LEXINGTON, Ky. — It took Will Stein five games to do something no Kentucky football coach has ever done.
Yet Stein made UK football history by thoroughly embracing a modern reality of the college game.
No. 24 Kentucky rallied from 17 points down to stun South Carolina 35-34 on a muggy Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. The outcome was decided via a UK two-point conversion pass in overtime.
At a school that has been playing SEC football since 1933, Stein is now the first out of 17 Kentucky head coaches to win the first two SEC road games of his UK career.
To the Wildcats’ 31-21 road upset of then-No. 9 Texas A&M two weeks ago, you can now add a comeback on an opponent’s home field that was filled with so much drama, it ought to be nominated for an Oscar.
After South Carolina (2-3, 0-3 SEC) scored first in overtime to take a 34-27 lead, Kentucky (4-1, 2-1 SEC) answered with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Kenny Minchey to tight end Henry Boyer.
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Under the current overtime rules, if a game reaches a second OT, each team has to go for two points after a touchdown. Then, starting in overtime three, it is just two-point conversion attempts until someone wins.
Given that, if both teams score touchdowns in the first overtime, the team that has the ball second may as well go for two points and the win. After all, the game has a strong chance of being decided by two-point conversion tries anyway, so why give your opponent a chance to match you?
Not all coaches have yet figured that out.
The 37-year-old Stein showed he has.
“We decided (to go for two) at the beginning of overtime,” Stein said afterward.
With Kentucky’s bid to end its four-game losing streak vs. Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks riding on UK’s two-point try, Minchey hit a wide-open Willie Rodriguez along the back line of the end zone. The UK star tight end appeared to bobble the ball fleetingly, but he secured it — and with it an epic UK win.
“We said this all week — a ‘band of brothers.’ A band of brothers came into Columbia, S.C., and got a win in a really tough environment,” Stein told the SEC Network on the field immediately after the comeback victory.
Kentucky won on a night when it was outgained 156 yards to 18 in the first quarter and 257 to 107 in the first half. The Cats triumphed even though the Kentucky offense converted only 4 of 14 third-down tries and the UK defense allowed South Carolina to convert 8 of 16 such plays.
A big reason UK overcame all that is that Kentucky has a cool cat playing quarterback.
A withering South Carolina pass rush sacked Minchey three times, hurried him five times and generally kept the UK QB uncomfortable in the pocket throughout.
Yet Minchey stood in against the rush, threw for 271 yards and three touchdowns and did not turn the ball over once.
With UK down 27-24 in the fourth period, Minchey led a methodical, 10-play, 66-yard drive that ended with Adam Zouagui booting a 29-yard field goal to tie with 4:13 left in the game.
After the electric South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers put the Gamecocks ahead in the overtime with a touchdown pass to Maurice Brown II, Minchey supplied an answer.
Prior to the game-winning two-point pass, Minchey appeared to tell UK running back CJ Baxter he needed to pick up a pass rusher coming off of South Carolina’s left defensive edge.
Once the ball was snapped, the rusher came clean.
Baxter picked him up.
And Minchey proceeded to hit Rodriguez to win the game.
Said Stein: “Everybody could see in the country, right? We weren’t stopping (South Carolina) much. You gotta go for it. Put it in the hands of No. 3 (Minchey), who played his butt off tonight, and throw it to number 81 (Rodriguez), who is one of the best tight ends in the country.”
Now, with Kentucky sitting at 4-1, 2-1 in the SEC, the Wildcats have set up themselves — and the Big Blue Nation — for some rollicking weeks ahead.
It will start next week with No. 11 LSU visiting Kroger Field. A “brashness” showdown between Stein and LSU head man Lane Kiffin should yield boffo entertainment.
If the Kentucky season continues along the arc it is presently on, can you visualize the electric scene in Lexington when Stein coaches against new Florida head man and former Kentucky linebacker Jon Sumrall for the first time?
Or imagine the atmosphere when Stein faces off with his fellow former Trinity High School quarterback Jeff Brohm in the 2026 renewal of the Governor’s Cup rivalry with Louisville.
To unlock this tidal wave of UK football anticipation, all it took was the coaching boldness that produced the largest Kentucky football road comeback win ever — and gave Stein a unique claim in Kentucky coaching history in only his fifth game as top Cat.
“An unbelievable win for our guys,” Stein said. “Unbelievable.”
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