Will Stein’s realization of his football mortality arrived quickly as a player.
A non-typical 5-foot-10, 185-pound quarterback who was described in his Louisville bio as “heady” and a “student of the game,” Stein ascended to starter ahead of the Cardinals’ 2011 campaign. He played well through two games but suffered a shoulder against Kentucky. He went to the sideline and out came a true freshman.
It took a throw or two for Stein to know Teddy Bridgewater wasn’t going to give the job back.
“I knew right when he went in the game,” Stein says with a laugh. “There’s a reason he’s a first-round pick.”
Stein once told Lake Travis (Texas) High School head coach Hank Carter, who he worked under as offensive coordinator for two seasons, “Not only is (Teddy) a better guy than me, but he’s a way better player. I’m just totally screwed.”
That self-deprecating humor and generally positive outlook is why UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor bestowed a Remember the Titans-coded nickname on Stein.
“He’s one of the brightest stars in college athletics,” Traylor said. “There’s a reason he’s called Will ‘Sunshine’ Stein.”
Stein may not be a first-round pick like Bridgewater. But he sure produces them as Oregon’s offensive coordinator.
Ahead of a key matchup with No. 15 USC, the seventh-ranked Ducks rank third nationally in yards per play. Stein’s quarterback, Dante Moore, is projected by scouts — if he chose to leave — to be Oregon’s third straight Day 1 or Day 2 pick following Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel.
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A 36-year-old Kentucky native who spent most of his coaching infancy in Texas, Stein is a coach on the rise. He’s a name to know in one of the wildest coaching cycles in recent memory and the author of four top-20 offenses in four seasons as a play-caller between UTSA and Oregon.
“Dude tries to score,” Traylor said. “I know you’re thinking, ‘Everyone tries to score.’ No. Will Stein tries to SCORE. He ain’t scared.”
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A play-calling experiment in Austin
After a brief flirtation with law school or a career in real estate, Stein stayed with Louisville as a GA following his playing career. Then Charlie Strong got the Texas job. He and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson asked Stein to come with them as a quality control coach.
Stein arrived around the same time as Traylor — Texas’ tight ends coach in 2015 and 2016 — and they ended up living together in Traylor’s uncle’s house. Traylor was away from his family. Stein was a broke kid a few years out of college. They became so close Traylor considers him like a son.
When Texas fired Strong, Tom Herman opted to keep Stein on staff. The Longhorns played in the 2017 Texas Bowl in Herman’s debut. During bowl prep Tim Beck — now the head coach at Coastal Carolina — granted Stein’s request to call plays for the scout team during their scrimmage portion of practice.
“I had an itch to call it,” Stein said.
After that season Stein had a decision about what was next. He’d been an off-field coach for five years. He wanted to take the next step. His girlfriend, now wife, Darby also loved Austin and didn’t want to leave. So, Stein turned down a position job at Northern Iowa. Nothing really called him to leave the Longhorns.
That is until Lake Travis had an offensive coordinator opening.
For those unversed in Texas high school football lore, Lake Travis is a quarterback mecca. Everyone from Baker Mayfield to Garrett Gilbert and Todd Reesing have come through the annual state power located in the Austin suburbs.
Carter interviewed at least 10 people for the job. He didn’t love any of them. That’s when he got a call from two friends: Former Texas High School Relations director Hardee McCrary and Traylor, who both recommend Stein.
“I sat down with him and not a minute in I was like, ‘This is our guy. There’s no doubt,'” Carter said.
Stein described his time as the offensive coordinator at Lake Travis as one of experimentation. High school coaches teach in Texas. Stein would sneak into his office while teaching PE to watch tape and script practice. The next year he was assigned the in-school suspension class (ISS), and he’d grind tape while the kids sat in silent punishment for the day.
Those Lake Travis teams did not lack talent. His triggerman was eventual Texas and Purdue quarterback Hudson Card, who threw to NFL superstar receiver Garrett Wilson. But you don’t pick your all your players in high school, and there were times Lake Travis was overmatched in 6A football and Stein found out how it felt to “get our asses kicked.”
“It taught me how to be creative with our players,” Stein said. “You’ve got what you got in high school football.”
