On Saturday, Kentucky Football walked into Kyle Field and left with a victory over a top-10 team in Will Stein’s third game as a head coach, so let’s talk about some of the biggest takeaways from the historic win.
Will Stein shows he’s the real deal
At SEC media days ahead of Will Stein’s first season in Lexington, Stein said, “Because of me,” when he was asked, “Why do you think you can win big here?”
Safe to say that three games in, he has backed up that quote that came off as “cocky” to some. In his third game as the head coach at Kentucky, he has taken down the No. 9 team in America on its home field. When you think about what makes great head coaches, one thing is dominating at the line of scrimmage, and another is getting your team up after a low point.
Kentucky dominated this game from start to finish, and everyone could see it. On top of that, some teams and players would lie down and feel bad for themselves after having a second half like Kentucky had against Alabama, losing the second half 32-0.
But Stein didn’t happen. This team was ready to play from the start, literally knocking the ball out on the opening kickoff and not letting any small moments of adversity get to them throughout the game.
Jay Bateman got the last laugh
Last year at this time, Jay Bateman was on Texas A&M’s sidelines coaching the Aggies, but Mike Elko stripped him of his play-calling duties, which led him to leave for the Kentucky defensive coordinator job when Stein extended the offer.
Now, a year later, he gets the last laugh as the Wildcats went into Kyle Field and stunned the No. 9 Aggies, and his defense was a huge reason why. The Wildcats picked off Marcel Reed twice and applied a ton of pressure throughout the contest, creating havoc for the Aggies offense.
Kenny Minchey may be UK’s best QB in recent memory
The defense was a big part of this upset in College Station, but Kenny Minchey made play after play after play. He finished the game completing 10-straight passes and went 14/18 for 252 yards and two passing touchdowns.
On the run, in the pocket, it didn’t matter; Minchey was making the plays. In crunch time, he hit numerous targets or evaded pressure to help get Kentucky to a victory.
It’s early, but Minchey is already showing the potential to be one of Kentucky’s best quarterbacks in recent memory.
The Big Blue Wall is back
Kentucky went on the road to one of the toughest environments against one of the nation’s top defenses and showed they have one of the top offensive line units in the country. From communication to creating huge holes for the backs, or creating a pocket for Minchey, they were as steady as could be throughout the upset, and got numerous shoutouts on the broadcast.
The line helped this team rush for 156 yards and two touchdowns, including two impressive goal-line pushes to help get CJ Baxter in the end zone. This group is a unit that would make John Schlarman proud.
Kentucky’s wide receiver room is in good hands
We got to see that Kenny Darby is just a true freshman, even though he hasn’t shown it much so far in his first season. Darby dropped a walk-in touchdown, but made up for it in an incredible way with two catches for 64 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter that put Kentucky ahead for good.
Sophomore DJ Miller also delivered an amazing game, finishing with a team-high 96 yards on five catches, including a massive deep reception toward the end of the first half that led to Kentucky’s first touchdown of the day.
This position group was definitely a question mark entering the season, and that was especially true after the Alabama game, but they stepped up in a big way to get this top-10 win.
The new era of Kentucky Football is here
With Mark Stoops, Kentucky saw heights most people could’ve never dreamt of, but he certainly had a style to the way his teams played ball. When Kentucky would hang in there with top-ranked teams or even complete upsets, outside of a couple of anomalies, it was run the ball and drain the clock while playing elite bend-don’t-break defense.
That wasn’t the case for Kentucky this time. Joe Sloan and Will Stein put together incredible, super-creative offensive play-calling.
Jay Bateman threw different defenses that created confusion, while the offense was also threatening to score all game long, using so many different weapons in so many different ways.
We’re grateful for what Stoops did, but things have definitely changed under Stein.
There are so many notes to take from this historic win for Stein and this team, so that’s just a few.
The biggest question leaving this game is… if we can win at Texas A&M, then who can’t we beat?
