Trinity High School grad seeing success as coach

Will Stein doesn’t need to be reined in anymore.

The former Louisville quarterback, who also starred at Trinity High School, can still hear the echoes of former coach Charlie Strong calling him Brett Farve for his tendency to gamble.

Stein’s willingness to take some risks led to big rewards last year in his first stint as Oregon’s offensive coordinator. The Ducks were second nationally last season in scoring offense, passing offense and total offense.

What he does for an encore just might determine if Oregon can navigate its first season in the Big Ten well enough to earn a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

“The stats are cool,” said Stein, who turns 35 in September. “Everybody loves stats — fans, boosters, media — but the number one stat that matters is wins and losses and that’s what you’re defined by in this game.”

For Stein, the process of preparing for Big Ten defenses will be no different than it was in the Pac-12. Or in Conference USA while he was at Texas-San Antonio. Or any different than the University Interscholastic League when he was at Lake Travis High School in Texas.

Stein said his wife recently asked him if he felt any pressure going into this season, but the real pressure was back then. It was his first shot of having autonomy calling plays as an offensive coordinator.

“I know that doesn’t seem like much to the naked eye,” Stein said. “But if you go to a Lake Travis High School football game, there’s 6,000 people in the stands, and they expect to win every game and expect to score 50 points. Like there’s pressure there.”

Stein’s performance affirmed the confidence he had in himself and confirmed to UTSA coach Jeff Traylor that he would be a good fit on staff. After two years in high school, Stein served as UTSA’s passing game coordinator and receivers coach for two seasons before becoming the co-offensive coordinator in 2022.

Don’t be fooled by the title either. Stein called every play for the Roadrunners in 2022 as their 36.8 points per game ranked 14th nationally and helped power an 11-3 record.

That’s the kind of season that gets a play caller noticed and it’s how he landed at Oregon last season.

That’s a pretty fast climb for someone who says he kind of fell into coaching.

Stein finished his master’s of business administration at Louisville and thought about going on to law school. But when he thought about it…

“The biggest mentors in my life were my coaches,” Stein said. “I had some other routes kind of planned, but I’ve been on a team since I was 4 years old and I just didn’t know anything different.”

Stein said he has too many influences in his coaching to name one person as the most influential. But when it comes to play calling, he took his cue from the year he spent with Bobby Petrino at U of L in 2014.

He said he appreciated the aggressive approach Petrino took.

“And his motto is, ‘Feed the studs,’ and I mean, I stole that straight from him,” Stein said. “It’s pretty simple. Get your best players the ball as many times as you can.”

Stein joins the growing list of former Louisville signal callers who are now coaching. U of L head coach Jeff Brohm and offensive coordinator Brian Brohm are at the top of the list.

Dave Ragone is now the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams after spending the past three seasons as the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator.

Justin Burke, a former teammate, is now in Stein’s old position as offensive coordinator at UTSA.

And on the high school level, Stefan LeFors stepped down at Christian Academy to become the head coach at Parkview Baptist in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Teddy Bridgewater begins his first season as the head coach at his alma mater, Miami Northwestern High School, this fall.

“Maybe it was the water fountains that we were drinking out of in the complex,” Stein joked, adding, “I don’t know what it is about Louisville players and former quarterbacks, but I am proud to be in the fraternity of them and guys that are now coaching.”

Should his success continue at Oregon, it won’t be long until he’s running his own program as a head coach. He was No. 20 on ESPN’s list of assistant coaches on the rise this spring.

But Stein believes that will take care of itself.

“Do I want to be head coach one day? Yeah. Hell, yeah,” Stein said. “I don’t know when that’s going to be, and to be honest, it’s not even on the forefront of my mind right now.”

Figuring out Big Ten defenses is at the forefront. Good luck to those opponents trying to rein his offense in.

Reach sports columnist CL Brown at [email protected]follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.