State of 2023 Recruiting
- Thread starter Canned Heat
- Start date
JRow put in a "FutureCast" for 5.8 four star LB Grant Godfrey. This would be a huge get for us.
All future casts, crystal balls, and on3 predictions are now for UK.
Just saw that, but doesn't he visit EwTee before he announces? They may back up a McDonalds dump truck at his feet.
While perusing the internet the last couple of days, I have noted a very negative tone coming from an increasing number of UK fans regarding football recruiting. Experienced observers of recruiting on several websites have started cautioning panicking UK fans to calm down and wise up. I would like to comment about all this.
One can perceive at least 3 reasons for these current recruiting anxieties. All of them are poorly reasoned. For one thing, UL has received a handful of impressive commitments. Some of our fans evidently measure our recruiting against the UL yardstick. But UK beats the snot out of UL every November, and Stoops owns Satterfield. So if UL's class is bothering you, just relax and chill.
The second reason is that Micah Carter and Saadiq Clements recently committed to Purdue. Purdue is coached by Jeff Brohm, who never fails to get some UK fans' blood boiling. But my understanding is that Clements did not hold a committable UK scholarship offer, and decided to take the Purdue offer while it was available. l am not as knowledgable about Carter, but I know that Stoops was just visited in Lexington by Kendrick Gilbert and Neeo Avery. Gilbert and Avery are Stoops' primary targets. So, no worries there unless he misses on both. I noticed that Gilbert is now getting CB predictions for UK, for whatever that is worth. Avery may be choosing between UK and Maryland.
The third, and biggest, reason is that UK is not receiving as many early commitments as a year ago. The signing date is still 6 months away. Stoops is casting a wider net this year. That is a good thing. From my point of view, the class will matter in December. Not so much now though. Patience is a virtue.
In the last several weeks, UK has been visited by Gilbert, Avery, Jaden Robinson, Anthony Brown, Naquil Betrand, Sean Thompkins, Karmello English, Avery Stuart, Robert Stafford, Koby Keenum, Khalifa Keith, Devin Hyatt, Grant Godfrey, and Austin Ramsey, among others. Ramsey has already committed to UK and is evidence (along with Tyreese Fearbry) that Brad White has opened up PA as a new UK recruiting territory. More commitments will be forthcoming. This is certainly not a time to freak out and turn negative against a coaching staff that has proven itself and earned our trust. A few months ago, Stoops signed UK's best class ever, right after beating the crap out of UL (again) and winning the Citrus Bowl (again). And all the Mitch hating is really nuts. Those folks really ought to clue up. This will be another strong recruiting class for Stoops. Everyone just take a deep breath.
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4 star LB Grant Godfrey visited this weekend and after talking with him JR has put in a FC to UK. This weekend Stanquan Clark another 4 star LB will be visiting. Looks like they're starting to get some Momentum with this class
If Stoops just signs 25% of the prospects who have visited, or will be visiting, Lexington in June, this will be a great class before you know it. I am particularly excited about Godfrey, Avery, and Robinson. Godfrey's film is unbelievable. Not to mention other prospects who will visit UK in November and December. Ignore the gloom and doomers. They are always wrong. Everyone just needs to give Stoops the trust he has already earned over and over.
ul shouldn't beat UK in nil though. It's the largest city but the rest of the state is overwhelmingly blue. You can find small pockets of red but a little creativity could pay huge for our nil balance. We did those basketball tours after the season years ago and guys made good money off that. All our small towns might not have the money Louisville does but we can pool that money to add to other counties and be wayyyy bigger than what ul can offer. ''
Hell.... Just have someone sell jerseys of players. Give the players a cut of the money. Let fans buy the dang jersey of players they like and if fans know that purchase is helping the player then you'd have people buying 2 or 5 jerseys each year to help the players.
Where I think teams like ul are going to get into trouble is with fiduciary responsibility of some of these corporate sponsors for ul. It would be hard to justify paying a college student more than they pay pros for a sponsorship deal and I could see some lawsuits from stock holders of publicly traded companies and the ncaa for enducements.
This is what I was afraid of though. It's going to get worse before it gets better. I just hope college sports survive this and we don't just go to a minor league pro system.
