Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
Well guys and gals, the UK coaching staff has sealed the deal and is now finished with the 2014 recruiting class. A class with talent that we as fans have never seen before. Ten, 4-star recruits, many highly rated 3-star recruits and a couple of under-the-radar type of guys. This is a great group of athletes to compliment the 2013 class.
Listen, this staff has worked non-stop tirelessly for a full year and it has paid off big time. They didn’t back down from the “Big boys” of college football. They definitely don’t like the word “No”. In the end, they have hit on some of the top players on their board and as a fan, I can not wait to see these guys play a couple of years from now.
With that being said, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out two more groups that I think are attributable to the recruiting success of this fabulous 2014 recruiting class. That would be the UK marketing department and the UK administration (lol. yeah, I said it!). Since the hiring of Mark Stoops, the UK administration has “stepped up” in a big way. First it was the pay for Stoops and staff and the willingness to pay more to others that deserved it. Coach Vince Marrow was given and nice raise and promotion to recruiting coordinator. His pay went from $175,000 to 275,000 a year. Secondly, they were very active in securing the $110 million for football upgrades to the stadium. Now it seems that they are close to approving the $45 million for a new training facility. It’s nice to see the administration put their best foot forward and start to show that they do indeed care about more than just basketball (at least that is what most fans think).
The UK marketing department has been killing it with all the advertising they have done to promote UK football. From the day Mark Stoops stepped on campus they have been producing some really good material that gets recruits and fans alike fired up about UK football. I don’t even know if I have ever seen anything near what they have been doing over the past year. Kudos to them.
So, last week in my article I had spoken of two new recruits who were added to this class. They were, 4-star defensive back Kendall Randolph and a mammoth of a man in offensive lineman Josh Krok who satnds at 6’8′ and 308 lbs. That left only 2 spots open for the 2014 recruiting class.
But here’s the story of the week. UK coach’s Neal Brown and John Schlarman traveled 6-7 hours in bad weather to get to Jervontius Stallings who was stuck at school for the night. They walked the last mile because they couldn’t go any farther in their rental car. They stayed with Stallings until 4 am. This impressed Jervontius so much that he committed 14 hours later, making him the 27th recruit for this class. He had said that he was glad that the coaches “stuck it out” with him at school and that it had made him feel really comfortable with them. Stallings picked UK over Miss. St.
Now that brings us to the 28th recruit, Matt Elam. The UK coaching staff fought long and hard for Matt’s services and came out on top. Matt is another mammoth of a man standing at 6’6″ and weighting in at a reportedly 370lbs. Alabama wanted Elam bad, even sending down coaches at the 11th hour to try and secure his services. It didn’t work. Matt’s draw to Kentucky was too strong in the end. He wants to help build a top notch program for his home state, doing it with the 2014 recruiting class that he has grown so close with. Make no mistake, Matt has a lot of work to do on his body and his technique but this guy will be an absolute space-eating beast in a couple of years. THIS was a great pick-up for the staff.
So, now that it’s over (at least almost, National Signing Day is next Wednesday)…congrats to the coaching staff and come on 2015 recruits!
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