Will Stein talks Kentucky football's recruiting approach

Will Stein and Kentucky football have seemed to wrapped up their 2026 transfer portal additions after adding FCS transfer WR Shane Carr on Monday. The Wildcats have 33 total commitments from the transfer portal. But what about the upcoming future years of recruiting? Will Stein talked about Kentucky's recruiting approach moving forward on Monday.

Stein, a Louisville, KY native, knows that it always starts with recruiting in-state talent first and foremost, and there is a lot of it in Kentucky. "The best way that we're going to move forward is really starting inside the state of Kentucky. It has to, I mean, in this next class, there's a lot of really good talent in the state right now, a lot. And when I've seen Kentucky at its best, it's homegrown talent. That's where you got to start. Then you look at really the five, six hour radius around us. Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit. I'm even going to Charlotte and Atlanta, like, those are the cities that you really want to hone in on, even St Louis."

But, it's not just about getting that homegrown talent. You have to recruit elsewhere as well, and Stein is comfortable going anywhere if it means getting the best talent to build a championship-level program. "This is a national brand. University of Kentucky. This logo holds weight. So this is where you can use your resources and your relationships that you built, maybe prior, to going to a state like Texas, to really dive into South Florida, even in the DMV area, to use those connections to acquire players that want to be here. You know, we'll go wherever. If there's a kid in Alaska that wants to play at Kentucky that's good enough, we'll go there. It does not matter. And in the new state of college football and recruiting, it's really about building relationships and making sure that we're consistent in our approach with those players and just bring in the best guys that fit our program."

Speaking of recruiting, after bringing in an entire portal class, Stein has been able to get a sense of Kentucky football's NIL resources. He is not worried about if Kentucky has enough money to compete in the SEC. "(Mitch Barnhart and Eli Capilouto) have resourced me definitely in a good way to feel like we can push the envelope with player acquisition, retention and then building the best coaching staff possible" Even though he feels resources are not a problem in terms of money, it's not the first thing Stein wants to hear out of a recruit's mouth. "If the first thing they ask about is money, probably not the guy that we want. There's no hiding that or talking not talking about it, that is real but that's not the first thing that we want to talk about"

Moving forward, the future of Kentucky football recruiting looks bright under Will Stein and a staff that have worked extremely hard, even with sleepless nights, as Stein later noted, to bring in the best roster possible in his first year as the head coach in Lexington.