Plenty of teams in 2026 were completely rebuilt over the offseason through the transfer portal. Kentucky not only transferred in a lot of talent, it brought in a new coaching staff as well.
Will Stein was the playcaller at Oregon a year ago and is now 1-0 as a college head coach, following Kentucky’s opening-week defeat of Youngstown State. Whether 45-13 qualifies as a “blowout” when the opponent usually plays at the FCS level is another matter, but Stein’s Wildcats put on a pretty good show offensively and winning the opener comfortably lifts all spirits.
The biggest question on the board is probably just how good Kentucky’s defense is. The pass defense wasn’t great against Youngstown State, and the secondary had been identified as a potential weak spot in fall camp. If Alabama can press the advantages it has, the Crimson Tide should come home with its first conference win of the season.
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OFFENSE
Kentucky kept things pretty basic in the opener, leveraging its strength in the running game to provide good balance for its new quarterback. Overall, expect to see what Oregon has tried to do for years – tempo, RPOs, a merging of West Coast and zone-read schemes and an affinity for the big play. Alabama’s offensive style, as expressed against East Carolina, relied more heavily on the run than a year ago, which was a goal. Alabama achieved almost perfect run-pass balance against the Pirates, but the Kentucky defense should be a step better.
QUARTERBACKS
Both Alabama’s Keelon Russell and Kentucky’s Kenny Minchey got their first collegiate starts a week ago, and both players have a similar playing ethos. Minchey, a backup at Notre Dame last year, is 6’2” and 211 pounds and has running skills along with passing skills. Whether he’ll take off as much as Russell will remains to be seen; Minchey rushed just once for 17 yards against Youngstown State, while Russell was Alabama’s leading rusher against East Carolina, carrying 13 times for 86 yards.
A lot of hopes are being pinned on Minchey, based in large part off his prep resume prior to enrolling at Notre Dame. Still, he’s a senior who has very little prior experience. Russell’s first outing drew praise and evaluations are heavy on the promise he will bring in future games. The ceiling is much higher for Russell than for Minchey, but there’s an argument to be made that Minchey is more polished now. There’s very little comparison in the backups, though. Kentucky will use another senior there, Callum Wither, who failed to get playing time at Ohio but then transferred to Wilfrid Laurier University and was the starter there for a year, putting up big numbers.
If you haven’t heard of Wilfrid Laurier, that’s understandable, given you have to leave the confines of the United States to find it. It’s a Canadian school that began life as an Lutheran seminary. Alabama’s Austin Mack definitely holds the edge there. Overall, that depth probably is enough to send the whole category Alabama’s way. Advantage: Alabama
RUNNING BACKS
Both teams were without one of its top backs for the opener. Kentucky held Jovantae Barnes on the bench with an injury, but C.J. Baxter, Jason Patterson and Martels Carter Jr. more than held their own. This is one of the strengths of the Kentucky team, if not its greatest strength, even if Barnes is held out again. Alabama will counter with a group that includes Daniel Hill, Ezavier Crowell, Trae’shawn Brown and Kevin Riley. Alabama held Akylin Dear out of the East Carolina game, but he went through warmups at full speed and is listed as questionable this week, not “out.” The performance of the other backs showed promise, especially from Crowell. Alabama seems to be improving, but Kentucky holds a clear edge for now. Advantage: Kentucky
WIDE RECEIVERS
There were questions here for Kentucky prior to the opener and questions remain. The Wildcats’ best receiver ended up being a true freshman, Kenny Darby, who caught 3 passes for 74 yards (24.7 avg.) and a touchdown, and added a carry for 9 yards. Whether it was by design or due to the rest of the unit still trying to figure out how to play together as a group, half of Kentucky’s receptions (6) went to tight ends. Nic Anderson, Shane Carr and D.J. Miller are the other receivers in the top group, with Brock Coffman and Ja’Kayden Ferguson providing additional depth.
