Will Stein grew up loving the University of Kentucky.
His parents graduated from UK, and he attended countless Wildcats sporting events growing up. But when it came time for Stein to go to college, Kentucky never returned his calls.
“You have to understand that every team has wants and needs and their football program,” former longtime Trinity football coach Bob Beatty said. “If he (Stein) wanted to play at UK, maybe that was his dream. But the bottom line is, the young man wanted to play football.”
Often underestimated but hardly ever outworked, Stein, who started as a wide receiver for the Shamrocks, stayed in his hometown and walked on at the University of Louisville. Stein earned a scholarship and became the Cardinals’ starting quarterback. Injuries caused him to lose his starting job to Teddy Bridgewater, and his lack of size kept him out of the NFL.
But his Louisville connections helped jump-start his coaching career after he met UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor through Charlie Strong, who coached Stein at Louisville before leaving for Texas.
“The opportunities that came after not coming here the first time, I think set me up because what happened? Charlie gets to Texas; I meet Jeff Traylor at Texas. I get hired at UTSA by Jeff. It all works out,” Stein said. “I get to Oregon, now I’m here at Kentucky where I always wanted to be and wanted to play as a kid and now coach. ... I’m extremely thankful for my time at Louisville. I would lie to you guys right now if I said I wasn’t.”
Although Stein is on the other side of the Battle of the Bluegrass rivalry now, there’s still a mutual — albeit maybe muted — love on both sides for him. Kentucky may be where he is now, but his hometown helped set the trajectory for him to get there.
"It's going to be hard to root against Will Stein because of the guy, who he is as a person," former UofL running back Bilal Powell said. "I wish him nothing but the best and a ton of success. And maybe if he doesn't beat Louisville, beat Louisville too bad, maybe our friendship will stay the same.”
Steve Kragthorpe, the late former Louisville football coach, once jokingly told Jon Gruden that Stein is 5-foot-7 "on a good day." Stein’s football bio had him listed as 5-10. Strong sometimes referred to Stein as the “miniature Brett Favre.”
“Will never backed down from a challenge,” said Doug Beaumont, a former Louisville receiver and Male High School graduate. "You never saw him tighten up or get nervous. He kind of had that chip on his shoulder, and that was kind of what people saw in Brett Favre. He might not be the biggest guy, but he's going to fight like he's the biggest guy on the field.”
Stein came to Louisville as a walk-on in 2008. He got his first start as a redshirt freshman against Arkansas State and won, 21-13. Quarterbacks Justin Burke, who reportedly will join Stein at UK, and Adam Froman suffered shoulder and elbow injuries, respectively, against Cincinnati the week prior. Beating Arkansas State was one thing; going to Morgantown to play West Virginia was another. Stein relished the opportunity to be the underdog.
“You want people throwing batteries at you or whatever they throw — I heard they were pretty crazy,” Stein said at the time.
And it wasn’t just talk. Former Louisville quarterbacks coach Matt Wells said Stein has “the heart of David” in the way he exudes confidence, which rubbed off on his teammates. Powell still remembers the way Stein commanded the locker room and referred to him as an extended coach on the field. Added talent didn't hurt, either. At one point during a 7-on-7 practice, Stein completed every pass. Had he been a little taller, "we're talking about a different Will Stein because I think he definitely had the opportunity to play in the National Football League," Powell said.
What Stein lacked in height, he made up for in heart. He went from a backup receiver to Trinity's starting quarterback as a junior. That came from living up to the Shamrocks' motto to go above and beyond. Stein would often convince his friends who played receiver to get extra reps on the weekends or bypass going to see the latest movie in theaters to watch football film.
“You can tell he really enjoyed the game,” Beatty said. “Sometimes kids play for their parents. Sometimes they play because it's popular. Will played because he was passionate about the game, and that stood out immediately.”
Passion and an unprecedented work ethic yielded confidence. Confidence resulted in Stein winning three state championships with Beatty and the Shamrocks. And that same recipe is why Stein was fearless in going into West Virginia’s hostile stadium a year removed from his high school senior season.
Louisville was competitive with West Virginia and took the Mountaineers to the wire. But a 17-6 WVU lead heading into the fourth quarter was too much to overcome in the 17-9 loss.
“It was actually a play where, at that time, I hadn't scored a touchdown in my career, and people knew that. Will actually found me in the back of the end zone, which I scored, but we looked up and there was a penalty on offense,” Beaumont recalled. “... It was a close game, but I knew that we were going to compete that whole game because of having Will out there on the field during that time.”
Kragthorpe’s exit after the 2009 season gave way to Strong’s tenure at Louisville the next year. Strong eventually put Stein on scholarship and made him the Cards’ starting quarterback.
“Will was a guy who consistently played the game at a high level, far exceeding the expectations that many had for him,” said former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore, who got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at UofL in 2009 before moving up to coach tight ends three years later, in a statement to The Courier Journal. “Will was a tough, smart, dependable, hard-working and gritty walk-on who was counted on in some big moments at Louisville.”
Stein opened his junior season as the Cardinals’ starting quarterback, which included a 24-17 Week 3 win over Kentucky. But he didn’t finish the game: He suffered a shoulder injury during the second quarter. Bridgewater filled in for Stein and ultimately became the Cards’ new QB1. Stein finished his career at Louisville with 1,273 passing yards and six touchdowns to two interceptions over 25 games.
Strong left Louisville after the 2013 season to become Texas’ head football coach. Two years after, Strong hired Traylor to be the Longhorns’ tight ends coach and special teams coordinator and brought Stein on as a quality control coach. When Traylor got his first college head coaching job at UTSA in 2020, he hired Stein as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach. The two stayed together for three seasons before Stein left to be Oregon’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Although Wells only coached Stein for a year, the two went from player-coach to friends and colleagues.
“We Zoom together during the spring and share ideas,” said Wells, who was Texas Tech’s head coach (2019-21). “I watched Oregon, and I had watched UTSA and stolen ideas and just talking and chalk talk and talking ball and throwing ideas out back and forth, and how you game-plan, and what do you do in the summer and what do you do during the week, of things, and just comparing and contrasting. I’ve got so much respect for him. To see how he's grown, I'm a proud coach, but I'm also a proud friend.”
As a native of the Bluegrass State, it’s an implicit requirement to pick a side: Kentucky or Louisville. Stein picked UK as a child; UofL picked him as a young adult. And now both he and the Wildcats have chosen each other. His support and love for his alma mater will have to take a backseat to his status as the face of the Wildcats’ football program.
During a radio appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio after his hiring, Stein was asked twice if he would throw the “L’s down” at some point. He reluctantly agreed to do so if it meant winning on the recruiting trail.
“Whatever we’ve got to do,” he said.
But the sentiment came after Stein expressed his admiration for Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm and his family, whom Stein has known for most of his life. Oscar Brohm, Jeff’s father, was Stein’s quarterbacks coach at Trinity, and Jeff was Stein’s first quarterbacks coach at UofL.
“For us, that’s our rival, so we’ll do everything we can to win that game when we get to it,” Jeff Brohm said of the 2026 Governor’s Cup. “But I was excited for him that he got that opportunity.”
For as bitter of a rivalry as Louisville-Kentucky is, Stein serves as a gray area that unites both. One side helped him achieve his dreams of getting to the other side, though both have embraced him.
"He didn't have the measurables to go on and be an NFL quarterback," Powell said. "So now that he has the ability to coach, it's harder to beat him because that was his advantage over everyone: to outsmart you. Being that he is smart, and he's considered one of the most elite playcallers in the NCAA.”
Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky football coach Will Stein shaped by Louisville, Ky, roots
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