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Bill Landis, high school sports reporter for the Northeast Ohio Media Group, was not surprised that Ohio receiver Alex Stump verbally committed to Kentucky. However, the timing did surprise him a bit.
“I spoke with Alex on Friday morning actually and that point it didn't seem like he was close to having his mind made up. Fast forward 24 hours and he's committing to Kentucky,” said Landis, who wached Stump play three times last year for St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Oho, and has interviewed him several times. “If you look at the other 14 offers he had, I don't think it's surprising that he landed on Kentucky.
“He's very fond of coach (Mark) Stoops and I think the opportunity to play for what he views as an up and coming program in the SEC was too much to pass up on.”
The 6-3, 190-pound Stump caught 57 passes for 987 yards and 14 touchdowns during his junior season in 2013, but he turned heads with his performance last month at the Rivals.com camp in Columbus. He had offers from schools such as Georgia Tech, Minnesota and West Virginia. He’s also a strong academic student who had scholarship offers from Harvard and Yale.
A standout performance at a recent Rivals camp in Columbus helped put Stump on the map even more, but Kentucky had already left a mark by that point.
He comes from a solid program in the Cleveland area. Three of his teammates have already given verbal commitments to Division I schools for 2015.
He’s the seventh player in UK’s 2015 class and second from Ohio. Earlier offensive lineman Larry Wells committed to UK. In the 2014 signing class, UK landed 10 players from Ohio, incuding receiver Dorian Baker who is also from the Cleveland area.
Landis (@blandis25 on Twitter) offered these other insights about Stump.
Question: What impact, if any, do you think Dorian Baker could have had on his commitment?
Landis: “I'm not sure what impact Dorian had on Alex's commitment. I'd imagine they might have had some communication. Their teams did play each other in the playoffs least year. I think someone who may have been a bigger impact is tight C.J. Conrad from Keystone (Ohio). He's making his announcement on Friday and I suspect he'll be committing to UK as well.”
Question: What do you like best about him as a player/person?
Landis: “What I like most about Alex as a player is that I think he felt a bit slighted at the start of his junior year and used that as motivation. He had some teammates who were ranked higher than he was — frankly I think he's the best player on his team — and I think that stuck with him. He had a breakout year and is reaping the benefits now. I love his size at 6-3, and he's got great hands and speed. Off the field, he's just a very nice kid, well-spoken and a good student as made evident by the offers he had from Harvard and Yale.”
Question: Is he the type player you could see making an impact as a freshman?
Landis: “I do think he can make an impact as a freshman. I think he's got the skills, size and mental makeup to contribute immediately. He says the offense they're running at St. Edward is similar to what they run at UK, so that may lessen the learning curve a bit.”
Question: What type things does he still maybe need to work on?
Landis: “If there's one thing I would say he needs to work on, it would be his confidence. And that was more of a problem last year than I think it will be this year. I think it just took him some time to realize what he was capable of, and that's something that will continue to evolve as he has more success.”
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