Kentucky Wildcats Football:Recruiting Season Upon Us

With fans wringing their hands over who will be the next offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky, not enough attention

has been paid to the more important aspect of this offseason; recruiting. The reality is that great players make great coaches. Whatever kind of offense UK runs in the future, the coaches will need players to make it go. It remains to be seen which recruits and commits will fit the new scheme but most of the targets figure to stay the same. Here is a Sunday recruiting update:

• Everyone still wants to know about Damien Harris and the offensive coordinator hire will weigh heavily in his decision. That’s not saying that Harris will figure into the hiring process. The reality is that Harris is good enough to shine in any system and the coaches are surely telling him that. Right now it’s down to Kentucky and Alabama and you have to worry any time that Nick Saban comes calling. Both teams have great depth at running back. But Kentucky is the one team that has stuck around the entire time with Harris. He has moved his decision date back to January 9^th.
• UK offensive tackle commit Larry Wells took a visit to Cincinnati over the weekend and looked like he had a good time. Wells has flown under the radar a bit but is a guy that the coaches think they may have gotten a steal on by getting him to commit early. There are some rumblings now that he may have some eligibility issues, which would explain looking at UC.
• Another commit that took a visit was defensive end Jason Stowbridge, visiting North Carolina officially. This one was expected because Stowbridge said he was probably going to take all of his visits when he committed. It’s been 24 hours and there haven’t been any rumblings about the visit, that’s likely a good sign.
• One commit that is likely watching the OC hire very closely is Levon Livingston, the DC area OT/ATH. Livingston is committed to playing tackle but definitely needs to bulk up in order to even play in the Air Raid. It remains to be seen how he would be used in a scheme that requires bigger linemen.
• Kentucky hosted a pair of Nebraska transfers over the weekend. Linebacker Courtney Love and tight end Greg Hart are both redshirt freshmen that were recruited by the Wildcats two years ago. Love is the cousin of Kentucky safety Marcus McWilson and a Cardinal Mooney alum. So of course he is very close with Vince Marrow. Things sound very good for Love joining the Cats soon and possibly getting an NCAA waiver. He could step in and compete for playing time at middle linebacker immediately. Hart is interested, but maybe not to the same level as Love. Kentucky could certainly use a third scholarship tight end though.
• Next weekend is shaping up to be absolutely huge for Kentucky in the recruiting game. There should be a new coordinator in place and the Cats are hosting a ton of recruits. Several current UK commits will be campus for their official visits. And they are hosting a number of their top targets including Marcus Lewis, Damien Harris, Nathan Dalton, and JUCO DT Maurice Swain. They will also play host to Vanderbilt commit Josh Smith, a four star outside linebacker. Tavin Richardson won’t make it due to an all-star game but Kentucky still leads.
• Later in the day Woodford County’s Drake Jackson, the top center in 2016 and the best player in Kentucky’s 2016 class will announce his commitment. By all account he will choose the Wildcats over basically everyone else in college football. Jackson has always favored Kentucky but the possibility of losing OL coach John Schlarman could create doubt in his mind about the Cats.
• Perhaps one of the reasons that the Cats are still recruiting cornerbacks is that commit Jeremiah Dinson is still in heavy contact with Arkansas and recently revealed that he plans to take an official visit to Fayetteville.