Hell.... Just have someone sell jerseys of players. Give the players a cut of the money. Let fans buy the dang jersey of players they like and if fans know that purchase is helping the player then you'd have people buying 2 or 5 jerseys each year to help the players.
Where I think teams like ul are going to get into trouble is with fiduciary responsibility of some of these corporate sponsors for ul. It would be hard to justify paying a college student more than they pay pros for a sponsorship deal and I could see some lawsuits from stock holders of publicly traded companies and the ncaa for enducements.
This is what I was afraid of though. It's going to get worse before it gets better. I just hope college sports survive this and we don't just go to a minor league pro system.
Someone posted alone this line about the team rankings, only a couple SEC teams in the top 10 when normally there are 4-5. I don't think it's a UK thing a little slower this cycle, the better kids are just not committing as early as they have been. I think they are testing the waters and trying to get as much NIL as they can. I know we are not all in on the NIL deal like several schools, I am going to be curious how motivated a 17 year old millionaire is going to be to practice and study.
Josh Edwards of 247 sports put in a crystal ball of 7 (HIGH confidence) for the following:
Was our last commit from Indianapolis, Jon Toth?
Gilbert would be a great get.
Gilbert would be a great get.
Especially impressive considering he visited LSU the week before us. Our staff must’ve put on a better visit.
Not a lot of talk about Avery but he would be a home run at his position. Athletic, very quick and hard to block, aggressive, and can run people down across the field as he runs a 4.6 forty. Projected to eventually be a draft pick in the middle rounds. If we got him and Gilbert I would be ecstatic. Losing Jones, it would also be nice to land a NG in the 330 range.
Who is Jones they're losing? The Ga recruit that is facing charges??
Yeah, reading the story doesn't sound real good. Could be here eventually but significant we start getting that position ready to go in two years. Really excited about Walker but need to have that experienced depth in a couple of years.
Yea but it’s not confirmed we are losing him. People just preparing for that possibility it looks like.
How are we feeling about this class currently, this is around the time where a lot of guys start committing
As long as Mitch has his shirt Buttoned all the way to that top Button we are good.
FWIW, I mentioned elsewhere that Rowland recently said on Twitter that UK could be close to getting a string of 4* commits...or something like that. We'll soon see.
It sucks that we have finally started to climb the mountain and now NIL might bring us back down.
It isn't NIL. If the administration isn't willing to get on board then Kentucky football gets left behind. Notice I didn't say basketball gets left behind. Obviously Mitch Almighty if ok with paying them and building new facilities for Roundball.
I don’t disagree. I’m just saying that it’s a bad time in UK football history to have NIL become a thing.
There have been far worse times: going into a major change while we are in the Top 15 of P5 football [measured by wins in five years] is better than encountering change in a losing period.
Just imagine how anxious advertisers are to team up with Kansas and UConn athletes.
At a minimum, we are at our second highest profile 5 year performance level in program history.
Had NIL come about at a low point for the program, we might really have gotten left behind.
Or …….Calipari just says “to hell with Mitch , I’ll do what I want “ . But I don’t believe ole Cal will be getting his new facilities anytime soon .
The coal industry and the tobacco industry are a shell of what they used to be though . There was a time we could have competed with anyone on this NIL thing . Times have changed though. The bourbon industry is booming however, maybe they will step up .
Great point!
I know that MS is an investor in one of the local distilleries. Wouldn’t it be something if HE could get involved with the NIL for his distillery???
I think sometimes you guys are overthinking things when it comes to football recruiting. Louisville has immediate playing time to offer some high profile players; with Stoops having been established now at Kentucky over a decade he has stockpiled talent in his offensive front and defensive front seven. Immediate slots aren't there to the extent they are at Louisville. We could conceivably have freshman starters at QB, RB, TE, WR and a couple O line slots alone in 2023. Same at corner defensively and MLB.
Ehhhh...maybe but then again how do you explain
- UK racked up a great class last year and we had a ton of kids entrenched on DL, OL, RB, TE, LB, etc spots?
- UL has been a mess talent wise for a while since end of Petrino years....nobody of substance sniffed going to UL and now all of a sudden Scatterfield limping around like a lame duck in his 4th year is racking it up?
It surely adds up to one thing and one thing only...NIL.
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