Will Stein wastes no time chasing blue-chip future classes for Kentucky

Will Stein hasn’t even fully unpacked in Lexington, but his staff is already acting like they’re on the clock for 2026, 2027 and even 2028.

While Stein finishes out Oregon’s season, his assistants are burning through phone batteries to get Kentucky into serious conversations with the next three recruiting cycles. The message is clear: the new regime isn’t just trying to patch a roster — it’s trying to rewire the talent pipeline.

Kentucky football makes the cut for 2027 4-star CB Chase Johnson

The headliner right now is 2027 four-star cornerback Chase Johnson out of Emanuel County Institute in Swainsboro, Georgia. Pushing 30 offers already, Johnson just trimmed his list to a loaded Top 10 that includes:

Miami
Auburn
Georgia Tech
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Louisville
Kentucky
Florida
Florida State
Georgia

He’s a top-250 prospect and the No. 25 cornerback in the 2027 class according to 247Sports, the exact caliber of SEC-level defensive back Kentucky needs to stack if it wants to survive in a league where everyone can throw it.

Getting into that group now matters. By the time a 2027 kid signs, he’ll have lived an entire football life in the NIL/portal era. Relationships built earlly and kept consistent are going to separate the programs that land top corners from the ones who get left hoping for scraps in December.

New defensive coordinator Jay Bateman wants twitchy, competitive corners who can survive on islands so he can be aggressive up front. Johnson fits that mold. This is the kind of recruitment that tells you whether Kentucky can punch in the same recruiting neighborhoods as the rest of the SEC.

Jay Bateman dives into the DMV with 2028 LB Ashton Chiles

If going after a national 2027 corner feels ambitious, how about already building a board for the 2028 class?

Linebacker Ashton Chiles from the DMV region already holds Power Four offers from Texas A&M, Boston College and Maryland. He’s 6'2", 215 pounds and still has multiple high school seasons to go, the kind of early-developed frame that perks up a linebackers coach’s ears immediately.

Chiles profiles like a classic Bateman guy: physical enough to plug the run, athletic enough to stay on the field in modern coverage looks, and polished early enough to justify the time investment.

Getting in now, before any offer list turns into a scroll, is exactly how you win one of these recruitments. If Kentucky can convince Chiles that he’s the future centerpiece in the middle of this defense instead of just “another linebacker,” that DMV pipeline could become real.

Why Kentucky is already investing heavily in the 2026 and 2027 cycles

This is what “sustainable” is supposed to look like.

Stein’s staff isn’t just chasing portal quick fixes and hoping the high school recruiting will figure itself out later. They’re:

• Trying to hit on immediate help in the portal.
• Keeping current commits on board.
• And simultaneously building a foundation in 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Kentucky is never going to out-blue-blood Georgia or Alabama in a straight star-counting war. But if they consistently identify the right guys early like Chase Johnson and Ashton Chiles and build genuine relationships around a clear identity (tempo offense, aggressive defense, real development), they don’t have to.

The early signs? They’re at least swinging for the right weight classes like Will Stein promised.