The tight ends – Willie Rodriguez, Henry Boyer and Mikkel Skinner – showed out against Youngstown State, with Rodriguez arguably the best returning SEC tight end in 2026. Alabama has the best overall receiver on either team in Ryan Coleman-Williams, who despite a couple of drops, still put up 5 catches for 130 (26.0 avg.) in the opener. Rico Scott, Lotzeir Brooks, Derek Meadows and Cederian Morgan make up the rest of the unit, but it’s worth noting that Noah Rogers’ status for this game has been listed as “questionable,” so his Alabama debut can’t be ruled out.
Alabama has a plethora of tight ends to choose from; Kaleb Edwards and Marshall Pritchett got the start against East Carolina, but Josh Ford’s value in the running game is too much to overlook, and both Jay Lindsey and Danny Lewis Jr. gave good snaps. There is some concern about Brooks and Scott getting more separation, as the downfield game against East Carolina was often Ryan Coleman-Williams and nothing else. But that’s a problem for Kentucky as well. Advantage: Alabama
OFFENSIVE LINE
Both teams got a ranking of “Fair” in our preseason previews; there’s not much to say otherwise after Week 1, in which both teams moved the ball effectively. Alabama’s level of competition was much higher, though, and yet Alabama’s new offensive line – especially the right side, Michael Carroll and Jayvin James – put up fantastic metrics. Center Racin Delgatty, LT Jackson Lloyd and the left guard rotation of William Sanders and Mal Waldrep were also more than acceptable. Those six will again get the lion’s share of the work for Alabama, while Kentucky will start it’s completely-new line of center Coleton Price, guards Tegra Tshabola and Alabama transfer Olaus Alinen, and tackles Lance Heard and Malachi Wood. Kentucky didn’t yield a sack in the opener and came out of Week 1 in the top 15 in fewest tackles for loss allowed, but it’s a young season yet. Kentucky is probably stronger at tackle for now while Alabama has the edge inside, and it’s really too close to call. We had Kentucky ranked slightly ahead of Alabama in the preseason and we’ll stick with it until we can get more data. Advantage: Kentucky
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DEFENSE
For the second week in a row, Alabama will face mostly a 3-man front, as the Wildcats run a variant of the 3-4 over/under scheme Alabama used for so long under Nick Saban. For Kentucky, the strength of the defense is up front, and it gets progressively less effective the farther away one gets from the line of scrimmage. Kentucky gave up too much to Youngstown State in the running game in the opener and was especially bad on third-down defense; Alabama held East Carolina to 0-for-9 on third downs by comparison. Alabama will again deploy its 4-2-5 Swarm variant, and the early returns are favorable, especially with more beef up front.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Purdue transfer Jamarrion Harkless is a can’t-miss guy in the middle of the defense … in this case “can’t-miss” meaning you can’t miss him because he goes about 350 pounds. But “can’t-miss” usually describes performance, and unfortunately for Kentucky, there wasn’t much productivity among the defensive tackle group in the opener. Harkless, Ahmad Breaux and Tavion Gadson combined for just 1 tackle, while Jaden Williams and Kalen Edwards added 2 more off the bench. To be fair, the strength of the Wildcat line is supposed to come from the outside, where Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace returns as a starter. Brian Robinson will back him up. Kentucky was mediocre in both pass pressure and tackles for loss in the opener, and needs a better effort this week.
