Alex Scarborough Oct 21, 2026, 07:00 AM ET

Close

Covers the SEC.

Joined ESPN in 2012.

Graduate of Auburn University.

Will Stein said right from the outset what he planned to do.

"I didn't come here to be average, to be mediocre," he told a room full of Kentucky supporters and media at an introductory news conference in December. "I came here to win and win championships."

The college football world should have known then that the now 37-year-old rookie head coach was different. That he couldn't care less about the low football expectations at a basketball school, where it has lost more games on the field than it has won.…