Kentucky Wildcats Athletics complete a “Big Blue Bounceback” year

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

The 2015 football class has been filling up nicely, with Mark Stoops landing a couple of recruits over the past week. WR Alex Stump may be unheralded in the recruiting rankings for now, but his is a name that is poised to blow up soon. I have seen some reports where he has been compared to Brian Hartline, and that is not a bad comparison at all. Stump talked about his recruitment recently.

"“It’s the perfect fit for me,” Stump told the Herald-Leader. “It’s an up-and-coming program with a great coaching staff. … Their offense is a great offense for receivers. Maybe, possibly I could have gotten ‘bigger’ offers, but this is the perfect fit for me. There was no reason not to do it.” Those “bigger” scholarship offers were sure to come soon. Stump does not yet have a star ranking from most of the major recruiting services, but he had a breakout performance at a high-profile Rivals camp in Ohio last weekend. He was named the No. 1 overall offensive player at that camp, which included several top prospects in the region. He already had offers from West Virginia, Cincinnati and Georgia Tech, and he was starting to see more interest from top programs based on his camp performance. UK’s early involvement ended up being the biggest factor in the recruitment. “Once you get a big program like Kentucky – SEC football – to believe in you, it definitely had a huge impact on me,” he said. “They saw me early and took a chance on me before the camp and everything that happened. That was huge."

It appears that Mark Stoops and staff have made Florida and Ohio key battlegrounds for the recruiting in the 2015 class. Tallahassee was Mark Stoops’ stomping ground and a couple of UK recruits from there will be announcing on May 16th. Kentucky is definitely in the running.

"Tallahassee (Fla.) Godby teammates P.J. Simmons and Jaylin Hayward attended Kentucky’s spring game and now they’re set to decide soon. The three-star prospects will be announcing their college decisions on May 16, so the timing of their trip to Kentucky was interesting. Simmons spoke with Cats Illustrated and the 5-foot-9, 180-pound running back gave the school a glowing review. “It was my first time there and I loved it,” Simmons said. “The fans, the coaches, the facilities — it was beautiful. The town as a whole was great. I was just there for the day and for the game. It was a 10-hour drive but it was definitely worth it.” Simmons said he spoke with Derrick Ansley, Chad Scott and Jimmy Brumbaugh while he was in Lexington. “They’re very humble guys,” Simmons said. “Down to earth. That program is on the rise. It’s an Air Raid offense and they like tempo. That’s the thing that impressed me the most. They don’t wait. They just go.” Simmons said after the trip Kentucky is “definitely at the top” of his list, but said other schools were at the top of that list as well. “I’m not saying they’re number one necessarily,” Simmons clarified. “It would be them, Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas State and Troy.”"