UK seeing progress with new offense

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With former Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein now at the helm for the Kentucky football program, the Wildcats’ offense will look radically different in 2026.

Hopes inside the program are that those differences lead to renewed success.

UK struggled offensively a season ago — the last year under previous coach Mark Stoops and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan. The Cats mustered only 341.1 yards (103rd in FBS) and 23 points (99th) per game.

To contrast, when Stein was calling plays for Oregon last year, the Ducks posted 452.2 yards (17th) and 36.9 points (10th) per outing.

Now, Stein and coordinator Joe Sloan want to inject that same energy and variance into UK’s offense.

“It’s not huddle every play and go in the I formation; it’s not spread people out and go as fast as humanly possible,” Stein said. “It’s a blend of everything, and it’s adaptable. We can play multiple personnels. We can play with multiple tempos.

“We like RPOs. We love tempo. We also like two-back sets and getting downhill on people and adding extra people to the runs with fullbacks and tight ends.”

To help speed up the process, the Cats turned to the NCAA transfer portal and brought in Notre Dame transfer quarterback Kenny Minchey. He appeared in six games last year, completing 20-of-26 passing attempts (76.9%) for 196 yards. He also ran for 84 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.

“He’s got great athleticism,” Stein said of the 6-foot-2 junior. “He is a phenomenal person, very smart. We did our background on him. Everybody we talked to, even guys on that staff, felt like they still would have won 10 games with Kenny out there playing quarterback.”

“We talked to NFL scouts on him. Feel like he’s got a really high upside in his game and he’s somebody that I was really excited to get.”

Stein is no stranger to coaching athletic signal-callers — he mentored Heisman Trophy finalists Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel at Oregon in 2023 and 2024, respectively — and sees similar potential in Minchey.

“The guys I’ve been able to coach, we have great dialogue,” Stein said. “Obviously, great passers and players themselves, but building the offense around them, not trying to fit them into my scheme. Let’s fit our scheme into them and what they do well.

“Every player is different. … This is not a cookie-cutter offense. It’s how do we build it around them and what they do best.”

To help protect their quarterback, Kentucky’s staff made a conscience effort to rebuild the Cats’ offensive line. It’ll be bolstered by four-star transfers Lance Heard (Tennessee), Coleton Price (Baylor) and Tegra Tshabola (Ohio State).

“Lance was a huge addition for us,” Sloan said recently. “I think everything starts up front. You see it at all levels: Teams that consistently win are good up front on both sides of the ball. Our focus in getting here was we had to have experience and we had to have talent. We were able to do that.

“All these different guys that we were able to add up front, I think, was critical because really we lost five starters last year and only had a couple guys coming back with experience.”

So far, Cats coaches have been pleased with what they’ve got going.

“We were able to add to the team and keep some really good players that have been here before and retain those guys, and then add to it what we needed to fill in the different holes we felt like we had,” Sloan said. “… From there, it’s about establishing the culture, learning the offense, and I think the guys did a really nice job of that (in the spring).

“Now, we want to reset the standard and know what we’re preparing for this fall.”

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