Will Stein’s first game as Kentucky’s head coach is set for Sept. 5, 2026, and it arrives with a result that should give Big Blue Nation something to latch onto right away: a predicted 45-14 win over Youngstown State. It is the opening beat of a season that will be read quickly, because the next two steps are far harder.
Stein was hired on Dec. 1, 2025, and his first Kentucky Football season begins after 13 years of Mark Stoops leading the program. That matters now because the first week of September will not just start a schedule; it will start a new era, with the 12-game slate already being judged through the lens of what comes after the opener.
Youngstown State brings a quarterback who had a season worthy of notice. Beau Brungard won the Walter Payton Award in 2025 after throwing for 3,230 yards and 26 touchdowns while adding 1,486 rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns. Even so, Kentucky is still projected to handle the Penguins, and that forecast is the kind of clean first impression a new coach wants to make at home.
The real test comes immediately after. Kentucky is predicted to lose 27-20 to Alabama in its second game, then fall 30-16 to Texas A&M the following week at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. Alabama has not been beaten by Kentucky since 1997, when the Wildcats won 40-34 in overtime in Lexington, and Texas A&M arrives with the kind of profile that makes an upset hard to picture, having made the College Football Playoff last season and expected to bring back starting quarterback Marcel Reed and several other skill-position players.
That is why the opening month already feels like a verdict on the Will Stein era, even though it is only the beginning. Kentucky is forecast to steady itself after those losses with a 41-17 home win over South Alabama, but the first three games would still frame Stein’s debut as a test of how quickly the program can absorb change without losing contact with the level of competition ahead of it.
For now, the most important date is the first one. If Kentucky does what it is expected to do against Youngstown State, Stein will walk into the rest of September with proof that the new staff can meet the basic standard of a debut. The next question is whether Kentucky can do more than that once Alabama and Texas A&M arrive.
