Kentucky football isn’t waiting around for the College Football Playoff to finish. While Oregon prepares for Texas Tech today, Will Stein is busy assembling his first coaching staff in Lexington.
And yes, the LSU pipeline just got deeper.
Nate Dodson will help coach quarterbacks at Kentucky
Nate Dodson, an LSU offensive analyst, is following Joe Sloan to Kentucky and stepping in as an assistant quarterbacks coach. There’s comfort in familiarity, but let’s not pretend the internet won’t notice this part:
LSU ranked 111th in points per game, 116th in yards per game, and 105th in yards per play.
Not… ideal.
Is that all LSU’s system? Was Brian Kelly holding things back? A similar argument is already being made for Florida fans expecting Brad White to look different away from Mark Stoops. But blue-and-white honesty moment:
This staff is trending “trust the process” more than “can’t-miss slam dunk.”
That’s not bad. It’s just real.
Will Stein finds his new strength coach in a familiar place as Joe Miday joins Kentucky football
The more intriguing addition might actually be former Louisville and current Bellarmine strength coach Joe Miday, who is joining the program after a run that includes rebuilding Western Kentucky’s physical profile and climbing the ladder at Marshall from graduate assistant to head strength coach. If you’re going to modernize the blueprint in the SEC, the weight room is step one.
Miday is SCCC certified, which is basically the black belt of strength training certifications, testing both scientific knowledge and in-the-trenches practical coaching.
This feels like a hire built for culture, not headlines.
So what does all this mean?
It means Will Stein is running toward what he knows, people, systems, and staffers who helped build the Oregon identity he’s trying to replicate. It also means the fanbase is well within its rights to ask questions:
Is Stein betting too heavily on familiarity?
Can LSU transplants shine outside their old ecosystem?
Does this staff get Kentucky out of the “just good enough” era?
The portal opens tomorrow. The truth will show up fast. To see the rest of Stein's monster staff, click here.