Kentucky’s new coach is not easing into the Alabama week.
Will Stein spent part of Thursday on Kentucky Sports Radio trying to light a fire under the crowd for Saturday’s matchup, urging fans to get into Kroger Field early and turn the place into a nightmare for the Tide. Kentucky has beaten Alabama only twice in program history, and Stein made it clear he wants every possible edge in the Wildcats’ attempt to chase a third.
“I want them in there 45 to 30 minutes before, in their seat, standing up, screaming obscenities at our opponent, making them feel very unwanted in Kroger Field and creating an environment of excellence for Kentucky football,” Stein said. “I mean, that's what it's about.
You want to see a great product on the field. I want to see insane fans in the stands as well.”
He doubled down with an even more pointed message for the home crowd.
“Sneak a flask in! Sneak a flask in.
Again, do whatever you got to do, right? Get your drinks ready.
Sit in your chair, all right, and start cheering. And then once you're done with the drink, go back in as fast as you can, and come right back out.”
Stein said he uses a simple mantra with his players - “volume reflects confidence” - and wants the same idea to carry over into the stands. In his view, noise isn’t just atmosphere; it’s a weapon.
"That's what I want our fans to know," he said. "Like, when they do that, it just speaks confidence to us.
It speaks confidence to our opponent. It obviously disrupts the communication from the quarterback, from the play-caller, from the offensive line, creates false starts, creates penalties, delays of game.
The more we can get at that, the better off we're going to be."
The timing adds a little more juice to the moment. Alabama’s SEC opener - its earliest since 2007 - is set for 2:30 p.m.
CT, or 3:30 p.m. ET locally, at the 61,000-seat Kroger Field.
“We've got to be there early,” Stein told Kentucky fans on KSR. “We've got to be in the stands early.
We've got to be in there during pregame warmups, pack Kroger Field, and then when the kickoff happens, it needs to be the loudest 65,000 group of people in the history of the world. That's what I want.
The loudest those 65,000 have ever been in the history of the world. Number one.”
Stein, 36, is a Louisville native and former Cardinals quarterback who spent three seasons as Oregon’s offensive coordinator from 2023 to 2025 before Kentucky hired him to replace Mark Stoops.
Alabama comes in riding an eight-game winning streak against Kentucky, with the Wildcats’ most recent victory over the Tide coming in Lexington in 1997.
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