The college football coaching carousel appears to be at its peak with multiple high-profile vacancies being filled and others with top targets in the crosshairs. One such vacancy that recently opened up is in Lexington. The Kentucky Wildcats fired head coach Bob Stoops after 13 seasons, accruing an 82-80 record and posting seven winning seasons in that time. It was odd timing for the SEC bottom feeder to let Stoops go when several other conference foes had snatched high-quality candidates. But maybe there was a method to that madness.
While LSU got Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss replaced him with defensive coordinator Pete Golden and Florida snagged Tulane’s Jon Sumrall to take the reins from Billy Napier. Elsewhere in the conference, Arkansas chose Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield and Auburn selected South Florida’s Alex Golesh. Of those five openings, three of them went to up-and-comers from the Group of Five. Somehow, none of the biggest coordinators in the game were poached and now are ripe for the picking. Kentucky is already closing in on one of them in Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein.
BREAKING: Kentucky is hiring Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, @PeteNakos & @clowfb report😼https://t.co/NEjXV6SXc4pic.twitter.com/REMU95GtBd
— On3 (@On3sports) December 2, 2025
Kentucky landed a big fish in Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein
While the rest of the conference waited with bated breath for Kiffin’s decision and then the seemingly panicked rush on filling their vacancies with their backup choices, Kentucky bided its time and played 4D chess…