Will Stein Has a Plan for Everything. Almost.

(LEXINGTON, Ky.) — Will Stein has apparently thought of everything.

Next Saturday, Kentucky football will conduct its final dress rehearsal before opening the season against Youngstown State on September 5.

And I do mean everything.

The Wildcats will go to the team hotel. They’ll see the meeting rooms. They’ll bus back to Kroger Field. They’ll go through their pregame routine. They’ll practice halftime. They’ll even rehearse the Cat Walk.

Sort of.

“We’re gonna bus back over here, do a fake Cat Walk, and fake high-five people,” Stein explained.

Fake high-fives?

Finally, something I could have excelled at during my athletic career.

The mock game will be Kentucky’s attempt to remove as many surprises as possible before the real thing arrives. Stein wants his players knowing where to stand, where to walk, and what comes next before 60,000 people show up and considerably complicate matters.

There’s only one problem.

Football stubbornly refuses to follow a script.

That became obvious during Saturday’s scrimmage.

Kentucky’s defense forced turnovers. Kentucky’s offense committed them. The offense later recovered and scored touchdowns in the red zone, leaving Stein in the peculiar position every head coach occupies during a scrimmage.

Congratulations, defense.

What the heck, offense?

Stein called it a “double-edged sword.” Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman was considerably less conflicted. His guys punched balls loose, intercepted passes, and did exactly what he had been preaching all week.

Welcome to intra-squad football, where every good play is simultaneously somebody else’s mistake.

Offensive coordinator Joe Sloan saw progress, too. The Wildcats lined up better, operated more efficiently, and got better movement up front. Kenny Minchey looked more comfortable and, perhaps more importantly, started running the ball down the field.

Kentucky wants Minchey using his legs five to eight times a game. During Saturday’s scrimmage, he broke one for approximately 40 yards and turned other potential nothing-burgers into manageable downs.

That may matter more than any spectacular throw Minchey makes.

Stein doesn’t want his quarterback playing hero ball. He called Minchey a “point guard,” surrounded by enough talent that he shouldn’t feel responsible for winning games by himself.

His philosophy was refreshingly simple: quarterbacks lose more games by making bad decisions than they win by making spectacular ones.

In other words, take the easy money. That sounds like excellent advice for quarterbacks—and possibly for casinos, too.

Meanwhile, Bateman is preparing for something no mock game can reproduce.

Adversity.

At practice, give up a touchdown and the horn eventually blows. Everybody moves to the next period. The scoreboard disappears. Life begins again.

That doesn’t happen on Saturdays.

“I kind of want to see how we’re gonna respond when adversity hits,” Bateman said.

He also wants to know how his defense communicates with 60,000-plus people making noise. Those things simply cannot be duplicated during August practice.

And perhaps that’s the most interesting thing about Kentucky football two weeks before kickoff.

We’ve spent months asking whether Stein is ready to be a head coach, whether Minchey is ready to be an SEC quarterback, whether Sloan’s offense will work, and whether Bateman’s defense can stop anybody.

Nobody knows.

Not yet.

But there are encouraging signs.

Stein says Kentucky looks like “a real SEC team” when healthy—big offensive linemen, big receivers, big tight ends, and big backs. Sloan likes the emerging depth at receiver. Bateman likes the physicality and communication developing on defense.

And Stein seems increasingly comfortable with the one position nobody can adequately rehearse—his own.

Asked what his team needs most from him, the 36-year-old first-time head coach didn’t say brilliance.

He said consistency.

Stein acknowledged that his passion can be both his greatest strength and greatest weakness. When the stadium fills and the stakes rise, his challenge will be staying even-keeled, remaining in the moment, and playing aggressively rather than fearing the result.

You can practice that over and over.

You can talk about it endlessly.

You can even fake the Cat Walk.

Eventually, though, somebody has to kick the football.

And those high-fives become real.

Dr. John Huang is a retired orthodontist, military veteran, and award-winning author. Currently serving as a columnist for Nolan Group Media, he invites readers to follow him on social media @KYHuangs. Explore his latest, Whining For Posterity, Name Image and Murder,  and all his books at Amazon.