Kentucky Wildcats Football: QB Recruiting Update

After scoring a major recruiting coup with Drew Barker two years ago, Kentucky’s recruiting momentum has been trucking

along at a record pace for the Wildcats program. But the position that the Cats secured with Barker, the quarterback, has seen no success for whatever reason. The Cats missed out Jarret Stidham and, more shockingly, Elijah Sindelar last year. This year the staff already went from being expected to sign two passers to going all in on Austin Kendall. As you know, Kendall recently committed to Oklahoma, and his interest in Kentucky in the first place has come into serious question. Recently offered Logan Byrd quickly committed to North Carolina. On campus, Reese Phillips tore his Achilles tendon and is likely to miss the season.

With Patrick Towles likely to hold onto his starting job and Drew Barker waiting in the wings, the next four years at quarterback are pretty set assuming everyone stays healthy. That may be assuming a lot though, before Towles started every game last season the Cats had several seasons with QB injuries. Perhaps that stability is turning off some top passers. More than other positions the highly ranked quarterbacks go looking for early playing time.

Kentucky is still in the mix for four-star Messiah deWeaver but his Crystal Ball is heavy to Michigan State. They were the leader for deWeaver earlier in the cycle before throwing the kitchen sink at Kendall and it may be too late to make up that ground. The Cats do have former teammate Kei Beckham and current teammates Tobias Gilliam and Roland Walder in deWeavers ear and he recently has made a point to say that Kentucky is in the mix despite what the connections to Sparty. At this point MSU seems to be the pick with Kentucky running second as a dark horse.

This weekend UK hosted several recruits at their open scrimmage. One of them was Ohio QB Gunnar Hoak, a three star prospect who is the teammate of LB Griffin Grady and jumbo ATH Alex Gellerstedt. Hoak left Lexington with a scholarship offer from Shannon Dawson but didn’t commit like he was expected to. Hoak had some interesting things to say afterward. He told one reporter that UK had cooled on him for a bit because they thought they had a commitment from Kendall. And despite what the Crystal Ball says today, he isn’t looking to commit soon and is waiting for more offers. Generally waiting for more offers isn’t a good sign to land a player. Not saying that he may not end up a Wildcat, but generally you expect a bigger reaction from a player whose previous best offer was Cincinnati.

In the recruiting game you really want to get your quarterback on board early in the cycle to help recruit the rest of the class. That great 2014 group was brought and held together by Barker, Mikel Horton and Dorian Hendrix, among others. It legitimizes your class to have that leader committed and attending camps in the Summer. Skill position players like getting reps and catching balls from their future signal caller.

If the Cats don’t sign a four star or higher quarterback, don’t start fretting. Quarterback recruiting rankings are historically a complete crapshoot, even five star QBs are routinely busts. A three star passer has the same chance of succeeding at the college level as a blue chip. Shannon Dawson has different criteria in which he judges the position, hand size being a big deal. If they don’t get one guy they absolutely love, expect them to sign two, because this is a developmental move. They are recruiting their quarterback for three to four years down the road at this point. One thing is for sure though, this is going to be an interesting ride.