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Kentucky Wildcats: Stoops Adds QB to ’16 Class

By Ethan Conger

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Gunnar Hoak, a 2016 3-star QB from Ohio, pledged his commitment to the ‘Cats last night, marking the 16th commitment in the class so far. Hoak’s commitment comes just 2 weeks after the disappointing loss of 4-star QB Austin Kendall to Oklahoma.

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Hoak is possibly one of the more important gets for UK in the 2016 class as Stoops’ missed out on a QB in the 2015 class. In fact, the last quarterback to come to Lexington was Drew Barker back in 2014.

Per reports, in his last season of play, Hoak threw for over 2,500 yards and 30 touchdowns, passing over 60 percent.

247Sports has Gunnar Hoak ranked as the 55th best pro-style QB in the 16′ class, and the 51st best overall player coming out of the state of Ohio.

Gunnar Hoak marks the third elite quarterback to choose the Kentucky Wildcats in the last 5 years, and will look to compliment Towles and Barker once (or if) he steps foot on campus in 2016.

"UK’s current group of quarterbacks includes junior Patrick Towles; sophomore Reese Phillips, who missed all of spring practice with an injury; and redshirt freshman Barker. UK did add former Male High School standout Davis Mattingly as a preferred walk-on in the class of 2015.The UK coaching staff has been in contact with Hoak for months, but that interest intensified a couple of weeks ago when four-star quarterback Austin Kendall announced his commitment to Oklahoma. Kendall — UK’s top recruiting priority at the time — made several trips to Lexington and his older brother is a walk-on with the Wildcats.With his commitment, UK now has 16 pledges for the class of 2016, which is filling up fast with more than nine months to go until national signing day.Ten of UK’s 16 commitments are from Ohio and the program now has eight of the top 40 prospects from that state, according to the Rivals.com rankings.The addition of Hoak means that Kentucky will pass Southern Cal and move into the No. 9 spot in the Rivals class rankings for 2016. Only Miami (with 20 commitments already) has more pledges than UK for next year."

With signing day still nearly a year away, things are looking up for ‘Cats. It will be important for Stoops not to let any of the commits slip away in the coming months. If he can do that, along with add a few more talented pieces, the ’16 class could be one of Stoops’ best yet.

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