Kentucky Wildcats Football: It’s time to look to the North

Chapter II: Analyzing the Problem

The problem with this is that while the states of Florida and Georgia are two of the largest talent producing areas of the country, everyone else is mining them too.  Florida has seven division one schools (with four being BCS schools), and Georgia is regularly raided by both in-state programs Georgia and Georgia Tech, in addition to being a regular stop for every other SEC and ACC program in the country.  While the talent is certainly there, the competition for those players is fierce.  Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana produce far fewer high caliber players, but all are still SEC states that are raided by competing schools annually and all house at least two division one schools.  In short, the areas that Kentucky is currently targeting are being targeted by everyone else too, and in most cases the competition is closer and usually has more to offer.  Maybe the biggest problem though, is that the state of Kentucky just does not produce enough high level talent to be the backbone of the Wildcats’ recruiting classes each year.  The Bluegrass State put out only 6 four-star players since 2010, and of those, half were from Louisville and grew up Louisville fans.  The truth of the matter is that Kentucky is in one of the worst states in the country at producing high numbers of high-level athletes.