This year, Rich Brooks and his coaching staff embarked on a new recruiting strategy. They felt that they had made enough inroads in other football hotbeds to finally be able to recruit in the SEC and thus be able to bring home better targets to be able to ultimately compete in the SEC.
This new strategy was met with much skepticism and hand wringing across the Bluegrass and the critics were smug when this new strategy was slow to usher in hordes of four or even three star commitments early. The flurry of activity the past few days has redeemed Brooks to a degree. UK has gained commitments from one 4* player and three 3* recruits. There are rumors that more stars may join them.
Last year’s class was hailed as Brooks best at UK. According to rivals, UK had a class of 3 4* players, 16 3* players, and 9 2* players. Averaging the stars by the number of players, that made the average player a 2.78 star recruit. To date this season, UK has received 22 commitments. Of those 22, 4 players have not been rated by rivals yet, so we will not include their star ratings. Of the 18 players UK has commitments from this year, there is 1 4* player, 13 3* players and 4 2* players. That makes a total stars per player average of 2.83.
So it appears that UK is getting a slightly better level of recruit. Also consider that these rankings are old and do not accurately reflect the players senior season. When all is said and done, Raymond Sanders and Dale Trimble may end up being 4* recruits and several other players may benefit from an upgrade as well.
Now last year, it was rumored that Kentucky had already used up all of their scholarships to commitments by National Signing Day so when some big name players wanted to make a last minute change, there was no room at the inn. To combat that, speculation is that UK will hope perhaps one or two scholarships for big name stragglers. So with UK having 22 commitments already, that means that we may only hear of one possibly two commitments before February.
And the ones that will be missing out appear to be the Kentucky HS players. As of now, UK has just one commitment from the state of Kentucky, Malcolm McDuffen, the number 7 player in rivals preseason ranking. Don’t get me wrong, I am one for UK getting the best possible athletes for the team. Since I live in Florida, I am not a stickler about UK recruiting Kentucky players, although I know a lot of UK fans want to see the home state boys represented. As for me, they become a Wildcat when they put on the uniform, no matter where they are from.
The one player from Kentucky in 22 commits is a significant drop off from previous recruiting classes. Last years class featured 6 Kentucky bred boys in 28 commits. That number was about par for the course in previous classes as UK had 5 out of 20 in 2008, and 8 out of 28 in 2007.
Kentucky is still looking at numerous out of state prospects to fill their class including Donte Rumph, LaGrange GA QB Jamius Gunsby, Alabama WR Maudrecus Humphrey, and Georgia RB Rajaan Bennett. In addition to those players, there are still three Kentucky players in the preseason top 10 that have not committed. Let’s take a look at those players and where their recruitment may go.
#1. Tim Patterson, Louisville Central, LB
Patterson is a huge prospect at 6’5 and 225 and he did visit UK on 10/2 for the Alabama game. He has currently holding offers from Kentucky, Louisville, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Indiana, Michigan and Purdue among others. He would be a huge grab for the Cats as you can envision him as a DE or a LB due to his size. The fact that UK would grab this player from the Ville’s backyard makes it sweeter. You have to wonder how this may change his standing with UL if Strong is coach of the Cards. If UL can get Patterson, they would land the 1,2, and 5 players in the state.
#4. Miles Simpson, Simon Kenton, RB
Word is that Simpson was among the group of players that attended the UK/UNC game and Louisville has also been stepping up it’s pursuit of Simpson. The Cats do have Raymond Sanders in the class and just added Joseph Byrd who could play RB also and still have Locke, Cobb, and Donald Russell returning. You have to wonder if Byrd closed the door on future RB’s including Bennett.
#6. Austin Collinsworth, Fort Thomas Highlands, DB
Brooks caused quite a stir when he arrived at Austin’s school via helicopter right before the Miami game, but it has been silent on Collinsworth since. Austin also attended the UK/UF game with his Dad. It’s easy to assume that UK may not be looking at any other DB’s either the class already has 6 DB’s in it, 7 if you count Joseph Byrd. Now a lot of these players may move to other positions, but you have to think it is unlikely UK does not add an 8th DB.
Sad to say, it looks UK may not sign another UK player in this class. The most likely would be Patterson and I think that you have to go after the number one player in the state no matter what. If it matters, Patterson is listed as a three star recruit, so if everyone puts the pressure on UK to go after four and 5 star players, that search is sending them out of state. At least for this season. From that information, it would appear that this is just a down year in home grown talent and the lack of Kentucky players in the class is just a one year thing, and not a trend.
Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans