Matt Jones’ experience hosting Kentucky Sports Radio told him to expect a few calls or texts about Kentucky basketball on his Monday morning show after UK’s first exhibition game.
Basketball never sleeps in Kentucky.
It did, however, take a backseat on KSR’s airwaves that day.
Jones was 37 minutes deep into his show before anyone mentioned basketball.
Jones, his cohosts, and the show’s callers and texters had football on the brain.
“It’s intoxicating,” Jones said on the airwaves that day.
For two hours, the conversation fixated on Will Stein’s surging football team that, at the time, was fresh off a win against Oklahoma.
Blue blood became another pelt on the wall
for the Big Blue.
Now, that’s worth discussing.
“On that Monday’s show, it would’ve normally been maybe half football and half basketball, but there was like five minutes (of conversation) on basketball,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports. “All anybody wanted to talk about was football. I’ve never seen it like that.”
‘Never seen the city like this.’
You’d need to be a fan of a certain age to remember a Kentucky season quite like this one.
Kentucky is 7-1 for the first time since 1977. It’s ranked No. 7 in the US LBM Coaches Poll entering a rivalry game at No. 16 Tennessee. Kentucky’s strength of record ranks No. 2 in the nation behind only undefeated Miami, according to ESPN metrics.
When you consider the resume, you’d be entitled to believe Kentucky would be ranked higher if not for its name and its history.
“How do you go earn respect? Go win. That’s it,” Stein told USA TODAY Sports. “And, soon, people will respect this program.”
Buoyed by an overtime win against LSU, Kentucky would possess a compelling playoff resume if it wins at least three of its final four games.
Kentucky is finding out what Indiana already experienced: A state crazy about basketball can fall in love with a winning football program.
“I’ve never seen the city like this, in terms of cheering on the football team like they are right now,” senior safety Ty Bryant told USA TODAY Sports.
Bryant is something of an authority on this subject. He's a Lexington, Kentucky, native who previously played for Mark Stoops.
“It just makes me want to continue doing what we’re doing,” Bryant said of the fanbase's energy. “We have to continue to give them something to cheer about.”
It’s not that Kentucky’s never tasted success. Bear Bryant once served an 11-1 season. Fran Curci’s Wildcats finished 10-1 in 1977. Stoops twice delivered 10-win seasons.
Each time, the success proved fleeting. A lack of consistency became Kentucky's bugaboo. So, is this sustainable? Ask Stein or his boss that question, and you’ll detect nothing but belief.
“It’s completely possible that we can have elite-level football on an annual basis here, that we are in the hunt for championships,” athletic director J Batt told USA TODAY Sports. “That is the goal. I can tell you, Will Stein wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be here, if we didn’t think that was a real possibility.”
Big Blue Nation is buying in. Kentucky’s game against Florida in two weeks will mark a fourth consecutive sellout for an SEC home game. Social media engagement is "through the moon," Batt said, and Kentucky has already generated thousands of new season-ticket sales for next season. Those new sales include existing season-ticket holders adding more seats, past season-ticket holders returning to the fold, or fans putting in for season tickets for the first time.
It adds to the story, too, that Kentucky is coached by one of its own, a 37-year-old wunderkind who grew up watching Hal Mumme’s Air Raid.
Will Stein’s confidence evident ‘from a mile away’
The day Bryant met Stein, one unmistakable trait jumped out about Kentucky’s new coach.
“I seen he was a confident guy from a mile away,” Bryant said.
You can’t lack for moxie when you’re coaching a program that ranks 14th out of 16 SEC teams in all-time winning percentage.
History matters less than ever in this era — ask Indiana — but Stein nonetheless knows the history.
Stein’s dad played for Kentucky, and he grew up attending games. Stein’s childhood memories are painted with scenes of tailgates and time spent around his dad’s former teammates at the K House, Kentucky’s game-day hub for its past athletes.
Stein attended the Bluegrass Miracle game in 2002, when Nick Saban’s LSU Tigers won on a Hail Mary. He rushed the field as a fan in 2007, when Kentucky stunned No. 1 LSU and Les Miles in triple overtime. LSU went on to win the national championship that season.
