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While NSD is still a few days away, Kentucky’s 28 man class is filled and Matt Elam seemingly closed the door for recruiting this year. Of course, there can still be some NSD surprises, both good and bad, but as of now it appears this class is set. According to the rating services, Matt Elam is a three star, a four star, or a five-star player. Regardless, Keeping him in state and away from Nick Saban is HUGE and John Clay tells us why Matt Elam is a big deal.

"Back in the day, I heard none other than Hal Mumme tell a UK alumni group down in Alabama that the hardest thing to find in the SEC is a defensive lineman who has size, ability and can pass the ACT. That’s why getting Matt Elam today is big for Kentucky. Not (just) because Nick Saban and Alabama wanted him. Not because Elam is going to be the second coming of Ndamukong Suh. It’s because Elam is a guy with the size you just can’t coach and the size to be the cornerstone of Mark Stoops’ defense. Elam is listed anywhere from 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-6, with his weight listed as anywhere from 340 to 380. Kentucky will hook Elam up with High Performance Coach Erick Korem, get him on a nutrition plan that will drop weight and add muscle. There are those who doubt Elam’s play-making ability, but in UK’s scheme he doesn’t have to make a ton of plays necessarily. Interior defensive linemen aren’t going to make a boatload of tackles or sacks. They’re not going to be a constant presence in the opponent’s backfield. What a good interior defensive lineman does is draw attention. He becomes the focus of the offensive plan and the offensive line. He must be accounted for in the scheme. He can occupy blockers."

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Much has been and will be written about the recruiting job Mark Stoops has done at Kentucky and how he kept Matt Elam from Nick Saban.  The legend of Stoops’ recruiting has grown and just imagine what he can do when UK starts winning.  There is no disputing the impact that Stoops has made thus far.  And the future of UK football is bright on and off the field.  

"Since Stoops came to Lexington, UK has now beaten Florida (Ryan Timmons), Southern California (Jason Hatcher), Steve Spurrier (Drew Barker) and Alabama (Elam) for in-state recruits. That’s pretty strong. In a man-bites-dog sense, so great was the shock that Kentucky had beaten Alabama for Elam, a recruit that 247Sports rates as a five-star prospect and the No. 21 player in the country in the class of 2014, that Sports Illustrated — Sports Illustrated — even tweeted about it. The recruiting data base at Rivals.com goes back to 2002. From that year through the 2012 recruiting season, Kentucky signed 14 players that Rivals rated as four-star recruits. Since Stoops came to Lexington, Kentucky has signed or presently has verbal commitments from 13 such players. With a familiar disclaimer from me that “recruiting stars” are not always that accurate a predictor of how a player turns out in college, that’s pretty strong. On Friday, the UK Board of Trustees is expected to vote on a plan for Kentucky to build a new $45 million football training facility that will apparently be entirely funded with private donations."