New Kentucky coach Will Stein is an offensive guru and quarterback whisperer

Kentucky football hasn't seen much success in the last few years, going 4-8 and 5-7 in the last two seasons, and that has led to a change of scenery at head coach. Following Mark Stoops' departure, Kentucky wasted no time in going to find a new head coach, and they got the one at the top of their list in Will Stein. Stoops was seen as a very conservative coach, playing ground and pound, hard-nosed football. Not Stein. He's bringing a whole new fresh offensive look to Lexington.

During the quick search, AD Mitch Barnhart was looking for someone who could put points on the board, because, as he put it, it's hard to win in the SEC without scoring. "I was very specifically trying to find ways to put points on the board," Barnhart said of the coaching search. "It's really hard to win games in our league scoring 17, 21 points."

Stein is seen as one of the brightest offensive minds in college football, and for good reason, which is why Kentucky received so much national praise with the hire. Kentucky has struggled to put the ball in the endzone the last few years to say the least, and Stein is looking to change that.

"We're going to play an exciting brand of football. It's only way I know how to do it," Stein said at his introductory press conference. "We take risk, like Mitch (Barnhart) alluded to, but our offense, our plan is to light up the scoreboard. Why not? Right? I've seen it done here many times, and that's the goal."

With Stein, it starts with the quarterback. Take it from the guy that coached Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel, and now Dante Moore and turned them into Heisman candidates. "Being a quarterback by trade, doing it since I was four years old, I have a relatability to these players, and I think that's really what makes me different, and then have the ability to morph the offense and know what best suits them. What we did with Bo Nix was different than what we did with Dylan Gabriel. What we did different with Dante Moore, what I did different with Frank Harris and Hudson Card. So the offense never looks the same. It might have the same principles in it, but we play to the strengths of the QB. We always will. We always have been. And I'm looking forward to working with all those guys and building that room and building the culture of really the quarterback tradition that lies here in Kentucky."

What does Stein look for in a quarterback on the recruiting trail? He wants his guy to be "the toughest M'Fer on the field."

"You start, kind of in your career, do they fit the measurables? But at quarterback, it's so much more than that. It's do they have the mental makeup to be the top, toughest M'Fer on the field? Because that's what they got to be. They got to be mentally and physically tough. That's really where it starts with me, and then processing ability, being extremely accurate thinking. If you look at the guys that I've coached recently, all over 70% passers, if you're not over 70% High School, it makes you think you're going to be 70% college. So we look at that, arm talent only takes you so far. You rarely ever throw it 70 yards, unless it's a Hail Mary situation. So can you be accurate? Can you throw on time? Can you withstand the confines of a pocket? And then in today's modern football, you got to be mobile."

Kentucky has had a great history of quarterbacks, guys like Tim Couch, Jared Lorenzen, Andre Woodson, Stephen Johnson, Terry Wilson, Will Levis, and now, Stein is looking to come in and really build on that, starting with Cutter Boley.