NORMAN, Okla. — A good hunter spends most of the day looking like he’s losing. He walks miles, goes hours without a shot, and watches the wind turn against him. What he never does is confuse the walking with the kill.
For three quarters on Saturday night, Kentucky football looked like the one being tracked. The Oklahoma Soonersoutgained the Wildcats 346 yards to 230 and kept the ball in Kentucky’s half for long stretches. Then the Wildcats got their shot and took it, three times in 11 minutes. The scoreboard read 21-13 when it ended, and Will Stein, asked about the stat sheet, answered the way a hunter answers a question about mileage. Stats, he said at the top of his postgame remarks, are for losers.
The stalk
Kentucky opened the night with the ball
and sent a message. Kenny Minchey moved it with short throws to Nic Anderson and Kenny Darby, and on fourth-and-1 tight end Mikkel Skinner took a carry 16 yards to the Oklahoma 7. Three snaps later, Minchey fed Willie Rodriguez a two-yard touchdown, and Kentucky led 7-0 with 8:36 left in the first quarter.
Oklahoma responded with patience. It went 13 plays for 49 yards, and only a C.J. Works sack of John Mateer kept it to a 44-yard field goal. That was the pattern. The Sooners drove, and Kentucky bent just enough to avoid breaking.
The first trap came in the second quarter. Oklahoma ground into the red zone again and lined up for a 28-yard field goal, and then Jacob Ulrich tried to throw it on a fake. Jordan Castell was waiting. The interception cost Oklahoma three points it had practically banked, and it kept Kentucky ahead 7-3 at the 8:22 mark.
The Sooners answered that, too. They took over at their own 10 with 4:24 left in the half and marched 90 yards in 12 plays, finishing with a 20-yard touchdown from Mateer to Rocky Beers, and led 10-7 at the break with 30 seconds left. Early in the third quarter they were back inside Kentucky’s 10, and the defense held them to a 26-yard field goal and a 13-7 lead.
The flush
Every hunt has a moment when the quarry moves. This one came with 3:10 left in the third. Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace got a hand on Mateer’s arm as he threw, the ball floated, and Ty Bryant came down with it and ran it back 42 yards to the Oklahoma 45.
That’s when Kentucky found its legs. Jason Patterson ran for five and then eight, Minchey hit Patterson for another eight and Darby for 11, and Rodriguez caught a 12-yard touchdown to make it 14-13. Humphrey-Grace then started the next series by sacking Mateer on first down and again on third, and Oklahoma punted without a first down.
The miss, and the confession
Not everything was clean. After Anderson made a juggling 17-yard catch, Kentucky stood at the Oklahoma 5 facing fourth-and-4 with a chance to stretch the lead. Stein went for it. Minchey was sacked, and Oklahoma took over at its own 13.
Afterward, Stein was blunt about the decision. “Part of me wishes we would have kicked the field goal at that point, just because it would have put us up four,” he said. His defense erased the mistake with another three-and-out, but Kentucky’s next drive died to a holding penalty and a punt, and Oklahoma got the ball back at its own 4 with 2:43 left.
The strike
Third-and-6 at the Oklahoma 32, and Mateer let one go that Castell jumped. He ran it 41 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown, the first pick-six of Stein’s tenure, and Kentucky led 21-13 with 1:17 left. Bryant added one more interception with 21 seconds to go, his second of the night, to close it. Four takeaways in all, five sacks, and Minchey finished 21 of 28 for 158 yards and two touchdowns, both to Rodriguez.
Stein knew where the game would be decided before it started. “Honestly, like 24 points would win it for both sides,” he said. “It’s just hard to score touchdowns against that defense.” Oklahoma had slowed down to huddle and lean on its defense, which meant fewer snaps. “We went into the second half there, probably going to be about five possessions left. You better make those count.”
Kentucky made them count by taking the ball away, and Stein explained why that was more than luck. “We preach ball excellence in our program as much or more than anything,” he said. As for the defense’s second-half surge, he said there was no secret formula. “We weren’t calling that many different calls on defense at that point,” he said. The first half had been messy, with missed gaps and easy completions for Oklahoma. After that, “we always say tips and overthrows lead to interceptions, and that’s what happened.”
The pack
Hunters work alone, but this team hunts in a pack, and Stein said the pack is the point. The best moment of his press conference was a small one. After the failed fourth down, he said, Castell came to him on the sideline. “Jordan Castell looked at me and said, ‘Coach, I got your back,’” Stein said. “So that makes me feel really good. And they did have my back.”
“Connection is our number one DNA trait,” Stein added. “Play harder for guys that you love.” He was candid about why that matters now. “In the age of Portal and revenue share and NIL, a lot of guys aren’t typically bought into the program they’re playing,” he said, and Kentucky built its roster to be the exception. Then came the line that will end up on a T-shirt. “When you watch our tape, our guys freaking fight.”
You could see it in Anderson, the former Sooner who made that catch in the stadium where his career began. “I’m so proud of him,” Stein said. “What a great story of resilience and perseverance.” You could see it in a roster that Stein says is battered after seven straight weeks, and in a coach who isn’t interested in an excuse. “There’s no time to flinch,” he said. “Our guys are battle tested.” Running back CJ Baxter sat out as a precaution after warming up well, and Stein said he expects him back for Vanderbilt.
The ledger
Kentucky is 6-1 and tied with Georgia at 4-1 atop the SEC. It has won three conference road games in one season for the first time since 1977, at Texas A&M, at South Carolina and now at Oklahoma, and it did so on a weekend when eight ranked teams lost. Oklahoma fell to 3-3.
Vanderbilt visits Kroger Field on Saturday night, and Stein had already shifted his attention before he left the podium. “You can’t take one minute and relax,” he said. “It’s about improvement. It’s about growth.”
The hunters have a way of saying it: the trick isn’t to look dangerous. It’s to be there when the moment comes. Kentucky was.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: What Will Stein said after Kentucky's win over Oklahoma