That next year, after graduating from Trinity High School in Louisville, Stein became a walk-on quarterback at Louisville, where he started five games throughout his career.
Playing for UK would’ve been a dream, but the opportunity didn’t come. Stein says he harbors no ill will about that.
At Louisville, Stein finished his career playing for Charlie Strong, for whom he'd later work at Texas.
“It all brought me back here to Kentucky, where I dreamt of playing, and obviously it’s a dream come true to be the head coach here,” Stein said.
Stein’s Kentucky roots, his childhood fandom, and his K House memories make for more than a good footnote to this story. Batt considers the coach’s roots a legitimate advantage.
“In a time when the window of time you’re afforded to build credibility is compressed, authenticity of leadership is even more important,” Batt said. “Will’s connections to the University of Kentucky, connections to the Commonwealth having grown up here, and just who he is, is very authentic."
Stein’s armed with another quality particularly useful to this era: This guy knows quarterbacks.
Will Stein is good with QBs. Kenny Minchey is his latest
As Stein’s career took off on a meteoric rise these past few years, he proved himself as an ace QB developer.
What’s his secret sauce?
“We don’t just plug a person into the system and hope it works,” Stein said. “We literally mold our system to the player that we have.”
As Texas-San Antonio’s offensive coordinator, he leaned into Frank Harris’ dual-threat abilities and incorporated a dose of quarterback draws and zone-read plays.
At Oregon, Stein embraced the empty-set formations quarterback Bo Nix favored.
The next year, he served a dose of tempo offense and run-pass option plays suited to Dillon Gabriel. Next came Dante Moore, who was something of a blend of Nix and Gabriel.
At Kentucky, Stein trusts Kenny Minchey’s acumen.
“We’re able to put more on him at the line of scrimmage to get us into the best plays possible," Stein said.
Minchey’s wits, plus Stein’s belief in his quarterback, and a dash of moxie resulted in Kentucky beating LSU at home for the first time since that game Stein attended as a teenager in 2007.
Awww snap! Kentucky is winning with 2-point conversions
Like most new coaches, Stein leaned into the transfer portal before his first season. His haul ranked among the nation’s top-10 transfer classes, according to 247Sports.
Among the newcomers: Minchey, who’d been Notre Dame’s blue-chip backup.
Throughout Stoops’ tenure, Kentucky typically played tough defense, but it ached for better quarterback play. Insert Stein and Minchey, and consider the problem remedied.
Bryant learned two things about Minchey before the season started: He’s very smart, and he knows how to improvise.
“The first time I realized, ‘We got something special with this one’ was in the spring,” Bryant said. “I came on a blitz off the edge. He changed his arm angle and flicked it out there for a completed pass. I was like, ‘OK, he’s legit.’”
Fast-forward several months, and Stein put the LSU game in Minchey’s hands. Stein swiftly held up two fingers after Kentucky scored in overtime. Forget the extra point. He wanted a 2-point conversion and a walk-off win.
Kentucky already had beaten South Carolina when Minchey fired a completion for a 2-point walk-off. What did Bryant think when he learned his coach wanted to run it back with another 2-point walk-off against LSU?
“Awww snap!” Bryant said of his reaction. “In the moment, my heart was beating out of my chest.”
Minchey’s got this, so breathe easy.
At the line of scrimmage, Minchey saw LSU’s defense aligned with an empty box as the Tigers scrambled to line up against Kentucky’s five-wide set. The play wasn’t designed to be a quarterback run, but Minchey improvised, kept the ball himself, and ran into the end zone untouched.
Many of Stoops’ best wins occurred on the road. So, Kentucky fans welcomed an overdue cathartic moment at Kroger Field.
Just as they did in 2007, fans stormed the field.
“It was just a collective moment of happiness that really this fanbase hasn’t had since COVID, in either football or basketball,” said Jones, the radio entrepreneur who’s built a big following in the Bluegrass State.
“I used to always say: No fanbase has given more and gotten less than UK football. It’s nice to see people get to celebrate some success.”
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kentucky is drunk on football. Will Stein has made winning intoxicating
