Kentucky is coming off one of its biggest wins of the season, but Will Stein isn’t letting the moment linger. With Vanderbilt next on the schedule, the Wildcats’ coach is pushing a familiar message: past results don’t protect anybody.
The timing could make this one tricky. Kentucky is 6-1, owns two top-10 wins and already has three road victories.
Last weekend, the Wildcats went to Norman and stunned Oklahoma as a touchdown underdog. That kind of win can leave a team vulnerable to a dip, especially with a bye week sitting right around the corner.
Stein knows it, and he’s been hammering the same point all year - in this league, there’s no room to relax.
“Vanderbilt, I think it’s a really good football team. I don’t think any of us in this room or this organization needs to be fooled by any type of record,” Stein said this week. “Last time I checked, they embarrassed Kentucky last year.”
That’s not a throwaway line. Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 45-17 last season in Mark Stoops’ second-to-last game as the Wildcats’ head coach. It was Diego Pavia’s senior night in Nashville, and he put on a show, completing 33 of 39 passes for 484 yards and five touchdowns.
It was Kentucky’s worst loss to Vanderbilt since 2012, when Joker Phillips was fired after a 40-0 defeat to the Commodores. And the recent history hasn’t exactly softened the blow.
Clark Lea has gone 3-2 against Kentucky since arriving in December of 2020, even though the Wildcats’ 2021 win in Nashville was later vacated. Vanderbilt has also won two straight at Kroger Field and three of the last four meetings overall, while Kentucky hasn’t beaten the Commodores at home since the COVID-19 season in 2020.
The rivalry has had its extra edge, too. After Vanderbilt’s win in Lexington in 2024, several Commodore players were seen stomping on the UK logo at midfield.
Stein still had praise for Lea, calling him “extremely intelligent, really tough, and one of the best head coaches in the country.”
He’s also trying to keep Kentucky from walking into a trap. The Wildcats are a double-digit favorite, but Stein is clearly treating this like anything but a comfortable spot.
And with the game already announced as a sellout, he’s asking Big Blue Nation to meet the moment.
“I’d like to challenge our fans here at Kroger Field to exceed expectations from the last matchup. I thought we had an unbelievable crowd here at home against LSU,” Stein said.
“They set the standard. Now it’s time to exceed that standard and be even better.”
Saturday’s game is a Blue Out, so the ask is simple: wear blue, show up loud, and bring the energy for one more home game before the bye week.
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Mark Pope Weighed In As Kentucky Football Changes The Mood Around Campus
As Kentucky basketball prepared for its exhibition matchup with Texas Tech, the crossover conversation on campus kept drifting back to football. John Calipari made clear where he stood, offering strong support for Will Stein and the football program that has helped change the temperature around the Wildcats this fall.
The shift has been hard to miss, with Kentuckys 6-1 start drawing more attention from fans who have spent plenty of recent years looking for a reason to lean into football season. Under new athletic director J. Batt, there also seems to be a more connected feel around the coaching staff and department, and Steins rise has become part of that new mood in Lexington. [Read more 🡒]