Will Stein’s first game as Kentucky’s head coach came with a clear message: if you can play, you’re getting the ball. The Wildcats backed that up in a 45-13 season-opening win over Youngstown State, and a pair of true freshmen made the kind of entrance that turns heads fast.
Quarterback Kenny Minchey spread the ball around all afternoon at Kroger Field, with nine different Wildcats finishing with a catch. The biggest chunk of the offense went through the tight ends, who were featured heavily in Stein’s system. Willie Rodriguez, Mikkel Skinner, and Henry Boyer combined for nine receptions, 140 yards, and two touchdowns.
That was a welcome sight on its own, but the night got even better for Kentucky when freshmen Kenny Darby and Prince Jean both found the end zone in their college debuts. They became the first pair of freshmen to catch touchdowns in a Kentucky season-opener since Barion Brown and Dane Key did it in 2022.
“Those guys have practiced their butt off literally since they got here, and they’ve made plays since they’ve got here,” Stein said on postgame radio about Darby and Prince. “ If you’re good enough, you’re old enough in my mind, and doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or a redshirt freshman, sophomore. Like those guys have made plays in practice, and it showed up in a game.”
Darby led Kentucky in receiving, finishing with three catches for a team-high 74 yards and a touchdown. The former four-star recruit out of Louisiana delivered the big play on a 37-yard catch over the middle, slipping through traffic and into the end zone. Afterward, Stein pointed to offensive coordinator Joe Sloan’s role in flipping Darby from LSU to Kentucky, and said the relationship is already showing up on the field.
“Kenny Darby has done it since he showed up,” Stein said. “First day he ever got here in winter, watched him throw some routes.
That guy can play football. You can just see it.
He’s got twitch, he loves the game. He never wants to come out.
He’s a real deal.”
Jean added his own highlight in the third quarter. He finished with two catches for 27 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown that came almost entirely after the catch. The former three-star recruit from Georgia was a holdover commit from the Mark Stoops era, and he looked right at home in Stein’s offense in Week 1.
“Guy’s a real deal,” Stein said of Jean. “He’s got one-cut mentality.
He catches the ball in traffic. He’s smart, he’s tough, dependable.”
Youngstown State’s FCS defense is not what Kentucky will see in the SEC, especially with No. 13 Alabama coming next weekend, but the opener gave the Wildcats exactly the kind of start they wanted. The freshmen making plays was just a bonus - and a strong sign of what Kentucky might have waiting down the road.
“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised with what they did today,” Minchey said of the two freshman wideouts. “They’ve been doing that since they got here in the spring.
But it was great. Put the ball in their hands, they make plays.”
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