Alabama will start Terrance Greene and Kedrick Bingley-Jones at tackle, with London Simmons, Isaia Faga and Edric Hill playing key roles off the bench. New Bandit end Devan Thompkins was active against East Carolina, playing both inside and outside. Desmond Umeozulu provides depth outside, while Alabama might use Fatutoa Henry and Steve Mboumoua more this week based off strong performances in the opener from each. This one should be fairly close but Alabama simply outplayed Kentucky in the opener. Advantage: Alabama
LINEBACKERS
Sam Greene is the key name here, a returning starter at Jack linebacker for Kentucky. Elijah Barnes and Grant Godfrey start in the middle, and they’re tied for the team lead in tackles at the moment. Barnes, a redshirt freshman transfer from Texas, is of particular interest to scouts, and added a PBU to his stat sheet against Youngstown State. Tavion Wallace will get plenty of work inside, while Lorenzo Cowan backs up Greene. Alabama got a pick-six from its designated outside linebacker, Yhonzae Pierre, while the inside linebacker group of Caleb Woodson, Luke Metz, Q.B. Reese, Abduall Sanders, Duke Johnson and Xavier Griffin posted a solid debut. Like Kentucky, Alabama has one inside position manned by a veteran (Woodson for Bama, Godfrey for Kentucky) and youth alongside. Justin Hill and Jah-Marien Latham provide depth off the corner. Again, this is a situation where both teams are somewhat even, but Alabama’s performance in the opener was of superior quality. Advantage: Alabama
DEFENSIVE BACKS
Alabama came out of the opener with a low raw pass defense ranking, but its pass efficiency defense was marred by one large gainer on a busted coverage. Kentucky, on the other hand, struggled against Youngstown State, both in yardage prevention and in chunk plays. This is not necessarily a surprise given where these two secondaries were positioned in the preseason. It’s the weakness of the Kentucky team on paper, with Western Carolina transfer Hassan Sykes being the eventual anticipated leader at cornerback. He’ll start across from Terhyon Nichols, one of the few non-transfer starters for the Wildcats.
Against Youngstown State, Sykes and Nichols were held out for injury precautions, with Grant Grayton and Isaiah McMillian getting most of the work, but the starters are expected back this week. Aaron Gates, Ty Bryant and Jordan Castell make up the safety group, with Bryant one of just three returning starters from a year ago.
Alabama will start Zabien Brown and Dijon Lee at the corners, with Bray Hubbard, Keon Sabb and Rydarrius Morgan starting at safety. Carmelo O’Neal was the third corner against East Carolina, while Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., Ivan Taylor, Chuck McDonald and Zavier Mincey got most of the bench work inside. The return of two starters will certainly help Kentucky in the back end, but the Wildcats’ group has a lot of growing to do regardless. Advantage: Alabama
SPECIAL TEAMS
One of the less expected examples of new players showing out for Alabama in the opener came on the special teams unit, where punter Alex Asparuhov had a phenomenal debut, and placekickers Conor Talty and Lorcan Quinn both proved to be weapons. Alabama also put up solid numbers in the return game, and punt coverage was sharp. Kickoff coverage, as we noted in the game recap, might not ever come into play in 2026 if Quinn keeps delivering balls to different area codes. Kentucky will use Davidson transfer Adam Zouagui as placekicker, as Jacob Kauwe is dealing with an unspecified injury. Thomas O’Hara handles punting duties. Kentucky struggled a bit in punt return defense in the opener although both return units were acceptable. We previewed Alabama with the edge here in the preseason, and we’ll continue with that given the health of Kauwe and the performance in the opener for the Crimson Tide. Advantage: Alabama
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OVERALL
Alabama leads in six categories, Kentucky in two. As for the OL-DL cross-matchups, we like both teams’ defensive lines over the opposing offensive lines by roughly equal amounts.
There are plenty of categories here that could go both ways – just about everything but running back and defensive back, really – but we see a fairly clear overall talent edge for Alabama, which is somewhat to be expected. There isn’t enough evidence one way or another to know how good Will Stein is going to be as a head coach, but nothing from the opener suggests Alabama should be particularly fearful of him or this Kentucky team.
Obviously, venue matters, and Kentucky has the edge there. Kentucky’s path to victory will almost certainly run through QB Kenny Minchey and Stein’s ability to get him into the right plays. Of that, we know quite a bit about Stein and his preferences, and he proved himself several times over while at Oregon.
As for Alabama, QB Keelon Russell remains a developmental talent, but the opening-week results showed a lot of promise. If Alabama’s improvement in the running game and especially along the offensive line wasn’t fool’s gold, the Crimson Tide should come out of this one with a comfortable margin of victory.
Alabama 31
Kentucky 14
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