Kentucky hasn’t even seen Will Stein on the sideline in blue yet, but the respect is already coming in from around college football, and not from small voices either.
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, preparing for a College Football Playoff showdown with Stein’s Oregon Ducks at noon today, says the Wildcats just hired a coach whose offensive creativity is so respected that other teams study him. Yes, study, as in break down the tape, borrow concepts, steal ideas, workshop looks.
That’s not nothing.
“Will Stein does a great job. I know Will very well. Excited for him getting the Kentucky job,” McGuire said. “One of the o-line coaches is Mack’s (Leftwich) little brother. He’s going with him to Kentucky and I think he has a lot to do with what they do run game wise... They’re one of the teams that we actually throughout the year and the offseason study because they are so creative in the run game.”
Let’s say that again slower for the people in the back:
Texas Tech studies Will Stein’s run game. This isn’t some cupcake offense that lucked into numbers. This is a system that finished:
- #8 in scoring offense (37.5 PPG)
- #7 in yards per game (465.8)
- #4 in yards per play (7.1)
- #2 in yards per rush (5.9)
And it’s coming to the SEC, specifically to Lexington. To our backyard. To a program that felt stuck in neutral for the past few seasons under Mark Stoops’ late-era offensive identity crisis.
For the first time since Liam Coen’s initial run, there’s schemed hope instead of blind hope.
Family ties, CFP pressure, and a Kentucky landing
McGuire’s comments dropped a nugget that’s easy to miss but huge if you’re reading it the right way: Mack Leftwich, Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator, has a younger brother coming to Lexington to help run Stein’s offense.
If you want proof this isn’t a copy-and-paste staff but a system, that’s it. There’s DNA here. There’s ideology here. There’s buy-in. And when coaches with skin in the game are publicly saying:
“Yeah, we study those guys,”
…it hits different than message board hype or a recruiting pitch.
Reality check: Praise doesn’t win games
Kentucky fans are smart. Optimism comes with a seatbelt.
This program has heard “creativity,” “modernization,” and “offensive identity” before. It’s heard about fit. It’s heard about reinventing the wheel. And then it’s watched third-and-5 turn into draw plays into the short side of the field.
That can’t happen under Stein.
Because here’s the pressure point McGuire’s comments create:
If Texas Tech studies Stein and respects him… what happens if Kentucky can’t execute that vision?
This isn’t a rebuild built on secrecy — everyone is watching the blueprint come together in real time.
The truth is simple:
Kentucky doesn’t need Stein to be perfect. They need him to be different. Not in a gimmicky way, or a flashy-for-Insta way, different in outcome.
Different in:
- pre-snap structure
- spacing
- tempo control
- RPO sequencing
- creating mismatches
- dictating personnel responses
Stein’s offense works because it forces teams to defend the full width of the field. Kentucky fans are used to watching defenses crowd the box and dare the Cats to beat them over the top. Stein’s system punishes that.
If he can import even 75% of the Oregon design to Lexington, with the right QB and receivers, Kentucky becomes a program opponents gameplan around, not just prepare for.
What comes next in Lexington
Stein will coach Oregon at least one more time. When they lose, or after they win it all, he comes home.
When he does, Kentucky has to move fast and loud in the portal. Because systems need pieces, and pieces need proof.
This isn’t the part where Kentucky fans hope this works. This is the part where the system gets tested.
And if Joey McGuire is right, and what Kentucky just hired is worth studying?
Then it’s not crazy to say this:
BBN might finally be getting an offense worth losing sleep over, for other SEC coaches.