Justin Geisinger has one foot in each camp heading into Kentucky’s Oct. 24 game against Vanderbilt, and that’s exactly the problem.
On one side, there’s the Commodores. Geisinger was an All-SEC offensive lineman at Vanderbilt and still carries that connection.
On the other, there’s Kenny Minchey, the Kentucky quarterback he once coached at Pope John Paul II in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Minchey has been a big reason the No.
12 Wildcats are 6-1 overall and tied for first in the SEC at 4-1.
So when Vanderbilt heads north to Lexington for the 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Kroger Field, Geisinger’s loyalties won’t be simple.
"It's tough. Obviously, I bleed black and gold, for sure, and what (Vandy head) coach (Clark) Lea has done there over the past several years, I believe in his process and everything he's doing," Geisinger told The Courier Journal in a phone interview Oct.
- "Obviously they've had some struggles here of late.
So this is going to be, I would say, a big test for them, to say the least."
But the pull of Minchey is just as strong.
"There's also a commitment I have to my guys and the guys I've been part of developing and part of their lives," he said. "Kenny's been a part of my life."
Minchey reached out last week to ask whether Geisinger might be able to make the trip to Lexington in person. That part is still up in the air.
Geisinger said he’s "trying to work out" the logistics while also staying in the middle of the season with Franklin Road Academy, the private Christian school in Nashville where he coaches now. If everything falls into place, Geisinger and other Franklin Road Academy coaches who helped tutor Minchey at Pope John Paul II should be in the stands Saturday night.
As for what he’ll wear, Geisinger isn’t committing to anything.
"I don't know if I'll be able to wear either (Kentucky or Vanderbilt) colors, just because I feel loyalties and support to both for different reasons - and Kenny knows that," he said. "We've talked about that and joked about that, too."
There’s another layer to the matchup, too: Lea wasn’t just Geisinger’s college coach, he was his teammate at Vanderbilt.
"We graduated together at Vanderbilt," Geisinger said, "so obviously I have a tie to that program and to what he's doing."
Still, Geisinger’s relationship with Minchey clearly runs deep.
"Kenny was my guy and he's been my guy - and he's still my guy," Geisinger said.
Geisinger, a sixth-round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, said he was "earlier on in my head coaching career" when Minchey came into the program. Both were still growing, and that shared stretch built something meaningful.
"We got to share a lot of vulnerable moments together and grow together," Geisinger said. "It's really, really exciting to see what he's doing."
What Minchey is doing is hard to miss. He has gone five straight games without an interception, completed 68.4% of his passes, and put up 1,552 yards and 13 touchdowns against just one pick on 141 completions in 206 attempts. That run has helped fuel Kentucky’s start under first-year coach Will Stein, a surge that has caught the attention of the college football world.
It didn’t surprise Geisinger.
Back on Aug. 26, when he spoke with The Courier Journal before the 2026 season, he was already sounding like a believer.
"No doubt in my mind that he's gonna make his mark," Geisinger said. "I think that'll show its face this year when people actually see him turn it loose a little bit. ... It'll be cool to see what he does.
"I've got a pretty good feeling about it."
Two months later, he says he doesn’t feel vindicated.
"Not really," he said. "I knew, like we talked about, he's always been built for this. He's always had the demeanor for it.
"It was just a matter of time."
He even went a step further with the prediction.
"Honestly," he said, "I think his best is still to come."
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