Grant Bingham
is one of the crown jewels of Kentucky's impressive 2022 recruiting class. That's saying something given the number of four-star prospects already lined up to play for Mark Stoops and the Wildcats.
The 6'6, 302-pound offensive lineman has been a coveted prospect for Kentucky since much earlier in his high school career.
Now he's committed and it seems like there will be no looking back. He and fellow four-star offensive tackle Kiyaunta Goodwin are locked in with UK and form one of the best offensive line commitment pairings for any program in the nation in this recruiting cycle.
And Kentucky's coaches knew very early that Bingham would be a big part of their recruiting efforts.
Johnson Central assistant coach Justin Arms knows Bingham very well and has watched his maturation and development as a player and a person in recent years.
Here's part of his conversation with Cats Illustrated from this week.
Cats Illustrated: First things first, what kind of a player and person is Kentucky getting in Grant?
Justin Arms: Grant is a tremendous talent. We were able to recognize him at an early age especially as soon as he came up as a freshman, transitioning to varsity football. He was on special teams (before that) and we were eager to get him in because we were able to see what he did at that level. He didn't disappoint whatsoever. He's started every game since he's been here at Johnson Central. We've had a lot of success, recently I should say, and he's been a huge part of it.
He has great size, very good feet and speed, and great hands. But all those things can be attributed to his ability to play multiple sports. A lot of his skill set comes through playing basketball as well as tennis. I think that's actually helped him through the recruiting process in speaking with several coaches who are just enamored with his ability to play in space.
We run really more of a wishbone triple (option) kind of like the academies run. They know how he can go tackle to tackle but how does that translate trying to get in space? He has the ability to pull in space, lead around the edge, whatever it may be for us. He's allowed us to have some huge plays in several games as we won the state championship. You saw it winning the state championship game against a very good Boyle County team.
He's a tireless worker. He's a very humble man. He's very grounded. He comes from a fantastic family. It's a blue collar family. He has a tremendous work ethic and that shows in summer lifts and things along those lines. He's always in the first group. He's always in our 8:30 a.m. group throughout the entire summer. That shows he's very dedicated to getting his body built and developed to where he could be successful for our high school team but also preparing him for college.
He's been able to increase his work capacity and it's showing tremendous dividends. UK's getting a tremendous football player. Line them up, strap them on, they're getting a fantastic player. I'm excited that he's going to UK and is relatively close to home, just about a two hour drive going down there. It's going to be even more fun than usual these next few years.
It's very impressive to watch him move on the field at that size. We've had him multiple times run at a sub-5.1 (second 40-yard dash) so he's really running a 5.0, a 5.02. Grant, oftentimes, we'll end up putting him in that first or second group conditioning, running with guys who have more speed. You don't see that from a guy at 310 pounds very often.
CI: It seems like Kentucky knew pretty early on he was going to be a big target for them. What was it like early on with them?
Arms: I remember UK came to the school in January (of the previous year) and myself and Coach Matney were meeting with them and they said, 'There's a reason we have four coaches at the state championship to watch Grant.' We'd been sending out film from his freshman season when it concluded just trying to get his name out there. They knew about him but with the recruiting restrictions and guidelines you have to follow there really wasn't much they could do, but they wanted us to know they were very aware of him. It felt like that was very promising in that aspect.
CI: Did he have much of a relationship with John Schlarman?
Arms: They had a good relationship. It's kind of crazy how it all happened. Vince Marrow was here and someone getting inducted into the Johnson Central Hall of Fame. That was Grant's freshman year. He had seen Grant as well as a tight end we had at the time, watching them through warm ups in basketball uniforms. Of course they asked some questions of the athletic support staff and shortly after that Grant went to a camp up there.
He runs into Coach Schlarman and they kind of hit it off. After his sophomore season when we beat Boyle County they wanted Grant to come down for their junior day. Grant got to go to that. Grant, his mom, dad - all of them - were there in the o-line room with Coach Schlarman and they all raved about how fantastic a man he was. It felt like how they hit it off early in that relationship was maybe some foreshadowing with what was to come (with Bingham's commitment). (Schlarman) made them feel like he was part of their family. He and Grant had some conversations and he just raved about Coach Schlarman. Everything about him. He said, 'He really likes me,' and he was super excited about that.
Of course, it was very unfortunate. He was a fighter all the way to the end. That hurt Grant. He was really kind of unsure because I know he and Coach Schlarman had that great relationship. As to what happened when they brought in the new guy (Eric Wolford), it just so happened he was at South Carolina and had built a relationship with him months and months before. I really think a lot of Grant going to UK is the early relationship he built with John Schlarman.
is one of the crown jewels of Kentucky's impressive 2022 recruiting class. That's saying something given the number of four-star prospects already lined up to play for Mark Stoops and the Wildcats.
