Kentucky Wildcat Football Mid-Week Recruiting Update

Recruit Rashard Fant

For a team that had all of one verbal commitment as of May, Kentucky has been on a tear since, picking up 12 more in the last two months. By this time next week it could be as many as 15. After a 3-week hiatus that seemed like a year UK picked up a couple of wide-receivers in Jevontey Smith and Deangelo Yancey.  Yancey was thought to be a package deal with ESPN Top 150 ATH Rashard Fant, though that remains unclear. Georgia tight end Darren Dowdell has been telling recruiting services that he will be a Wildcat this week. Florida offensive lineman Ander Bodkin recently visited Lexington and came away really high on the Cats, he may also commit soon. And the biggest catch on Kentucky’s board seems to have narrowed his list to UK, Florida State and Alabama.

After all of the clamoring for playmakers on offense, July has produced RB Khalid Thomas, WRs  Smith and Yancey. Then TE Dowdell plans to join. That’s pretty impressive for a month. Yancey is a big outside target that fans were clamoring for and chose UK over Ole Miss, Wake Forrest, and NC State. Thomas Is a speedy scat back who picked UK over everyone in the country. Smith is an interesting case, his only other offer was MTSU, but he was getting interest from Auburn and UT. He could end up at WR or on defense but it seems odd to accept his commitment and hold off Tyree Harris. In the coaching staff’s defense, they had both players at camp and apparently decided to offer Smith, not Harris. May just have to trust in their judgment for this one.

Getting Dowdell is big as he appears to be Kentucky’s top target at tight end and his tape looks good. He would be able to redshirt with the depth on campus and compete for playing time in 2014. Bodkin is a relatively new name on the scene. He is a 3-star prospect from Florida who says the coaches told him he would play left tackle in Lexington. This is interesting to note because Bodkin is a little shorter than Mike Summers prefers at tackle and that UK has 2 tackle commits already in Jake Boynton and Justin Day. Fant is a WR/DB who is a little under-sized but is a bonafide play-maker that could play immediately in Commonwealth. He was supposed to announce with his buddy Yancey tomorrow, but Yancey announced early and Fant has tweeted some trouble messages about maybe not committing and getting mixed messages from a coaching staff (not necessarily UK’s). It’s hard to imagine that a staff that took on Demarco Robinson would balk at Fant because of size, especially considering his highlight reel, level of competition and rankings. Fant has seen the BBN love on Twitter and will hopefully announce for the Cats soon.