Will Stein not satisfied with performance against South Alabama: ‘Very poor effort’
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Will Stein is trying to set a standard in his first season at Kentucky, and after that stunning upset win at Texas A&M in Week 3, he wasn’t happy about the standard that his Wildcats set in Week 4.
It was the perfect scenario for a letdown in Lexington on Saturday, with a Sun Belt team in South Alabama coming to town, and that’s exactly what happened for Stein’s team. Kentucky pulled away in the 2nd half against the overmatched Jaguars, pitching a 21-0 shutout in a 45-21 victory that improved the Cats to 3-1.
Kentucky rushed for almost 400 yards on the day, settling for 390 yards on the ground as it imposed its will on South Alabama as the game went on.
But what about that 1st half, which ended with the Wildcats clinging to a 24-21 lead? What about UK actually trailing, 21-14, late in that 1st half before 10 points prior to halftime at least put the Cats ahead on the scoreboard going into the locker room?
It wasn’t exactly clean in Week 4 in Lexington, as Kentucky heads back on the road next week to face South Carolina. Stein had his own way of describing Saturday’s victory in the postgame press conference, and he was blunt.
“I am still not very happy,” Will Stein said. “That was a very poor effort by us. Credit to South Alabama for playing well, but we weren’t ready to play and that’s on us.”
Despite Stein’s disappointment about his team’s total effort, it was a win for the team in Lexington, and Kentucky is now 3-1 on the young season. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the Wildcats’ win total chances for the 2026 season:
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.