The 6'6, 302-pound offensive lineman has been a coveted prospect for Kentucky since much earlier in his high school career.
Now he's committed and it seems like there will be no looking back. He and fellow four-star offensive tackle Kiyaunta Goodwin are locked in with UK and form one of the best offensive line commitment pairings for any program in the nation in this recruiting cycle.
And Kentucky's coaches knew very early that Bingham would be a big part of their recruiting efforts.
Johnson Central assistant coach Justin Arms knows Bingham very well and has watched his maturation and development as a player and a person in recent years.
Here's part of his conversation with Cats Illustrated from this week.
Cats Illustrated: First things first, what kind of a player and person is Kentucky getting in Grant?
Justin Arms: Grant is a tremendous talent. We were able to recognize him at an early age especially as soon as he came up as a freshman, transitioning to varsity football. He was on special teams (before that) and we were eager to get him in because we were able to see what he did at that level. He didn't disappoint whatsoever. He's started every game since he's been here at Johnson Central. We've had a lot of success, recently I should say, and he's been a huge part of it.
He has great size, very good feet and speed, and great hands. But all those things can be attributed to his ability to play multiple sports. A lot of his skill set comes through playing basketball as well as tennis. I think that's actually helped him through the recruiting process in speaking with several coaches who are just enamored with his ability to play in space.
We run really more of a wishbone triple (option) kind of like the academies run. They know how he can go tackle to tackle but how does that translate trying to get in space? He has the ability to pull in space, lead around the edge, whatever it may be for us. He's allowed us to have some huge plays in several games as we won the state championship. You saw it winning the state championship game against a very good Boyle County team.
He's a tireless worker. He's a very humble man. He's very grounded. He comes from a fantastic family. It's a blue collar family. He has a tremendous work ethic and that shows in summer lifts and things along those lines. He's always in the first group. He's always in our 8:30 a.m. group throughout the entire summer. That shows he's very dedicated to getting his body built and developed to where he could be successful for our high school team but also preparing him for college.
He's been able to increase his work capacity and it's showing tremendous dividends. UK's getting a tremendous football player. Line them up, strap them on, they're getting a fantastic player. I'm excited that he's going to UK and is relatively close to home, just about a two hour drive going down there. It's going to be even more fun than usual these next few years.
It's very impressive to watch him move on the field at that size. We've had him multiple times run at a sub-5.1 (second 40-yard dash) so he's really running a 5.0, a 5.02. Grant, oftentimes, we'll end up putting him in that first or second group conditioning, running with guys who have more speed. You don't see that from a guy at 310 pounds very often.
CI: It seems like Kentucky knew pretty early on he was going to be a big target for them. What was it like early on with them?
Arms: I remember UK came to the school in January (of the previous year) and myself and Coach Matney were meeting with them and they said, 'There's a reason we have four coaches at the state championship to watch Grant.' We'd been sending out film from his freshman season when it concluded just trying to get his name out there. They knew about him but with the recruiting restrictions and guidelines you have to follow there really wasn't much they could do, but they wanted us to know they were very aware of him. It felt like that was very promising in that aspect.
CI: Did he have much of a relationship with John Schlarman?
Arms: They had a good relationship. It's kind of crazy how it all happened. Vince Marrow was here and someone getting inducted into the Johnson Central Hall of Fame. That was Grant's freshman year. He had seen Grant as well as a tight end we had at the time, watching them through warm ups in basketball uniforms. Of course they asked some questions of the athletic support staff and shortly after that Grant went to a camp up there.
He runs into Coach Schlarman and they kind of hit it off. After his sophomore season when we beat Boyle County they wanted Grant to come down for their junior day. Grant got to go to that. Grant, his mom, dad - all of them - were there in the o-line room with Coach Schlarman and they all raved about how fantastic a man he was. It felt like how they hit it off early in that relationship was maybe some foreshadowing with what was to come (with Bingham's commitment). (Schlarman) made them feel like he was part of their family. He and Grant had some conversations and he just raved about Coach Schlarman. Everything about him. He said, 'He really likes me,' and he was super excited about that.
Of course, it was very unfortunate. He was a fighter all the way to the end. That hurt Grant. He was really kind of unsure because I know he and Coach Schlarman had that great relationship. As to what happened when they brought in the new guy (Eric Wolford), it just so happened he was at South Carolina and had built a relationship with him months and months before. I really think a lot of Grant going to UK is the early relationship he built with John Schlarman.
