Late Saturday night, an entire stadium was singing. Tyler Childers was on the speakers, Kroger Field was on its feet, and Kentucky football was grinding through a 13-play, 6:38 drive that drained the last of the fight out of Vanderbilt. It was the kind of moment fan bases build whole seasons around, and the people in the stands knew every word.
I’m All Your’n 🎶 pic.twitter.com/NhktnXHP1F
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) October 25, 2026
Will Stein heard something else.
“I mean, I heard it. I love that song. It’s one of my favorite songs,” Kentucky’s first-year coach said afterward. “But in my head I was thinking more like Metallica for me, you know. Like, we got to run the ball.”
That is the whole story of this Kentucky team, 7-1 and 5-1 in the SEC after a 34-17 win. The sound is folk. The engineering
is heavy metal.
A slow start
For about 21 minutes, the night looked like the kind of trap that ends good seasons. Kentucky’s first two drives lasted six plays. The Wildcats punted three times. Vanderbilt, 0-5 in the SEC, drove 95 yards in 16 plays for a 10-0 lead, and the Commodores’ quarterback, Jared Curtis, looked like the elite player Stein called him afterward.
Kentucky didn’t get its first first down until Mikkel Skinner broke off a 16-yard run with 9:03 left in the half. From there, the game belonged to the Wildcats.
They scored on six straight possessions. Kenny Minchey hit D.J. Miller for a touchdown. Willie Rodriguez, lined up in the Wildcat, punched in a one-yard score. Backup quarterback Brennen Ward took a direct snap and ran 10 yards for a touchdown on his first career rushing attempt. Adam Zouagui added field goals from 47 and 32 yards. Minchey sneaked in the last touchdown.
Make that his FOURTH INTERCEPTION in THREE GAMES 😮💨
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) October 25, 2026
📺 - SEC Network pic.twitter.com/QHk6JsNmjt
The 24 seconds
The turn came in a place the box score barely shows.
Late in the second quarter, Kentucky had the ball and three timeouts. Fans and talk-radio callers usually want a coach to burn one, stop the clock, and squeeze out every second. Stein let it run. Minchey went 6 of 7 for 57 yards on that drive, and Rodriguez scored with 24 seconds left in the half.
Stein explained why he didn’t call a timeout. “All you’re doing is giving them more time once you score to go back down the field and create a points opportunity for them.”
Kentucky went 14-0 in the middle eight against Vanderbilt and has outscored opponents 79-27 in that stretch this season. A coach who keeps the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second out of his opponent’s hands doesn’t need a lucky bounce. He needs a clock and a plan.
“It’s just knowledge of that part of the game as a coaching staff that bleeds into our players,” Stein said, “and honestly, just execution in those moments.”
Tough guys
If the middle eight was the brain, the pocket was the nerve.
Minchey took shots all night and finished with 203 yards and a touchdown through the air, plus the final score on the ground. Stein wasn’t going to let that go unmentioned. “You don’t think about [quarterbacks] as tough guys,” he said, “but when you’re standing in the pocket and grown men are running full speed at you trying to destroy you and you make a pass and complete it, that shows great toughness, not for himself, but also for our team.”
The defense matched it. Aaron Gates and C.J. Works sacked Curtis on Vanderbilt’s opening possession. Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace jarred the ball loose and Tavion Gadson fell on it. In the fourth quarter, Ty Bryant, a Lexington kid whose dad played at Kentucky, picked off Curtis for the second straight week the Wildcats’ secondary made a game-turning play.
Stein sprinted to Bryant before the teammates could. He said it wasn’t planned. “I saw Ty laying on his back and I was a little worried,” he said. “And then he was just smiling on his back. And so, I popped him up.”
Bryant has four interceptions in the last three games.
What’s different
Around the country, good teams are coming off emotional wins and losing the next week. Stein was asked why Kentucky hasn’t. His answer wasn’t mystical.
We have good players that are connected, that love this university, that love their teammates, that play really hard. It’s not always perfect. But I think we’re in a really good spot mentally right now.
The numbers are historic, and Stein knows it. Kentucky has won five straight SEC games for the first time since 1977. Stein is the first Wildcats coach in 117 years to open 7-1, since E.R. Sweetland did it in 1909. When someone read him the list, he shrugged it off like a man waving at a parade from the sidewalk. “I love all that stuff,” he said. “But what really matters is our players.”
There are real worries. C.J. Works left with a shoulder injury, and an ankle and a calf also kept players out. Stein said he doesn’t expect anything long-term, and the bye week arrives at the right time. He was also candid that the depth chart isn’t as deep as he’d like. The portal and NIL, he said, have spread talent around, and “we’re dealing with a lot of the same things that everybody else is.”
The volume knob
Stein praised the crowd, and he meant it. He challenged the fans during the week, and they “exceeded all expectations.” He also made a point most coaches would hesitate to say out loud: the noise isn’t a bonus, it’s a weapon. When Vanderbilt got backed up in the fourth quarter, the stadium got loud and Vandy false-started. “Fans can impact the game, they really can.”
So the song stays. The crowd keeps it. A coach from a program that spent decades waiting for nights like this can sing along on the inside if he wants.
But next to the music, Stein keeps the other thing on repeat: run the ball, win the middle, and make the other team start over.
Four games remain after a week off, beginning Nov. 7 at Tennessee. The folk song will be loud again. Kentucky’s coach will be listening for something heavier.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky coach Will Stein's comments after beating Vanderbilt
