It has officially been an entire week since the college football transfer portal opened on Jan. 2, with teams across the nation scrambling for visits and quick commitments.

Despite his duties as Oregon’s offensive coordinator, which ended in abrupt fashion on Jan. 9 by way of the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers, Will Stein and company have been holding or folding their cards in contention with the nation’s top programs.

According to 247Sports, Kentucky currently holds the No. 14 overall portal class ahead of the 2026 season, consisting of 13 total commitments. Of those, two players are four-star recruits and eleven of them are three-star recruits.

Showing the attention to detail and the connections built so quickly, the Wildcats reached out to Arkansas linebacker Tavion Wallace on Jan. 3, the younger brother of former Kentucky linebacker Trevin Wallace. At one time, the younger Wallace brother was a consensus four-star recruit and was ranked as a top 25 linebacker in the country.

As former Wildcats, led by quarterback Cutter Boley, began to spread their wings and transfer elsewhere, Kentucky remained consistent in its recruiting trail.

During this same time period, the Wildcats hosted the consensus No. 1 overall quarterback in this year’s portal class, Sam Leavitt. Rumors of a hefty NIL package and a modern-era player swap circulated with Boley’s commitment to Arizona State, with reports of Leavitt and Stein watching film until midnight the day he visited Lexington.

Jan. 4 and 5 would remain as marquee days in the Wildcats’ efforts, landing five different players. At the start of the batch was Gardner Webb EDGE Antonio O’Berry, who chose Kentucky over schools such as Ohio State, Georgia and more. The 6-foot-6 threat tallied 10.5 TFLs and seven sacks in the 2025 season.

Commitments started to flood every social media notification inbox, with the Wildcats adding three new guys just several hours apart: Baylor’s interior offensive lineman Coleton Price, LSU’s defensive tackle Ahmad Breaux and Western Carolina cornerback Hasaan Sykes.

Price spent four seasons at Baylor, playing three as a starter and earning a 68.0 overall offensive grade in 2025. Breaux had 19 total tackles last season with half of a sack credited to his name as well. Sykes impresses the most out of this batch, deflecting five passes, recording three interceptions, two sacks and forcing a fumble in last year’s outings.

On the night of the fifth, Stein went and got his quarterback, ending all speculation surrounding Leavitt’s decision. Kenny Minchey, Notre Dame’s backup play caller, flipped his commitment just one day after transferring to Nebraska and decided to become a Wildcat.

Minchey, with an athletic and melodic skill set, spent last year on the Fighting Irish’s bench behind CJ Carr.

Minchey was a four-star recruit out of Hendersonville, Tennessee and has every tool needed to be an elite guy in the SEC.

The fun didn’t stop there, as in the next afternoon, Kentucky would land Oklahoma running back Jovantae Barnes, brining in fire power at a much needed position. Barnes totaled 1,281 yards and 12 touchdowns during his time with the Sooners.

Just an hour before, Kentucky would receive two commitments from SEC foes, acquiring cornerback Aaron Gates from Florida and interior offensive lineman Max Anderson from Tennessee.

With anticipation and optimism shifted to Kentucky’s basketball game against Missouri on Jan. 7, the Wildcats would again bring in more top talent behind the scenes, earning commitments from Purdue’s defensive tackle and Frederick Douglas graduate Jamarrion Harkless, Alabama offensive tackle Olaus Alinen, UAB wide receiver Xavier Daisy and last but certainly not least, Florida’s three-year starting safety Jordan Castell.

To round off the week, Pitt defensive back Jesse Anderson decided he wanted a little bit more blue in his life for his two remaining years of his college journey, committing to Kentucky on Jan. 9.

Stein and his team aren’t done just yet – mind you this is just week one. With Oregon’s 56-22 loss to Indiana in the Peach Bowl, the new coach in the bluegrass state will say his final goodbyes and turn his complete and total attention to the Wildcats.

Kentucky football’s newest chapter is off to a hot start and it’s all gas, no brakes moving forward.

On Saturday, Jan. 3, the Kentucky Wildcats and new head coach Will Stein put down the first piece of the puzzle, landing Arkansas linebacker Tavion Wallace from the transfer portal, the younger brother of former Kentucky linebacker Trevin Wallace.

The former Razorback stands at 6-foot-1 and weights 239 pounds, who at one time was a consensus four-star recruit and was ranked as a top 25 linebacker in the country – all taking place while his brother was dominating the SEC and eventually turned into a third round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Out of high school, Wallace received an abundance of offers, including notable schools such as Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Florida State and Michigan. Among the finalists in his recruitment, Kentucky was a soft mention, but other SEC foes led the way, with Florida State over in the ACC serving as the lead favorite.

Ultimately, Wallace shocked many, and went with defensive coordinator Travis Williams and the Razorbacks.

During his first season of collegiate ball, Wallace didn’t take the field much down in Fayetteville, AR, only appearing in nine games and notching two tackles in the stat sheets. Ultimately, he entered the transfer portal after head coach Sam Pittman was relived of his duties.

The linebacker position is a need for Kentucky, and early on, the proper steps are being made. This polished prospect will look to follow in his brother’s footsteps and wow Big Blue Nation this coming fall.

Just days after his introductory press conference as the new head coach of Kentucky Football, Will Stein has landed his first “official recruit “splash” at the position.

Coming in the wake of the Wildcats’ hiring former LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to the same position as a part of their new regime, former Tigers commit and four-star wide receiver Kenny Darby has announced his decision to flip to Kentucky.

It’s a different feeling in Lexington as far as football goes, and if Darby’s commitment is any indication, it’s only the beginning of much more to come.

Ties to the Offense

Despite having struggled this past season as the Tigers play-caller – perhaps due in large part to the overall crumbling of the Brian Kelly timeline there – Sloan had previously made a name for himself as a coordinator, helming a top 15 offense in the country in 2025 and helping guide quarterback Jayden Daniels to his eventual NFL stardom.

Although LSU let the OC go, his rehiring by Stein clearly had an effect beyond the product on the field. Darby’s commitment can be traced back to Sloan himself visiting the receiver in January of this year.

With the likes of Alabama, Colorado, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Houston and still, technically, LSU being in the mix, for the Wildcats to land Darby amidst multiple titanic programs such as those is an incredibly good omen for what could come under Will Stein.

The Expectations

Regarding Darby himself, the 6’0 prospect out of Bossier City, LA, earned his four-star title with an impressive run at Airline High School.

The highly-touted pass-catcher was initially supposed to be a crucial asset in the Tigers’ offense before his de-commitment; with Sloan’s move to Kroger Field, Darby following along suggests a similar expectation.

Signing alongside quarterback Matt Ponatoski and tight end Lincoln Watkins, both four-stars, the revamped Wildcats offense is already taking shape for not only next season, but the years to come.

Washing Worries Away

With QB Cutter Boley and running back Dante Dowdell anticipated to return, also – Dowdell said as much in an excited, tongue-in-cheek post on X (Twitter) – Stein’s somewhat worrying late hire may not have the negative impact that the move initially suggested.

As Stein himself said, “feed the studs.” The Cats just landed a legitimate stud as the next regime takes full hold.