Todd McShay sees Kentucky as the kind of team that can crash the College Football Playoff conversation before the rest of the sport fully catches on.
After Kentucky’s 31-21 win at Texas A&M, McShay went on his podcast following Week 3 and picked the Wildcats as the SEC team outside the current CFP heavyweight class most likely to make unexpected noise. He framed it around Will Stein, the first-year head coach whose stock is already rising fast.
“I’m taking Kentucky,” he said. “I’ve been a Will St-if you can transform Bo Nix at Auburn, turnover-machine, mistake-laden, ball placement-erratic, into that at Oregon?
If you can turn Dillon Gabriel into a third-round draft pick? If you can turn Dante Moore into a guy who just didn’t work out his freshman year, too much going on, whatever, let him sit for a year?
He’s the quarterback whisperer.”
McShay’s belief in Stein goes beyond quarterback development. He thinks the coach can pull off something at Kentucky that once felt out of reach, the kind of leap Curt Cignetti made at Indiana.
When Cignetti took over, the Hoosiers had one of the worst football traditions in power-conference history. McShay pointed to that as a blueprint for what Stein might do in Lexington.
“Let’s start big picture, though. I’ve always been a Will Stein fan,” he continued.
“Will Stein was asked, ‘Why is Kentucky going to be something that never has been before?’ I forget the specific question.
‘Why is Kentucky going to be in the College Football Playoff?’ Will Stein was like, ‘Because of me.’
A lot of (Curt) Cignetti right there.”
The Wildcats are not being viewed that way nationally yet. McShay’s exercise excluded Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU, all of whom are in the AP Top 10, and also left out Arkansas.
The remaining competition he considered was Missouri, Florida and Mississippi State, all ranked this week. Kentucky sits just outside the top 25 at No.
Still, McShay likes the setup. Kentucky has the No. 18 schedule in the country, while the other three teams have top-10 schedules the rest of the way. The road ahead is tough for everyone in the SEC, but he sees Kentucky’s path as the most manageable after already earning a top-10 road win.
He was especially impressed by how the Wildcats responded after the Alabama loss, then turned around and dominated Texas A&M with 408 total yards and 7.5 yards per play against a Mike Elko defense.
“I’m doubling down and picking the one team that the AP Poll is absolutely absurd for not putting in the top 25,” he continued. “… I read this nugget: a Kentucky football team has never won a game in front of that big of a crowd-it was like 110K-plus, whatever it was.
It was absurd. To do it against that crowd, coming off of a week where they got their ass kicked in the second half against Alabama?
They come out the next week and they wind up with 408 total yards. They average 7.5 yards per play against Texas A&M-and that’s Mike Elko.
That’s not nothing.”
McShay also praised Kenny Minchey and the offense’s overall execution, but he spent just as much time on the defense under Jay Bateman. He named Tavion Gadson, Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace, Jaden Williams, Jordan Castell, Ty Bryant and Grant Godfrey as key pieces, and he was especially taken with how the unit flies to the ball.
“I’m in love with this defense,” he said. “… They have all sorts of speed and athleticism and playmakers and guys that run to the football.
… My gosh, do they fly to the football! And then in the pass game, they’re not going to be speed rushers, but they’re going to rush with discipline.
… They’re flying all over the place, but they’re playing within this scheme that works because of the defensive front three that’s exceptional.”
McShay laid out a path that would keep the hype train rolling, including road wins at Tennessee and Missouri, home wins over Florida and Louisville, and taking care of the other games a good team should handle. He even said top-10 LSU at home is not off the table.
“I’m a Stein disciple,” he said.
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