Kenny Minchey was one of the three UK football players who participated in the recent SEC Media Day festivities held in Tampa. (The other two Wildcats chosen for the annual preseason event were senior safety Ty Bryant and junior tight end Willie Rodriguez.)
Minchey is the new quarterback who transferred to Kentucky after spending three seasons at Notre Dame. While at Notre Dame, he saw action in 10 career games, completing 23 of 29 passes for 212 yards. The 6-foot-2, 211-pound junior from Hendersonville, Tenn., also rushed nine times for 96 yards, including two touchdowns.
Minchey – who replaced Cutter Boley at QB who has since moved on to Arizona State – came to Kentucky because he wanted to play in the SEC.
“In high school (at Pope John Paul II in Hendersonville where he was a consensus four-star recruit), I played some good competition, and I want to do the same thing in college,” he said. “In the SEC, they’ve got the best players. So I want to come play against the best and play with the best, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Asked what he learned at Notre Dame even though he didn’t play much, Minchey said, “I feel like I’ve learned how to prepare for a game, for a season. Every year since I’ve been a freshman, where I’m at on the depth chart, I feel like I still try to prepare like the starter. So I feel like I’ve learned how to go into a week prepared. I feel like that’s the biggest thing, because the only thing that matters is Saturdays.
Being able to be ready for a game that’s coming up on Saturday and understand what the defense is doing and understand what we’re doing as an offense.”
New Kentucky coach Will Stein is impressed with Minchey, though.
“(I’ve been) really impressed with Kenny since he got here,” said 36-year-old Stein, a Louisville native who spent three years as the offensive coordinator at high-scoring Oregon before coming to Lexington. “He’s somebody that feels like he’s been in our system for a long time. Has elite processing skills, high football IQ, very accurate, has the athletic ability to make plays with his feet.
“He’s also a natural leader. He’s got great poise, great communication skills. This will be his first starting job. He knows that, I know that, you all know that. I know he’s going to be ready because of how he prepares in the classroom and on the field.”
Minchey will have some help when he is on the field. He will have one of the nation’s top offensive lines protecting him.
Added Stein, “The expectation for every position group is to play really well. Very excited about them. The last three seasons (at Oregon) I’ve been fortunate to have three elite offensive lines with draft picks and as finalist for (the Joe Moore Award which is awarded annually to the best college football offensive line unit). This group in particular is as talented as I’ve been around, all the way across the board.
“We did bring in guys with a lot of experience, height, physicality, size. The Big Blue Wall is something that is talked about constantly within our program. The legacy of Coach Schlarman, what he was able to do as a player and coach at Kentucky is on our walls, in our building.
“To be able to run the football when it matters in November when games are of the utmost importance, you have to have an offensive line. People talk about the quarterback play that I’ve been a part of the last four seasons. But look at the O-lines that we’ve had. There’s a reason why there’s good quarterback play. Yes, those kids have played really well in the heat of the moment, but the offensive line has protected them, and we’ve been able to control the line of scrimmage running the football.
“We have a whole slew of guys up there that I think we can play winning football with.”
Minchey, whose favorite family recipe is making cinnamon toast, said the transition from Notre Dame to Kentucky has been pretty smooth in terms of meeting his teammates and coaches.
“I thought I was going to be kind of like an odd ball out in terms of having to meet everyone, learn everyone’s name and be kind of like the new guy, which I still have to do,” he said. “(I) still have to meet everybody on the staff and on the team. But it was a new team. A lot of new coaches, except for one. So everybody was in the same boat as me, same situation as me.
“So it made it a little bit easier, just with everyone kind of doing the same thing in terms of meeting teammates, learning who guys are, learning about guys, spending time with guys. And it was a very smooth transition in terms of people, which I feel like I valued and noticed the most in my first few months here.”
As for the 2026 season, which begins on Saturday, Sept. 5 (1 p.m. on SEC Network Plus) when the Wildcats host Youngstown State, Minchey can hardly wait. He said he probably will be nervous in the season opener.
“I think I’ll definitely have some nerves, some goosebumps, all the way up until after the first play. That’s generally how it always goes for me,” he said. “And I feel like, you know, most other football players who actually care about the game and who love the game, everybody’s going to be a little bit nervous going out. Whether it’s the first game of the season or it’s Week 12, you’re still going to be a little nervous going out, going out on the field, but I think after the first play, the goosebumps will go away.”
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including newly published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.