Just as things were about to go right for Kentucky Wildcats head coach Will Stein, the football gods decided to throw a speed bump on the Wildcats’ recruiting trail. The word is their sole QB from the class of 2027 just waved goodbye after pledging his loyalty for one year.

On February 16, recruiting connoisseur Hayes Fawcett hopped onto his X handle and delivered the massive, disappointing news for year 1 HC Will Stein.

“BREAKING: Class of 2027 QB DJ Hunter has Decommitted from Kentucky. The 6’2 200 QB from Buford, GA had been committed to the Wildcats since April 2025.” Hawyes wrote.

The main reason for this split seems to be the coaching change. Hunter originally committed back when Mark Stoops was running the show. However, once Stein took over, things just felt different.

The Buford High QB mentioned that he’s been thinking about this move for a while and feels like it’s finally the right time to reset and see what else is out there. Even though losing a QB is never fun, Coach Stein and his offensive coordinator, Joe Sloan, aren’t sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. The Wildcats are now starting to prioritize five-star phenom Elijah Haven.

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When you look at his time in Oregon, you see that Stein always loved high-flying, aggressive offense. He has done wonders with QBs like Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel (Ducks version), and Dante Moore. Needless to say, he’s hunting for a quarterback who can really air it out. If they get their hands on 6’5, the No. 1 QB from the class of 2027, Elijah Haven, we’d have Oregon Ducks 2.0 in Lexington. It’s anything but easy, as he’s already got the final four.

As for Hunter, he isn’t going to be uncommitted for long. He’s already got a list of schools like Florida State, West Virginia, and Maryland circling his recruitment. He’s even planning a trip to visit South Florida this spring to see whether he finds what he likes.

At the end of the day, this is just part of the “new look” Kentucky football era. While it’s a tough break to lose a guy who was already on the board, it gives Stein a clean slate to find “his guy” for the 2027 class. Fans can expect plenty of QBs hitting Lexington in the coming months.

Not only that, there’s an internal change, and traditions are being altered under Will Stein’s regime.

Will Stein disband Mark Stoops’ way of doing things

Former Wildcats HC Mark Stoops spent 13 years at Kentucky. It’s no surprise that he made loads of money. He also helped many other people make money, especially his assistant coaches. Recently, Jon Hale explained how Will Stein plans to handle the staff budget now that he’s in charge. It’s clear the approach will look different.

Under Stoops, the big money usually went to a few key guys like the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and, at one point, Vince Marrow. He believed in paying top dollar to a smaller group of main assistants. That method worked for him, and plenty of programs around the country use that same structure.

However, Will Stein is breaking away from 13 years of Stoops’ traditional pay structure by doing things his own way. Stoops’ final staff budget for recruiting assistants was about $7.4 million. But when you look at Stein’s recruiting assistants, they make about $6.2 million. This might seem quite low at first glance. However, if you dig deeper, he has seven assistant coaches making at least $100K. This pushes the total to around $7.8 million. That’s $400K more than Stoops.

So, the difference isn’t about spending more or less. It’s about the allocation of funds and how they’re divided across the recruiting division. Stoops’ tradition was to pay the top assistants bigger salaries, while Stein chose to invest in a larger group.