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639402","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=639402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}