Kentucky Wildcats Football: A.J. Stamps signs on JUCO Signing Day
UK defensive end Za’Darius Smith, center, gets the crowd involved during the first half. The University of Kentucky hosted its Blue/White Spring Scrimmage Saturday, April 13, 2013 at the Commonwealth Stadium. Photo by Jonathan Palmer
UPDATE
It looks like the Cats do indeed have a surprise signing:
"CatsPause.com has learned that Kentucky has also received a signature from Scooba (Miss.) East Mississippi C.C. safety A.J. Stamps (6-0, 185).Originally a member of the 2012 class, Stamps is a native of Vicksburg (Miss.) who also held offers from the likes of Ohio State, Minnesota and Mississippi State.Stamps took official visits to Ohio State (Oct. 25) and Kentucky (Nov. 30) for the Wildcats’ season finale against Tennessee.Stamps is rated as the No. 14 safety prospect by the 247Sports Composite, which takes into account rankings across various major outlets.Through 12 games as a sophomore this season, Stamps recorded 51 tackles, four interceptions, a sack and a forced fumble."
Today is Junior College Signing Day for mid-year transfer players. Eligible recruits can sign their Letters of Intentand fax them to their new coaches, then get ready to enroll for the Spring semester. That way they can go through Spring practice and have a better opportunity to contribute early. Obviously it’s important to get on the field quickly when you only have two years of eligibility to make an impact.
Kentucky has four Junior College commitments for the 2014 class right now. Up to this point it was believed that all or most were going to enroll early and that Kentucky was recruiting the JUCO ranks with January enrollment as a requirement. That seems to have changed because right now only defensive tackle Cory Johnson is expected to be here in the Spring out of the current commits. Linebacker Ryan Flannigan and defensive back Shyquan Pulliam, previously expected to sign today, now have some additional academic work to finish up. Defensive athlete Michael Mathis will also arrive in the Summer. It will be interesting to see if all three still sign with UK in February following this development.
As mentioned before, Johnson will sign today and enroll early, which is still pretty good considering that he is the highest rated of the bunch. It came down to UK, Miami and Texas Tech for the four star and perhaps there was a bit of karma that firmed up his Kentucky commitment. Thought to be high on UM, Johnson wouldn’t be able to enroll early for the Canes and shut his recruitment down. Those who follow recruiting closely probably remember 4* DT Ben Bradley , who reportedly tried to enroll at UK but couldn’t get it done in time and therefore signed with Auburn’s 2013 class.
Don’t be surprised if someone comes out of nowhere to sign as well a la Za’Darius Smith a year ago. Defensive back AJ Stamps took an official visit to Lexington last month and seemed to have a good time. Stamps is a three-star who holds an Ohio State offer, among others. He probably projects as a safety. Other possibilities would include a JUCO offensive lineman, of which Kentucky has offered many and is actively trying to flip some. Considering the amount of talented high school players that UK has interest from, any JUCO players added to the roster will be ones that the coaching staff feels can contribute right away. (Full disclosure: By the time this posts, the LOIs may very well have been faxed already and all this speculation is made pointless)
This may be the last substantial recruiting news for a while, since the recruiting dead period has begun. The next big event will be the Army All American Bowl in January, where Kentucky targets Matt Elam, Marcelys Jones and Marshon Lattimore will announce their decisions. Things are certainly looking up for Elam and the Jones stakes aren’t over, but unless Lattimore decides to wait and take an official visit to Lexington, it’s hard to see him choosing the Wildcats. Forty-nine days until Signing Day!