ESPN analyst on UK football recruiting class
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Published on 02-05-2014 11:38 AM
There’s never been a signing day class like this in football at Kentucky.
Not only did UK have 13 signees who are rated as four-star players or higher by at least one recruiting service, but they had six — defensive end Denzeil Ware (113), quarterback Drew Barker (173), receiver Thaddeus Snodgrass (205), running back Stanley Williams (208), defensive back Darius West (248) and defensive back Kendall Randolph (284) — ranked in the ESPN’s top 300 players.
“Kentucky did a great job of being very upfront with this class going back to last March and April,” said ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill. “They said, ‘Guys, this will be rocky road but we will get better. Hang with us.’ They did not feed them a line of crap and tell them it would be all rainbows and unicorns. They told them they were the building blocks and it resonated because there was such a high level of honesty.”
Eleven of the 28 signees came from Ohio where coach Mark Stoops and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow have life-long connections.
“There’s no question Stoops got the job partially because of his background in Ohio and he had to expand the recruiting base in Ohio and then supplement that in Georgia, Florida, and then go north and round out the class with a very good looking group of prospects for the future,” Luginbill said.
The ESPN analyst said adding Barker, an in-state star, was a huge plus.
“It all starts at quarterback,” Luginbill said. “If you don’t have a quarterback, you don’t have a chance.”
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