Derek Willis not planning to transfer from Kentucky Wildcats

Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

Most people feel that Damien Harris was a Kentucky Wildcats lean until he spent the week of the Under Armour game interacting with the Alabama players on the roster.  Whether that is what turned Harris is debatable, but you can not underestimate the impact that a teams current commits have in recruiting new players.  Kentucky fans saw how that worked out with Matt Elam.  It has become one of a schools main recruiting tools.  

"When I go on my visits, I want to spend as much time around the players as possible,” Godwin said earlier this month at practice for the Under Armour All-America Game. “I don’t want to end up at a school where I don’t feel like I belong. Coaches can tell you about how great it is at their school and how they’re one big family, but if you don’t get that feeling for yourself, then you know it’s the right place for you.” Godwin is right. College coaches know they can have the swaggest uniforms around, lockers with flat screens and PlayStations in them, 24-hour training tables with all the best grub, and a staff full of ace recruiters, but if the players already on campus are sending mixed signals about how things really are within the program, they’re going to have a tough time landing prospects. “It’s probably the biggest reason that nobody really talks about, when it comes to a kid picking or not picking a school,” Arizona receivers coach Tony Dews said. “When kids come on campus and interact with your current players, you want them to feel like they can fit in with these guys. ‘I feel like I’m one of these guys.’ I think it’s huge. You try to get the recruits to spend as much time as possible with your players because they can be your best salesmen.”"

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

With National Signing Day two weeks away, is it time to worry about top recruit Marcus Lewis? Lewis has seemed to be a Kentucky lean for a while but his recent visit to Miami seems to have leveled the field. Lewis maintains he has no leader and this may be a NSD decision. And of course, Miami has a natural recruiting edge that no one else can offer: the weather.

"At the moment, the Hurricanes stand with Kentucky and Washington State as one of three schools remaining on the senior’s list, and after getting to know the coaches, players and Coral Gables area better, his affinity for Miami only strengthened. “It was a great trip and experience to go down there, bond with the coaches and see their campus and facilities,” Lewis said in a Sunday phone interview. “Miami is really unique because it’s real diverse, it’s somewhat of a smaller school with a good teacher-to-student ratio and the Coral Gables campus is kind of separate from Miami.” Temporarily trading in the sporadically snowy, chilly conditions in the D.C. area for the mild weather of Florida didn’t hurt, either. “It was like 75 [degrees] there every day,” Lewis said. “When I got back here and got off the plane and felt the cold again, I was like, ‘Man, I miss that weather.’” Lewis said that the Hurricanes and Coach Al Golden shared their vision for him as a cornerback with a strong chance of competing for playing time as a freshman. In fact, the coaching staff told the senior that, should Lewis choose Miami, they plan to come meet with Gonzaga’s headmaster to see if he could potentially enroll at the school as early as May."