By LARRY VAUGHT
LEXINGTON — While admitting the last week or so had been a “little bit of a grind” for him and his staff, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops insisted Wednesday he was excited with the 23 players in his third signing class at Kentucky.
The Cats lost six players to de-commitments late in the recruiting process, but rebounded to sign 23 players — including 13 on defense — and wound up with a top 35 recruiting class.
“I feel like we really hit on a bunch of guys we were looking for. Big thing that you'll notice with this group is great size, great length,” said Stoops while pointing out needs filled in the secondary, offensive line and defensive line.
“I think hitting 13 defensive guys was important. I felt like we just continued to build, to build depth, to get the size we're looking for, to get the players in the secondary was important. So we're aggressive with defensive players. Signing 13 of them was important for us and for our future.”
He also liked the four offensive linemen the Cats signed and noted that 315-pound George Asafo-Adjei, the Ohio lineman of the year, could provide immediate help.
“George Asafo is a guy who physically has everything you want. He's extremely mature and works extremely hard,” Stoops said. “You just look at him, you walk around the building and look at him, he looks as good or better than anybody we have on our team, and he's been here just a couple of weeks. So I think it's very important to have him here in the spring, and he will definitely help us, and he's definitely the type of inside physical presence that we've been looking for.”
Perhaps the biggest signing day surprise was Pearl River Communit College defensive lineman Avonte Bell, who had committed to UK two years ago but did not qualify academically. His name had not been mentioned with UK, which defensive coordintor D.J. Eliot said was a good thing because no one else could come after him.
“I didn't want anybody to know about him. We didn't talk about him. None of y'all knew about him. We didn't say a word about him, and that's the way I liked it,” Stoops said. “He's a very good football player, very explosive. Our coaches have gone there and watched him practice and been around him. We feel like he's got a very bright future.”
Stoops said he never worried about expectations fans had for this recruiting class after last year’s success recruiting-wise.
“We're going to recruit the very best players we can, and we're not afraid to compete. We're certainly not going to lay off anybody because some other schools are recruiting them,” Stoops said. “Once again, we feel very good about this group, and I want to concentrate on the victories that we have in this group because there's a lot of guys in this group that we had to fight awfully hard to keep against some very good teams. So I'm very proud to have these guys come and join our program.”
Both Stoops and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, who turned down a chance to leave UK for Michigan, insisted that UK was “fishing in the right waters” for players and would keep doing so.
“I think we're going after the right guys. So I think our staff has done a nice job of targeting and evaluating some very good players, and early on, sometimes when we go and target these guys and recruit them and sometimes get a commitment and a year later they blow up, I find ... I feel like the staff deserves some good credit for that because I feel like we're working extremely hard,” Stoops said.
“We already worked hard on (20)16. We've been at it for months, but in particular, really zeroed in on it again this week and moving forward on 16. But I feel like our staff does a nice job. We work very hard on identifying the right talent, and then we go after them. I told you from day one that we're going to compete and we're going to battle with the very best teams in the country, and we're going to win some, and we're going to lose some.”
Marrow said there will be a strong in-state recruiting base in the 2016 class and that Ohio might have its strongest recruiting class since 2009. He also noted that Washington, D.C., where UK had success this year, will be strong.
“We are still going to recruit Florida. We have got to get into Georgia. There is a lot of talent there,” Marrow said.
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