Will Stein comments on Mitch Barnhart’s retirement months after hire at Kentucky
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Will Stein’s adjustment to life in Lexington got a little more challenging last week, when longtime Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart announced that he would be retiring this summer.
Stein came all the way from Oregon, where he ran the Ducks’ offense for the past 3 seasons, to take his first collegiate head coaching job. Barnhart, who has been in charge of Kentucky athletics for the past 24 years, entrusted Stein to be the man to take over for longtime head football coach Mark Stoops. He also saw Stein as the man who could take Kentucky football to a different level and, just maybe, SEC championship level some day.
As Will Stein settles into his new, challenging job in the rough world of SEC coaching, he spoke on Tuesday morning as spring football got under way about another challenge that’s been dropped his lap now — working for a new athletic director come this summer with the 66-year-old Barnhart stepping aside after all these years.
“I think it took a lot of people by surprise,” said Stein of Barnhart’s imminent departure. “But like I told Mitch, his career is, I would say, legendary for the University of Kentucky. … Anybody that’s here for that long is doing something right. He’s got 6 national championships to his name, countless All-Americans, All-SEC.
“He’s a legendary person here, and I’m just really happy for him. He’s moving on to a new chapter in his life, so I think we all just got to support that.”
Stein has a massive challenge on his hands to make Kentucky relevant, as displayed with Kalshi’s current odds to win the 2026 SEC championship:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
