Matt Elam has been the talk of the town lately, and rightfully so. Ever since his commitment, in which he spurned the Alabama Crimson Tide for the in-state Kentucky Wildcats, Elam’s legacy has been rapidly rising in the Bluegrass. Well, now that he has arrived to Lexington and been through some practices, his presence is becoming real. Just yesterday, Mark Stoops said that he will play from day one, saying his movement from the snap is something amazing for a guy his size. Combine this with the fact that he’s down 20 pounds and he should be a terror to opposing offenses. Yesterday, in an interview with Elam himself, he made a pitch to future in-state stars considering Kentucky. Check out the statement below.
"I’m proud that I came here, and I’m happy with it. A lot of people were surprised I picked Kentucky over Alabama, but I’m an in-state guy and the coaching change really just opened my eyes. Coach Stoops, Coach Brown and Coach Brumbaugh, I just know that they can help me along in this process and make me a better player, and that at the end of the day, that’s where you need to go. You can’t just go to a program that’s just winning. You can go to a program anywhere that’s just winning, but I wanted to come here and be the man and get help and get me where I need to be for the next level.I feel like we just love the state of Kentucky, we need more players from the state of Kentucky because that’s the cornerstone. That’s what you need to build on is players from Kentucky. You can go out and get these other players, but I feel like we definitely have some pride. We saw this community of football heading more towards basketball, and definitely just want to bring more wins and more people into football in Kentucky.You don’t have to leave to go to a different school to play and go to the league or whatever your dreams are. You can definitely handle those type of things here. It’s in the SEC, there’s a lot of positive things about being at Kentucky. You can look at the past records and everything, I mean, they haven’t been winning a lot of games, but wins aren’t everything to me. If you’re getting better, that’s good for you.Just a guy that helped change the program and lead it into the right light. I don’t expect Kentucky to go from winning two games to being undefeated, that’s just unrealistic. I just want to see improvement in everything and guys coming in from in-state and guys staying here because Kentucky is a great school. It’s not just a basketball school, it’s football, too, and the coaching staff is going to change that."
The statements above certainly show that Matt Elam and the rest of the recruiting class know exactly what they are getting themselves into. It also shows that heart and building a legacy is something that can trump winning for those players that want to be there. Now, somebody quickly get this message over to Madison Southern’s Damien Harris and tell him to sign on up. We’ve got a spot waiting for him, as he’d be Kentucky’s first 5* recruit ever. I don’t know about you, but I certainly like the sounds of our first being an in-state guy. Go Cats!!!!!