Kentucky Wildcats Football recruited Drew Brees in 1990s

It’s interesting to look back at what could have been for the Kentucky Wildcats in the late 1990’s but the Wildcats once offered New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees a scholarship.

Jul 26, 2013; Metairie, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) during the first day of training camp at the team facility. Image Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

There’s no disputing the fact that Drew Brees is a franchise quarterback with the Saints right now. But could you imagine what could have been?

Kentucky fans are rabid when it comes to following recruiting but it’s more so with college basketball than college football so you can imagine my surprise when I read USA Today‘s Jason Jordan’s interview with Brees’ former high school football coach, Neal LaHue.

LaHue shared the most memorable moment of Brees’ recruitment with Jordan.

"Probably that bigger schools weren’t recruiting him. He was so underrated and under recruited in high school it was just crazy. We all knew that he was special and we worked really hard trying to get other coaches interested in him, but it didn’t work. Purdue offered him and Kentucky offered him. I even had one college recruiter tell me he didn’t like his throwing motion. He said it was a funny motion. This is a guy with a 69 percent completion rate in two years as a starter and threw for 3,800 yards all under center. There was no shotgun. It was shocking to me that not more people were recruiting him."

Brees would go on to play at Purdue during the 1997-2000 seasons before the Saints drafted him with the 2nd overall pick of the 2001 NFL Draft. Had Brees played at Kentucky, he would have probably redshirted the 1997 season due to Tim Couch being the starting quarterback. When Brees made his official visit to Kentucky, Couch was his player host. Hal Mumme was the coach entering the 1997 season.