Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter first heard about Will Stein through University of Texas assistant coaches Jeff Traylor and Hardee McCrary, whose son played for the Cavaliers. When Carter had an offensive coordinator opening ahead of the 2018 season, those two told Carter to give the former Louisville quarterback an interview. 

Stein sealed the job in two minutes. Carter described the now Oregon offensive coordinator and head coach at Kentucky as smart, quick, funny, and that he had a great plan. Stein already had a playbook and an offensive philosophy before his 30th birthday and he helped Lake Travis win 26 games over the two seasons he was leading the Cavalier offense and tutoring quarterback Hudson Card. 

“He did an awesome job in his time with us,” Carter said. “A great offensive mind, but I knew he’d leave me to go back to college and that the sky was the limit for him, and he proved me right on all that.”

But it wasn’t Stein’s offensive acumen that stood out to Carter. It was his competitiveness and fearlessness. He won three state championships as a high school quarterback at Trinity High School in Kentucky and then walked on to Louisville where he worked himself into the starting lineup at one point despite being undersized. Carter says Stein was ultra-competitive in every setting – basketball, pickleball, and even karaoke. 

The Cavalier coaching staff would host game nights for the coaches and families regularly and Stein’s go-to song was “Pink Houses” by John Mellencamp. The young Stein stole the show on more than one occasion. 

“The guy is fearless. He would get up there and absolutely kill it,” Carter said of Stein’s singing chops. “He sang good, he didn’t sound like an idiot. I’ve never seen him do anything that he didn’t look like he knew what he was doing, but he’d jump his butt up there and get after it on the mic.”

Carter wasn’t shocked when Stein left Lake Travis to become the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at UTSA under Traylor when he was hired prior to the 2020 season. By 2022, Stein was calling plays for a Roadrunner program that was winning its second straight Conference USA championship. And he wasn’t surprised when Stein was elevated to Oregon OC in 2023 or when he emerged as the head coach at Kentucky last month. 

“Ultimately, he’s an incredibly smart and competitive guy, but he understands people, too,” Carter explained. “There’s a lot of really successful college coaches that you can’t sit down and have a cup of coffee with or sit down and connect with an 18-year-old as easily as they can command a room full of coaches in their 50s and Will can do both of those.” 

Joe Price first met Stein at UTSA when he arrived as the Director of Player Personnel. Price was the Director of High School Relations at Illinois for the 2019 season but before that, he was an assistant coach at powerhouse Galena Park North Shore from 2014-18. In his final season, North Shore beat Lake Travis, 51-10, in the Class 6A Division I state semifinals. 

“Probably our first conversation or two over the first few days we met each other was me talking crap to him about that game and he was just a super cool, high-energy guy that had fun with it,” Price joked. 

Price was named wide receiver coach at Kentucky and is already helping Stein land portal targets while his boss calls plays for the Ducks in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. He contends that Stein was always destined for this level of success and that his first couple of weeks on the job at Kentucky have only proven that point. He believes the lessons Stein learned at Oregon and UTSA are paramount to the success that the Wildcats are about to achieve. 

“I think what he’s picked up at the last two spots is that connectivity is what really matters when you’re building a program,” Price said. “His message to us was that we want to have the best customer service in the SEC. Meaning we want people to feel taken care of, that we’re going to take care of their kids and that they’re going to grow and have a chance to have real success. 

“While everything can feel transactional in the portal and all that, there is still a human element that exists. We want to make sure we take care of them and let them continue to grow as men while also getting an opportunity to make some bread while playing football.”

Price also believes the stop at Oregon helped Stein find a better sense of style. 

“He’s got to have the most swag of any new coach in this cycle. I don’t remember him having this lavish shoe collection like he does now. Every time he pulls up, he’s got some new Jordans on. He’s fresh now. Flat-bill, vest, fresh pair of J’s, I have to give him credit. During our time apart, his shoe game went up a 1,000%.”