Kentucky is looking for a renewed spark with its new head coach. Will Stein has taken over the Kentucky program, and his own words already have fans excited for the future. Now, Stein is getting a ringing endorsement from his former quarterback, Dillon Gabriel.
“I love Stein,” Gabriel said in a statement posted by the university on X, formerly Twitter. “He has been a huge part of my success and what I’ve been able to achieve this far. We had a great time at Oregon together. I learned so much about football from him. From the X’s and O’s, how to be a quarterback, leadership, and most of all dialogue. The conversations he has with the quarterback and the relationships he develops allows you to be successful in everything you do on and off the field. I love him to death and he’s a friend for life.”
Gabriel, a current member of the Cleveland Browns, played under Stein for one year at Oregon. The former Ducks quarterback was solid in his year at Oregon in 2024, passing for 3,857 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Gabriel was not the only player to praise Stein. Bo Nix, the current Broncos quarterback, and the Oregon quarterback the year before Gabriel, also chimed in.
“Coach Stein is a great football coach,” Bo Nix said in the same thread on X as Gabriel. “He really helped me in my development during our one year at Oregon. We had a great time together and I learned a lot from him as a coach and as a past quarterback. I think he will do great things as a head coach.”
Stein will finish up his time at Oregon before joining Kentucky full-time. The Ducks will face James Madison in the first round of the playoffs on December 20th. If they defeat JMU, Oregon will face Texas Tech at the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
