Saturday’s Alabama-Kentucky matchup has a familiar face on both sidelines, but the game inside Kroger Field is going to come down to something a lot less glamorous than coaching chess. This one looks like a trench fight.
Kalen DeBoer and Will Stein have already seen each other from opposite sidelines. DeBoer was Washington’s head coach and Stein was Oregon’s offensive coordinator when their teams met twice in 2023, and DeBoer won both games by field goal. Now DeBoer is 1-0 in his third season with the Crimson Tide, while Stein is 1-0 in his first year - and first head-coaching job - with Kentucky.
The Alabama run game is the first big battleground. That was the Tide’s biggest weakness in 2025, and it was bad enough to cost offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic his job.
Alabama answered by bringing in Adrian Klemm, and the opener against East Carolina suggested the change may be taking hold. The Tide piled up 227 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 49 carries.
Keelon Russell accounted for 13 of those runs, 89 yards and one score, while the running backs handled 32 carries for 128 yards and four touchdowns, exactly four yards per attempt.
Kentucky should offer a much tougher test. The Wildcats were sturdy against the run in 2025, giving up 133.7 rushing yards per game, the 37th-fewest in the FBS. Alabama also may be without starting right guard Michael Carroll, a Preseason All-SEC Second Team selection, which would put Ethan Fields or Mal Waldrep Jr. into the lineup.
That’s not the only place where Kentucky will try to make life uncomfortable. The Wildcats also showed real pop in the passing game in their opener, rolling past Youngstown State 45-13 on Sept.
- Kenny Minchey, the Notre Dame transfer now running Stein’s offense, completed 18 of 27 passes for 301 yards and four touchdowns.
Alabama’s defense has already had one live rep against a passing attack, and it was mostly clean. East Carolina threw for 160 yards against the Tide, though 68 of those came on one busted coverage in the secondary. Still, Kentucky is going to ask more questions than ECU did, especially over the middle.
That puts the spotlight on Alabama’s inside linebackers in its 4-2-5 defense. Caleb Woodson, a Virginia Tech transfer, wears the green dot and handles the helmet communication to the coaches.
Luke Metz won the other starting inside linebacker job right before the opener, and he’s been praised for his “fantastic” on-field communication. If Minchey is going to stay on schedule, those two will have to be sharp.
Even so, the clearest edge in this game may come down to which defense handles the run better. Alabama was nearly as good as Kentucky in 2025, allowing 135.0 rushing yards per game, the 38th-fewest in the FBS. The Tide also smothered ECU on the ground, holding the Pirates to two rushing yards.
Kentucky, though, has made the run game central to what it does. Terrance Green, Alabama’s nose tackle and an Oregon transfer, played for Stein when Stein was the Ducks’ offensive coordinator.
Green said Stein likes trick plays, but the run game is the main piece of his offense. In Week 1, Kentucky backs Jason Patterson and CJ Baxter combined for 126 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack singled out Kentucky’s offensive line on Monday, including Preseason All-SEC Second Team member Lance Heard and Olaus Alinen, who spent the last three years at Alabama before transferring in the offseason.
Green knows what’s coming, even if he expects Stein to mix it up.
"They love to run the ball," Green said. "It's going to be a big week to stop the run. We've just got to play with good pad level, play with our hands, get out of blocks and make plays in the backfield.
"... I kind of know what [Stein] wants to do.
I know he's probably going to change it up, but I was with coach Stein for 2-3 years there. So just going against that every day, going against great O-linemen, that'll help a lot.
But also going against our guys here. Coach (Freddie) Roach is staying on me about my pad level and getting off blocks, so that's going to be big this week.
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