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Before Kentucky and Oklahoma squared off on Oct. 17, the SEC was in a state of disarray. The top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs had fallen, and fellow top-10 teams Alabama and Texas also suffered defeats. The chaos wasn't confined to the conference, as two other top-five squads, Notre Dame and Indiana, each absorbed their first losses of the season. Amid all that upheaval, Kentucky was sitting in an enviable position before facing the Sooners.
However, "pretty" is hardly the word to describe the Wildcats' 21-13 victory at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. First-year head coach Will Stein, whose team just keeps winning, couldn't care less about style points. "Somebody told me once, 'Stats are for losers,'" Stein said. "This is one of those games. We somehow—and I know how—found a way to win through our grit, through our toughness."
Now past the midpoint of the 2026 regular season and beyond the middle of October, Kentucky stands at 6-1 overall and 4-1 in SEC play. That latter mark ties the Wildcats with Georgia atop the conference standings—a school that needs no introduction. Even the most passionate Kentucky supporter likely never imagined such success in Stein's debut season. Did Stein himself allow thoughts of a magical first year? Hardly. "I'm not really worried about where we're ranked, what our record is," he said. "It's all about, 'How can we improve?' So this was a big win on the road. Whenever you can win on the road in the SEC, it gives you a lot of confidence. So I'm not really worried about any standings. I know how quickly that can turn if you don't take care of business the following week."
Key Analysis
Ironically, Kentucky's next opponent, Vanderbilt, is its easiest on paper for the rest of the regular season. The Commodores, no longer powered by the incomparable Diego Pavia, have sunk to the SEC cellar. They are 0-4 against league foes this fall after losing a pillow fight to Arkansas on Oct. 17—an Arkansas team that was also winless in the SEC (0-3) before defeating Vandy. It defies logic to believe the Wildcats could lose to the Commodores in Lexington on Oct. 24, not with everything hanging in the balance: a first-ever SEC championship game appearance and a College Football Playoff berth—a phrase that still seems surreal alongside "Kentucky." Not even a year removed from the end of the Mark Stoops era, which saw the program drop 13 of 16 conference games over the past two seasons, the Wildcats are now the hunted. But Stoops is yesterday's news; Stein is the present and the future.
Yet for all the attention on Stein, after dispatching the Sooners, he made sure the focus wasn't on himself. It was on the process and, more importantly, on every person—big and small—who contributes to making the program better every day. "It's not just getting the right players, but the right people in here," he said, "with the right characteristics: grit, toughness, accountability, connection, people that are about the team. I think that's what really shows in moments like this. In the age of (transfer) portal and rev share and NIL? A lot of guys aren't typically bought into the program that they're playing for. But that's something that we made sure that we got when we got guys into this program was that they love playing football for their team, for their university, for Kentucky. And it's showing up, for sure."
No one can deny the results thus far. Stein and his staff have been near flawless in every respect since the season began. Kentucky is a half away—that 32-point deluge by Alabama in the final two quarters on Sept. 12—from sporting an undefeated record through Week 7. Sure, as Stein said, stats might be for losers. But he doesn't need to worry about that. All he does is win.
Originally reported by yahoo.