Will Stein: "I didn't come here to be mediocre, I came here to win"

Kentucky injected a new bolt of energy once they hired Will Stein as the program's new head coach on Monday, a guy that was so highly-sought after by many other schools and highly-respected by many across the sport, for good reason. It's because of his winning ways, which is nothing new to Stein.

The new Kentucky head coach has had plenty of success through his playing days in high school at Trinity (Louisville), and playing days in college at Louisville, but his most recent success at Oregon under head coach Dan Lanning, who he says is a mentor for him, has gotten him to where he is now. Through his time at Oregon, Stein has produced three Heisman candidate quarterbacks in Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel, and now Dante Moore.

The Ducks are set to begin their playoff run this season after finishing 11-1. Stein's success in Eugene, especially with his quarterback development, as well as his exciting scoring offense, which ranks 9th in the country with 38.2 points per game. Stein knows his winning ways has carried him to this lifelong dream of a job, and he's looking to carry that over into Lexington, not in a few years, but right now.

"The vision is really simple. It's to win," Stein said at his introductory press conference Wednesday. "I didn't come here to be average. I didn't come here to be mediocre, I came here to win. And to win championships. I've won at every single level that I've been at. High school, college, and now the goal is to win here. Not win five years down the road, 10 years down the road, to do it now. And the way that you do that is you work. Success is not free. Rent is due every damn day that we're here, and we're gonna work to get that done to make Big Blue Nation proud, make our players proud, and to do it the right way."

Kentucky is in for what has proven to be, at Oregon, a very up-tempo and high-scoring offense and Stein's goal is to work to surround the team with players that can make things happen. Fans are hungry to win after the way the last few years have gone, and there's no other candidate Kentucky could've gotten that has more of a winning pedigree than Will Stein. Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart knows that, and is a big reason that Stein has ended up in Lexington. "He's won at every level, whether that's from high school to college to the different places he's journeyed along the way in his coaching career, he's been a winner, and that's what we want to be about.”

Stein is going to work hard in what he hopes to be the "hardest offseason we've ever had here" in order to reach that winning success that he's here to deliver.