Kentucky Wildcats Football: Mainord Rising
In Kentucky’s new football recruiting revolution Vince Marrow gets all of the publicity , and he deserves it
, the guy has been a dynamo in securing top Ohio talent since the day he stepped foot on campus. It seems like the former Bills tight end knows someone who knows ever talented kid in the Buckeye state. Kentucky invaded North last year and has set up camp this year. Now it appears that the Wildcats are moving into yet another fertile recruiting ground that they previously couldn’t get their foot into. The DMV, the area including Washington DC, Maryland and northern Virginia is a Top 10 talent producing region in college football and not far from the Bluegrass, but much like Ohio, Kentucky rarely ventured into those waters before.
Well that’s all changing due to one of the most unexpected recruiting jobs we have seen around here. No recruitment is a one-man task, generally staff members recruit regions and then involve position coaches if a player is interested and so forth. But enough can’t be said about the job Tommy Mainord has done in the DMV area, especially when you look at the circumstances. Mainord has no connections to the area, he has spent most of his career coaching in Big 12 country. He came to Kentucky with a reputation for recruiting Midwest JUCOs. And the truth of the matter is that he was no better than Kentucky’s third option as WR coach. One silly blogger may have even thought that keeping Pat Washington to be a better option.
But here is Mainord, not just opening, but kicking in the door to another hot bed for UK. He was a secondary recruiter on all of Kentucky’s 2014 wide receiver signees. He was the primary recruiter on linebacker/safety Kobie Walker. But, with June almost over, he has gone into the region and snagged three highly-rated players. An offensive/defensive lineman who is so athletic, recruiting sites don’t know which position to rate him at. A receiver with the size that they have coveted this year and ball skills to become a number one option. And finally a defensive lineman that Notre Dame just offered and the local Virginia Tech Hokies wanted and needed badly.
Assuming that the current three commitments stick through Signing Day and Kentucky’s wide receivers continue their on-field improvements, Mainord has certainly earned himself a nice little raise this recruiting cycle. It will be interesting to see what kind of interest Mainord garners with his new resume, especially after Marrow reportedly turned down two Big Ten teams during the off-season to stick with Mark Stoops. Hopefully Mainord’s bond with Neal Brown is just as strong.
It’s amazing how much difference there is in this staff compared to the last, where there were only two good recruiters on staff. Mark Stoops has assembled a group that is strong from top to bottom. The only unknown being new addition Craig Naivar. But having seen video of him coaching and reading interviews, I doubt Naivar will have any trouble being popular in a recruits living room. Mark Stoops really knows how to pick them huh?