High School Coaching Was the Smartest Move Will Stein Ever Made

Lake Travis High School coach Hank Carter, left, had Will Stein on his staff and attended his wedding in Louisville.

Will Stein’s coaching resume includes collegiate jobs at Louisville, Texas, UT-San Antonio, and Oregon. However, Stein’s father said none of those jobs was as important as the one he had at Lake Travis High School in Texas.

“That was the best thing he ever did for his career,” said Matt Stein, the UK coach’s father. “Every step in his career has been a smart move, but his two years at Lake Travis were unreal for what it did for him.”

Stein had been a graduate assistant at Louisville — where he played quarterback — for two years before spending three seasons as a quality control coach at Texas. That’s when he decided he needed play-calling experience and joined Hank Carter’s staff at Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas. He helped the Cavaliers go 26-4 in two seasons as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach and consecutive state semifinal appearances before returning to college coaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

“I had an opening for an offensive coordinator and interviewed about 10 guys, but nobody blew me away,” said Carter.

That’s when he got a call from UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, who recommended Stein.

“He told me he knew a great analyst who was a young guy who he thought was getting married and was ready to settle down. He told me I should talk to him. Out of respect to him, I got on the phone with Will,” Carter said.

Still, Carter had some doubts. He had a track record of “college guys” leaving high school to return to the collegiate ranks as soon as they could.

“I brought him in for the interview and asked if he was serious about the job or just searching for a quickie to get him back to college,” Carter said. “I was really impressed with the things he wanted to do offensively to fit what we had here at Lake Travis.”

Carter admitted he quickly got “close” to Stein and his future wife, Darby.

“I don’t know exactly how big Will is, but he was a starter at quarterback at Louisville, and to do that, there has to be something special about you. He found a way to play and win,” Carter said. “Then he found a way to trick Darby into marrying him. What an awesome woman she is. I even went to their wedding in Louisville.

“The players he coached here really responded to him and what he did. I knew he would one day be a head coach in college while he was here. I feel very smart now about that and I know he is excited to be going back to coach where his dad played college football.”

Carter knows a bit about evaluating talent. He worked under former SMU and Arkansas head coach Matt Morris before taking over at Lake Travis. Quarterback Baker Mayfield, the first pick in the 2018 NFL draft, played at Lake Travis, walked on at Texas Tech, and then transferred to Oklahoma. He went 25-2 at Lake Travis with 67 touchdown passes and 6,255 passing yards and won the 2011 state title. Receiver Garrett Wilson was the 10th pick in the 2022 NFL draft, caught 220 passes for 3,639 yards and 57 touchdowns at Lake Travis, and won one state title before going to Ohio State.

“We are a high school program but we have had some great players. We play in a highly competitive league with the biggest of the big boys,” Carter said. “Will was immersed in everything when he was here. He had offensive assistants twice his age but he got them to totally buy into what he was doing.”

Carter knows how fortunate Lake Travis High School is to have had two former coaches — Morris and Stein — become SEC head coaches.

“We are used to having celebrities around here. Jeff Traylor’s daughter graduated from here. The Cleveland Brown offense came here for a few weeks,” Carter said. “But it is really cool now to have Will coaching in the best football conference in the world.”

It’s also “cool” that Carter will have a player — defensive lineman Ben Duncum — playing at Kentucky. He signed with the Wildcats in December.