Carter loved working with Stein. The pair are still good friends, and Carter will never forget how he lost him. Traylor called Carter, amid a playoff run, with some news: “Brother, you’re not going to believe it, but I’m about to get the UTSA job.”
Carter was thrilled. He’d known Traylor for years. Then Traylor hit him with the bad news.
“I’m taking Will,” Traylor said.
“I was like, ‘Eff you, you sorry motherf—er,” Carter remembers with a huge laugh. “It was great.”
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Stein the play caller
Stein served as UTSA’s pass game coordinator for two years before being elevated to offensive coordinator in 2022. Here’s how his offenses have ranked in points per game over the last four years:
- 2022 (UTSA): 14th
- 2023 (Oregon): 2nd
- 2024 (Oregon): 17th
- 2025 (Oregon): 7th
Score Stein does. Now, here’s his starting quarterback’s completion percentage every year he’s been a college play-caller:
- 2022 (Frank Harrs): 69.6%
- 2023 (Bo Nix): 77.4%
- 2024 (Dillon Gabriel): 72.9%
- 2025 (Dante Moore): 72.8%
That’s a career high for each of those passers. In Nix’s case it’s the single most accurate season in college football history. Gabriel and Moore, if his season ended today, would rank in the top 30 all time.
Those are four different quarterbacks with different skill sets — Stein would be quick to add “high-level” skill sets — who all hit their accuracy zenith under Stein. Part of that is Stein’s guiding philosophy as a coordinator: “We play common sense football.”
You play Cover 2 with the safeties set deep, Stein is probably going to call a run or teach his quarterback to take the underneath throws that allow Oregon’s playmakers to create yardage in space. If opponents press with a single-high safety, Stein is going to call a shot over the top.
Stein completed 70% of his passes under his high school offensive coordinator Andrew Coverdale. Teddy Bridgewater led the ACC in completion percentage his final two years under Watson. Carter’s Lake Travis offenses prioritize accuracy. It’s a foundational element of Stein’s football education and what he thinks contributes to winning football.
“He understands the (quarterback) position,” Traylor said. “He asks kids to do what they do naturally do well. He’s not going to make his quarterbacks do what they don’t like to do. His scheme is quarterback friendly.”
Oregon is a big-play offense. The Ducks have the second-most plays of 20-plus yards in the country this year. It’s a product of the Ducks’ overwhelming speed and explosiveness. Stein is proud of that production.
What might explain Oregon’s offensive production best, however, is the relentless down-to-down efficiency. Stein likes to think of play-calling as a batting average. The more first downs you get, the higher chance you have of winning the game. Nobody does that better than Oregon.
The Ducks rank first in the Power Four in three-and-punt percentage (6.5%), first in drives without a first down (15.7%) and fifth nationally in offensive success rate.
Stein said everyone views second-and-short as a shot down. He can’t help but think: Why not just get another set of downs?
“It’s the commonsense approach for me,” Stein said. “That’s something we preach. Keep us in the green mentality and we have another set of four downs.”
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A head coaching future?
Oregon is amid another playoff push and Moore is on the cusp of emerging as the Ducks’ next drafted signal caller. People notice that success, and often that will create opportunities for the coordinators on staff. And Stein is often thrown out as a head coaching candidate this cycle.
Those who know him well view it as only a matter of time. “As soon as Coach Traylor stole him from me and took him back to college, I knew he’d be a head coach before long,” Carter said.
Stein admits being a head coach is a goal of his just like he had the itch to call plays as a QC eight years ago.
That doesn’t mean he’ll take the usual or obvious path. Stein didn’t want to leave Austin, leading to a two-year high school detour that changed his career. Stein loves being in Eugene and is in no rush to leave, so he can be selective about future head coaching opportunities.
“Winning solves a lot, and when you win, there’s enough for everybody,” Stein said. “When you lose, there’s not enough for anybody. That’s an old Jeff Traylor quote, and it’s so true.
“My singular focus is this team and the next steps. If I’m fortunate enough to get there in my career, it will be great. But I’m in an unbelievable spot and have the best support in the country, and work for the best head coach in the country, getting to coach the best quarterbacks in the country, with the best line, receivers and running backs. And there’s a lot that is good about that situation. It allows me to just be where my feet are, and the focus on this and the focus on this process and let the results take care of themselves.”
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