Kentucky’s football turnaround under Will Stein is starting to look less like talk and more like a blueprint.
A year after Mark Stoops’ tenure ended with a 41-0 loss to Louisville and his blunt admission - “Didn’t play very good, didn’t coach very good and got our butts kicked,” - the Wildcats are the ones delivering the beating. On Saturday at Kyle Field, Kentucky knocked off No. 9 Texas A&M, 31-21, and Aggies coach Mike Elko made the moment easy to frame.
“KENTUCKY UPSETS NO. 9 TEXAS A&M IN COLLEGE STATION 😲"You guys kicked our ass." -Texas A&M coach Mike Elko pic.twitter.com/NQ0RrVxEoO
For a Kentucky program that spent last season getting pushed around, that kind of result lands hard. It also fit the image Stein has been selling since the summer, when he sounded a lot like Curt Cignetti in SEC media days.
“This is going to sound like really-I think because of me, to be honest,” Stein said in July. “I think cause of me.
I think I know what it takes. I have seen it at the highest levels.
I know what it takes to recruit at this level …”
So far, he’s backed it up.
Kentucky looked sharper, stronger and more organized than Texas A&M for most of the afternoon, jumping out to a 28-7 lead before the fourth quarter. The Wildcats’ offensive line, a unit that spent stretches of last season barely hanging on, held up much better after Stein brought in six large transfer linemen with nearly 50 combined career starts. That group kept the Aggies off balance, shut down the pass rush and helped open room for CJ Baxter and Jason Patterson, who combined for 145 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
The defensive side did its part, too. Jay Bateman, Stein’s hire and a former Texas A&M defensive play-caller, had Kentucky consistently in Marcel Reed’s face. The pressure led to two turnovers and helped bottle up an Aggies passing game that managed just 4.8 yards per attempt.
Then there was the quarterback play, and that may be where Kentucky’s biggest upgrade is showing up. Kenny Minchey, the former Notre Dame backup, looked settled in command against Texas A&M and found a rhythm late, finishing by completing his final 11 passes. More important for Stein, Minchey cleaned up the turnover problems that hurt Kentucky in last week’s loss to Alabama.
“Kenny was elite," Stein said after Saturday’s game. “That was the best thing that happened to him, getting sacked four times last week, throwing a pick-six. Because he learned.”
The contrast with Alabama was impossible to miss. Against the Crimson Tide, Kentucky showed signs of life for much of the first half. Against Texas A&M, the whole operation came together.
It has happened fast, too. In just three weeks, Stein has already matched half of Kentucky’s win total from last season.
He has a top-10 victory on the board, against a team that reached the College Football Playoff last season and entered this year with hopes of doing it again. He has also given a frustrated fan base a reason to show up and believe, from the “sneak a flask” comment before the Alabama game to the energy at Kroger Field that followed.
Stein summed up the mindset after the win with a line that fit the afternoon.
“We said all week, be the eye of the storm,” Stein said Saturday. “We knew there was going to be ups and downs, ebbs and flows, but we truly focused on just one play at a time. Not the next, not three away, not what just happened-the next play.”
How far can this go? That answer is still ahead, with five ranked opponents in Kentucky’s final seven games and a brutal stretch still looming.
The second half against Alabama hinted there may be work left to do against top-tier SEC teams. But the Wildcats already look like something they weren’t last season: physical, hard to move and capable of making every opponent feel them.
That much is no longer talk. It’s showing up on Saturdays.
In Other News...
Alabama Gets An Early SEC Reality Check In New AP Poll
The latest AP top 25 brought a fresh shakeup across the SEC entering Week 4, with Ole Miss win over LSU helping alter the leagues early pecking order and Florida sliding into the rankings after a win at Auburn. The movement reflected how quickly the conference landscape can change in September, especially with so many ranked teams already testing each other in pivotal matchups.
For Texas A&M, the update came with a cost after the loss to Kentucky, a result that pushed the Aggies down and renewed attention on their inconsistency on both sides of the ball. With several other teams lingering just outside the poll on votes received, the margin for error is already shrinking, and A&M will spend the next stretch trying to show it belongs back in the mix. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Suddenly Has Two Problems Fans Cant Ignore
Texas A&Ms SEC opener against Kentucky was supposed to be a chance to settle in and build early momentum, but instead it left the Aggies with a familiar-looking reminder of how thin the margin can be in this league. Favored to win before kickoff, they fell 31-21 and spent much of the night chasing a game that kept slipping further away, especially after Kentucky found room to move in the third quarter and widened the gap.
There were a few encouraging signs on offense, with Mario Craver and KJ Edwards each providing some positive moments, but they were overshadowed by the bigger issues that kept showing up. Marcel Reeds interceptions added to the pressure, and the defensive performance was the kind of problem that tends to linger unless it gets fixed quickly, which makes the conversation around this team feel a lot more urgent after one conference loss. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Suddenly Has A Backfield Problem Fans Feared
Texas A&Ms backfield took another hit late in the second quarter against Kentucky, when freshman running back KJ Edwards went down and did not return. Edwards had been part of the game plan before the injury, and his absence was immediate enough to be felt in a room that was already working through depth questions.
Mike Elko confirmed the injury after the game, and the bigger concern is what it means for the Aggies running back rotation moving forward. With multiple scholarship backs already injured, Texas A&M is left trying to piece together a position group that was supposed to provide stability, but now feels increasingly fragile just as the season pushes on. [Read more 🡒]