By KACE KIESCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
LSU visits Kentucky for the first time in five years on October 10, and there will be a familiar face calling plays on the opposing sideline.
First-year Wildcats coach Will Stein hired former LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to lead his inaugural offense. Stein, a former Oregon offensive coordinator himself, said as Southeastern Conference Media Days kicked off on Monday that he is giving Sloan the keys to the offense.
“Joe’s having the play calling ability on Saturdays,” Stein said. “We’ll build the game plan up together, but I have to be involved in all facets of our program. There’s just too much going on to only worry about the offense.”
Sloan was promoted from LSU quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator in 2024 after Mike Denbrock left for Notre Dame. He and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier led an offense ranked No. 2 in the SEC and No. 7 nationally in passing, averaging 315.2 yards per game in ’24.
In 2025, though, an abdomen injury to Nussmeier that significantly downgraded his passing ability, an inability to run the ball for the second straight season and a failure to create explosive plays led to the Tigers falling out of playoff contention for the fourth straight season under coach Brian Kelly. And he was fired during his fourth season on Oct. 25 by then-LSU athletic director Scott Woodward.
Woodward then fired Sloan the next day, before Woodward was fired by LSU’s Board of Supervisors via Governor Jeff Landry a few days later.
At the time of Sloan’s firing, the Tigers’ offense ranked 96th in the nation in total offense with 355.5 yards a game and 82nd in scoring with 25.5 a game.
Stein, though, thinks the 2024 campaign was a better indication of the coach Sloan can be.
“I think he’s one of the best in the country. Elite communicator, especially for a coordinator. Communication’s huge. Presence, confidence that he has I’ve been very impressed with,” Stein said. “And then the man can recruit. He can really recruit. He can move the needle. He seems to know everybody.”
One of the main reasons Kelly replaced the vastly successful Denbrock with Sloan was his recruiting ability as his only previous OC experience was at Louisiana Tech.
Kentucky’s 2026 recruiting class ranked 53rd in Rivals’ Industry Rankings and was rated last in the SEC. To Sloan’s credit, the Wildcats did land four-star portal prospect and backup Notre Dame quarterback Kenny Minchey.
“He’s one of the main reasons I’m at Kentucky,” Minchey said Monday. “Like Stein, he’s a great guy, great person to be around, a lot of energy. He loves football, and is obviously really smart. He’s coached some really good quarterbacks in the past, and he knows what he’s doing.”
Sloan helped Denbrock develop LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels into a Heisman-winning signal caller and Nussmeier into one of the nation’s top gunslingers in 2024.
Whether Sloan’s SEC success was a product of the talent in Baton Rouge or his own offensive creativity and development will be put to the test in Lexington on Oct 10. The Wildcats field a revamped roster in Stein’s first year which will not do Sloan any favors against his former counterpart Blake Baker’s stout defense.
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