Grade the positions

[seccats04]

QB-C+(Cobbins, Smith) Neither of these guys had many good offers except Michigan offered Cobbins late but I still have doubts that he will stick at 6 feet tall.

RB-A-(Clemons, Caffey) Thunder and Lightning. These were UK's top two prospects at the RB position and both are great prospects.

WR-B (Cunningham, Daniel, Collins, Tandy, Robinson) Maybe our best collection of wideouts ever. You have size and blocking with Cunningham and you speed, versatilty and big play ability with the rest.

TE-B- (Dupree, Forrest) Missing on Davis hurts but I think he would've made a bigger impact at FB anyway. Dupree had some very solid offers and Forrest is very athletic but very raw.

OL-B+ (Miller, West, Elliott) Losing Martin was a huge blow as we are very short on the tackle position. But the three we signed are very good players. I just hope Elliott's grades are good to go.

DE-C+ (J Johnson, Huguenin, Warren) I think Farrington can be the steal of the class. Johnson concerns me because he has put on alot of bad weight since signing last year, up to 269 right now. Warren I think may be our FB of the future.

DT-B- (Washington, Coleman, Love) Losing Tucker hurts because DL is what is slowing UK's progress in the SEC and he would've been huge. But Washington is a stud and Coleman is already up to a stout 280. Love has the size but is very raw and may end up as an OG.

LB-C (Patterson, Rancifer) Too many strike outs here to be a higher grade but we signed two very good prospects. Patterson may not stay here because he may outgrow the position and depends on the health of his knee. Rancifer is a tackling machine, period! But we needed more LB's for the 3-4.

CB-D- (Hall) I know this wasn't a need position but Hall's biggest offer was from Marshall and he's very short for a corner. He may just be a return specialist with his speed.

S-A (Faulkner, Dixon, Lowery) Faulkner is maybe the best safety we've ever signed. Dixon had some great offers but may end up at CB with his size. Lowery is a good athlete that may end up as a LB.

Overall this is a solid class but we had some big misses too with Dawson, Davis, Martin and Tucker. These guys could've propelled this to a top 25 class but nonetheless this class is an upgrade.

We also did very poorly in the state maybe because of all the negativity surrounding the program this season? I don't know, but we need to correct it. Otherwise, I'm happy with this class.

 

[BlueRaider22]

Good post. I agree for the most part. Dupree I believe will be a DE when it's said and done. I agree on Hall, but with his speed and athleticism he may be a steal in a few yrs.

As far as the "misses...." Elite guys often go to more storied programs no matter what choices they have in-state. That goes for a lot of states and not just ours. We tend to believe that these guys should be ours just for being in the same state, but realisically you can't expect it. I wish that we could have landed the in-state studs, but you can't expect everyone to flood your way when we are still trying to climb up the ladder to 8 wins annually. When we start getting 7-9 wins per yr instead of 6-8, then we will start to pull in more of these guys....but still not all.

 

[jauk11]

Very good analysis, thanks for your work. I think the grades could all have been a little higher except for one important fact: we play in the SEC. Still very nice to have a couple of A's though, and we filled several of our needs.

I share your concern about Johnson's weight, but he is supposed to be a good athlete so here's hoping the Rock can turn him into a good 250# LB or a good 280# DE. Another good thing is we now have a good crop of redshirts coming in every year now which should make a redshirt more available for a lot of these players.