NORMAN, OK — Before Kentucky football and Oklahoma teed it up Oct. 17, chaos was running amok throughout the SEC.
Down went top-ranked Georgia. Down went fellow top-10 clubs Alabama and Texas. That havoc wasn't restricted to the conference, though. Elsewhere, two more top-five squads — Notre Dame and Indiana — suffered their first setbacks of the season.
With so much upheaval across the league and national landscape, UK was sitting pretty prior to tangling with OU.
But "pretty" is the last word one would use to describe Kentucky's 21-13 victory at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
UK coach Will Stein, whose team just keeps winning and winning and winning, couldn't care less.
"Somebody told me once, 'Stats are for losers,'" he said. "This is one of those games. We somehow — and I know how — found a way to win through our grit, through our toughness."
So here we are, past the midpoint of the 2026 regular season, past the midpoint of October, and the Wildcats are 6-1 overall. And 4-1 in conference competition. Oh, that latter mark? It means Kentucky is tied for first place in the SEC standings alongside Georgia. A school that, obviously, needs no introduction at this point.
Even in the wildest dreams of the most passionate Wildcats supporter, who ever could have imagined Kentucky would be doing this in Stein's debut season? What of Stein himself? Did he dare let himself ponder such a magical maiden campaign?
Please.
"I'm not really worried about where we're ranked, what our record is," he said. "It's all about, 'How can we improve?' So this was a big win on the road. Whenever you can win on the road in the SEC, it gives you a lot of confidence. ... So I'm not really worried about any standings.
"I know how quickly that can turn if you don't take care of business the following week."
Ironically, Kentucky's next foe is its easiest, on paper, the remainder of the regular season. Vanderbilt, no longer propelled by the incomparable Diego Pavia, has sunk back to the SEC cellar. It's 0-4 against league foes this fall after losing a pillow fight to Arkansas on Oct. 17. An Arkansas outfit that also was 0-fer the SEC (0-3) prior to vanquishing Vandy.
It defies logic to believe the Cats could lose to the Commodores in Lexington on Oct. 24. Not with everything Kentucky has hanging in the balance. An SEC championship game appearance, which would be its first. A College Football Playoff berth, which still doesn't quite make sense to type.
"Kentucky" and "College Football Playoff bid" in the same sentence? Not even a year removed from the end of the Mark Stoops tenure, which saw the program lose 13 of 16 conference contests the past two seasons?
But Stoops is yesterday's news.
Stein is the present. And the future.
Yet for all the focus on Stein, after dispatching the Sooners, he made sure the focus wasn't on him. It was on the process. And more important, every person — big and small — who contributes to making the program better. Every day.
"It's not just getting the right players, but the right people in here," he said, "with the right characteristics: grit, toughness, accountability, connection, people that are about the team. I think that's what really shows in moments like this. In the age of (transfer) portal and rev share and NIL? A lot of guys aren't typically bought into the program that they're playing (for). But that's something that we made sure that we got when we got guys into this program was that they love playing football for their team, for their university, for Kentucky.
"And it's showing up, for sure."
No one can deny the results thus far.
Stein and his staff have been near flawless in every respect since the season began. UK is a half away — that 32-point deluge by Alabama in the final two quarters Sept. 12 — from sporting an undefeated record through Week 7. Sure, as Stein said, stats might be for losers. But he doesn't need to worry about that.
All he does is win.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky football doesn't always win 'pretty.' But UK just keeps winning