Will Stein explains Kentucky’s fake punt call: “You play to win the game.”

With 32 second-half points allowed, Kentucky’s collapse was more than a couple of bad plays or breakdowns. It was an onslaught of Alabama offense after halftime, while Kentucky couldn’t do anything when it had the ball. However, one coach’s decision helped Alabama pile on, when Will Stein dialed up a fake punt on Kentucky’s side of the field in the third quarter. Trailing 23-17 and facing a 4th-and-3, Stein rolled the dice and it backfired as Alabama stuffed Henry Boyer a yard shy of the sticks. Alabama scored a touchdown two plays later to extend its lead to 31-17, and the blowout was on from there. Stein explained his decision after the game. “Listen, you play to win the game,” he said in his postgame press conference. “I know that’s the old Herm Edwards quote, I believe. But it’s true. You’ve got to be risky at times. You know, if it worked everybody would think it was great, if it didn’t, nobody thinks it’s great. It’s a decision that I made.” Stein added that Kentucky felt good about faking a punt heading into the game, and the Wildcats found the look when they wanted. “We didn’t get it. That was disappointing not to get. But I felt it could spark us on offense and keep us on the field. You know, we want really changing the field in special-teams as much as we would have hoped for. I felt like that was an opportunity to take advantage of what they showed.” The gamble is Stein’s first heavily debated decision at Kentucky, coming from his first career loss as a head coach. The Wildcats were still within one score at the time, and the defense had kept Alabama within reach despite spending much of the afternoon defending short fields. In the moment, it felt like a crucial mistake. But after a 45-17 final score, there’s no need to dwell on it too much. We may even want to get used to more gambles to come. Watch Will Stein’s postgame press conference here.