SAN ANTONIO – A familiar face for UTSA football fans has been tabbed to be a head coach for the first time in the storied Southeastern Conference.
The University of Kentucky announced its hiring of Will Stein late Monday night. Stein is replacing Mark Stoops, who was the longest-tenured head coach in the SEC entering the 2025 season (hired in 2013) and the winningest head coach in program history (72 wins).
Stein, 36, is a Kentucky native who played college football at the University of Louisville, Kentucky’s archrival. After a two-year stint on the Louisville coaching staff post-graduation, Stein joined Charlie Strong’s staff at Texas in 2015 where he worked with then-special teams coordinator and future UTSA head football coach Jeff Traylor.
Following two seasons as an assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Austin Lake Travis, Traylor hired Stein to be on his first UTSA coaching staff in 2020.
Stein was initially the Roadrunners’ passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2020 and 2021 before Traylor promoted him to co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in January 2022.
UTSA had a memorable 2022 season, winning 11 games and a Conference USA championship. Quarterback Frank Harris completed 69.6% of his passes for 4,063 yards, 32 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. After that season, Stein was hired onto Dan Lanning’s coaching staff as Oregon’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Stein will call Lexington, Kentucky, home after he wraps up the 2025 season with the Ducks. Stein built the offense quarterbacked by transfers Bo Nix (2022-23) and Dillon Gabriel (2024), who both became Heisman Trophy finalists in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
According to an On3 report, Stein will continue to serve as an assistant with the Ducks until their season ends. Oregon finished the regular season 11-1 and is a likely candidate for one of the 12 coveted spots in this winter’s College Football Playoff.
Stein is expected to be formally introduced as Kentucky’s head coach on Wednesday afternoon.
More local sports coverage on KSAT: