As a head coach, your first job is to acquire talent. Then you have to coach it up, put your players in a position to succeed, and, most importantly, make them believe they can win.
Right now, Will Stein is doing that in spades.
If you want to know how Kentucky Football pulled off a massive road upset over No. 9 Texas A&M, the pregame locker-room video shows exactly why.
Before taking the field, Stein noticed a distinct lack of intensity from the Aggies during warmups, and he immediately used it to
light a fire under his locker room.
“I’m telling you, I watched them play two-hand touch in pre-game…They are not ready. They are not ready for the [expletive] storm that’s about to hit College Station. The way that you prepare has prepped your mind, body, and [expletive] soul to go out there and attack. They haven’t played an SEC game yet, and y’all have. Y’all are [expletive] battle-tested. Go [expletive] win this game.”
And they went out and won the game.
If you are an Aggie fan, that behind-the-scenes footage probably stings quite a bit. A top-10 team playing at home shouldn’t come out and look like they are playing two-hand touch before a conference game. But you have to give it up to Stein for instantly diagnosing that low energy on the opposing sideline and weaponizing it to give his team the confidence to go out there and smash away.
This week, Stein will need every ounce of that motivational ability to make sure his team doesn’t slip up against a very capable South Alabama squad coming into Kroger Field. You can bet the Jaguars will be closely watching the Kentucky sideline during pregame warmups, and the Cats have to show them the exact opposite of what the Aggies showed last weekend.
