Kentucky Wildcats Football: Chasing Yahtzee
Nov 23, 2013; Athens, GA, USA; Kentucky Wildcats running back Jojo Kemp (3) runs the ball in the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Sanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
This weekend was the first big recruiting weekend for official visitors in 2014 and with just four spots remaining in the class
, Kentucky had possibly three out of the four that they would like to close with on campus. One of those four spots is obviously being held for defensive tackle Matt Elam, who went on his official visit to Alabama this week. The other rides could be taken by Josh Krok, Jervontius Stallings, and Lloyd Tubman. I think the coaches would be pretty happy with themselves if they added those four guys to an already stellar class. All three players would likely push to be in the two-deep as freshmen.
It can’t hurt that the Cats had all of their early-enrollees to help recruit. Commits Boom Williams, Jarrett LaRubbio and Blake Bone were also on campus for their OVs. It was another chance for the players to bond and build the family atmosphere that Mark Stoops has sold since arriving in Lexington.
Krok is the 6’8” offensive tackle currently committed to West Virginia and if you follow him on Twitter, he certainly seemed to have a good time in Lexington. With Jamarez Bowen committing to Cincinnati, Krok becomes Kentucky’s top OL target. They need a tackle in this class badly and while they are still recruiting former commit Derrick Kelly, that looks more and more like a long shot. It’s tough to tell where the Cats stand with Krok, he didn’t flip on his visit and will go to Morgantown next week for his OV with the Mountaineers.
Stallings is a bit of an under-the-radar guy, but the coaches really like him. He is being recruited to play guard or center and could push for immediate playing time at center. That would allow the coaches to move Jon Toth back to tackle if they liked. Toth possesses a tackles body but wasn’t a bad center. Jervontius is the younger brother of former NFL OL Tre Stallings and appears to be down to Kentucky versus MississippiState for his services.
Tubman is a 4* defensive end from Seneca in Louisville and a guy I never understood why Kentucky didn’t pursue more actively. But they wear heating up on him even before James Franklin left Vanderbilt. Tubman flipped from Vandy to PennState with Franklin but still scheduled his visit to UK, which can only be an encouraging sign. Following his visit he was vague about how it went, but don’t read too much into the “nothing to see here” line from Tubman. He isn’t a guy that seems to like to do a lot of interviews and get a lot of attention. Defensive end isn’t really a position of need for UK at this point, this is more of a case of taking the best player available.
Signing Day is coming up fast and there are only two more weekends for official visits. (There is no rule restricting visits to the weekends, but most happen that way for obvious reasons) Next week Kentucky is scheduled to have JUCO commit Michael Mathis in town with three Florida players, ATH TJ Harrell, DB Kendall Randolph and WR/TE Kano Dillon. There may be others added to the list between now and then. Any way you slice it, Kentucky is polishing off a likely Top 15 class and these last few weeks are going to be exciting. It’s about time for some Yahtzee.