‘Just calling a spade a spade’ – Wildcats head coach Will Stein finally gets honest about the Kentucky vs Tennessee rivalry
Kentucky head coach Will Stein played college football at Louisville, but he grew up rooting for the Wildcats.
The Tennessee Vols and the Kentucky Wildcats are set to meet on Saturday in Neyland Stadium in what is one of the biggest college football games of the season.
Tennessee needs a win to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive, and Kentucky needs the win to remain a one-loss team.
The Wildcats have won only three games against the Vols in the last four decades (2011, 2017, and 2020).
Earlier this week, Kentucky head coach Will Stein, who grew up rooting for the Wildcats, didn’t have any interest in talking about the history between the two programs.
Stein told reporters that he hadn’t talked to his team about Kentucky’s past struggles against Tennessee.
“No, we don’t talk about anything that happened in the past,” said Stein. “There’s really no reason to. It doesn’t do anything with our current team. Most of these environments, if not all, play a factor in your approach.”
Stein changed his tune a couple of days later during an interview with LEX News and Noah Cierzan and he got honest about the rivalry.
“There was a lot,” said Stein if any Tennessee-Kentucky games over the years stood out to him. “Obviously, there was the triple overtime loss at home (it was a four-overtime loss in 2007). I mean, to be honest, the last time I was really a fan, we didn’t have much success against Tennessee. I mean, I’m just calling a spade a spade.
“So it’s about performing really well this Saturday and not worrying about what happened in the past. It’s really about the present right now, and I think we have a really good football team that’s going to go into Neyland Stadium and play good football.”
Obviously, nothing that happened in the past between these two teams will impact the game on Saturday. The game on Saturday is about the competition between the current players. The winner will be determined by which team makes the most plays and the fewest mistakes in front of the hostile crowd at Neyland Stadium.
Still, one of the interesting things about rivalries in college football is how one program can struggle to beat another for years through different head coaches, athletic directors, and rosters.
