This edition of the War Room is all about Kentucky's upcoming official visitors. Remember that we have a running tally of who is expected to visit throughout the month of June and you can keep track with that HERE.
I wanted to add that this very well may be the biggest, most hectic month of recruiting coverage in the history of Cats Illustrated. Consider: The amount of portal work Kentucky has to do in basketball to get ready for the upcoming season on the court, three consecutive weeks of football official visits with only three commitments to date, and camps in Lexington.
But without further ado, here's a dive into where things stand with each of the upcoming OVs. We won't get into guys who are visiting the weekends of June 9th and June 16th as that will come later.
** Before beginning, want to say that we know of one big-time visitor for the middle of next week who we can't mention yet. He's committed to another school and would be one of the most talented players Kentucky is recruiting. Once he makes the trip and gets on campus should be able to mention him but somebody worth getting excited about. He would be the headliner among visitors over the next week.
** The weekend of 6/2 (coming up) is not nearly as big as the weekend of 6/9 (which will be their biggest) or even 6/16 and it appears they are going to be bringing guys in mid-week as opposed to over the weekend. This is going to be a crazy weekend in Lexington with everything going on so might be for the best. The following weeken
** Defensive lineman Dominic Kirks was going to take official visits to the following schools on the following dates: Kentucky (6/2), Pitt (6/9), and Washington (6/16). However, there has been a change to those plans. Kirks will be officially visiting Pittsburgh this weekend instead of Kentucky. I can report that Kirks has rescheduled his official visit to Kentucky for 6/9 so he essentially just flipped weekends. Haven't heard anything good or bad about that necessarily. UK won't be a tone-setter but it will make its case after Pitt, and it means that Kirks will be on campus when UK commits Cutter Boley, Hayes Johnson, and Aba Selm are in Lexington, so there's that.
For now it looks like UK, Pitt, and Washington make up a solid top three for Kirks even if he hasn't officially announced it as such, and there's a chance he could be ready to make a decision shortly after those visits.
** One player who we know will be coming in for a midweek trip (6/5) is Cincinnati cornerback Terhyon Nichols.
He also has official visits scheduled for Pittsburgh (6/9), Penn State (6/16), and Michigan (6/23). Nichols currently has a top six which consists of Cincinnati, Kentucky, Michigan, Pitt, Penn State, and Ohio State.
While I'm not aware of any scheduled official visit for Ohio State the Buckeyes did offer last month. His comments didn't make it seem like it changed everything but he has been to the school a lot of times before so that's something to keep in mind.
Nichols has been to Kentucky multiple times before and Kentucky has recruited the city of Cincinnati well. He would definitely be one of the top corners on the board but there are some programs here that make it a tough battle ahead.
** Rivals.com's Sean Williams reported this week that Tennessee EDGE defender Steven Soles will also take a midweek (6/5) official visit to Kentucky in the coming days. He's someone we first reported on last month and the official has been in the works for a while so it's not a late addition under the radar or anything. Kentucky has a lot of solid EDGE options in this class.
As we've said, Virginia Tech is one of the other main schools in play here. South Carolina is there as well and Soles took spring visits to Miami, USF, and Tech. Because of the other options at EDGE available to Kentucky, one has to wonder if they might be bringing Soles in to check him out as much as he plans on checking them out. Brad White tends to be very methodical in his evaluations and so I'd expect they will learn a lot about him this weekend.
Initially Kentucky was reluctant to offer because he's listed at 6'3 and their "standard" for the position was taller, more length, but when the staff visited and sized him up in person I suppose he passed the look test.
"When I talked to the coaches they did kinda sound like coaches and people I would want to be around as far as their mentality, being real southern football types," he said. "They're just real energetic and I know they would take good care of me. It would be a nice place to be at," he said to Cats Illustrated weeks ago.
He was a big-time producer with 135 tackles and 17 sacks last year and those are numbers you like to see. When I spoke with Soles in the past he expressed a desire to take a number of official visits. I don't have a timetable update but keep that in mind in terms of his mentality.
** Yet another midweek official visitor for next week that we can confirm is Greenville, Miss., DL Alex Foster (6'5, 245).
Mississippi State has made Foster one of its top in-state targets so Kentucky is recruiting against a local school plus some others. He does have other official visits scheduled to Georgia Tech and Baylor for June after he sees Kentucky. Foster is also taking some unofficial visits and was recently at Arkansas. It doesn't seem like he's close to a decision so I wouldn't necessarily have him on commitment watch next week when he's in Lexington, with the caveat that when a kid is on campus there's always the possibility that it could be what he falls in love with.
** One thing to watch is going to be the impact of the change on July 1st, when players are allowed to take as many official visits as they want. So you may have guys who plan to take three or four officials in June, but ultimately end up taking 2-3+ more visits once the season begins. Ordinarily those players would be a lot more limited and would be more enticed to go ahead and commit right after those visits but with more at their disposal late that could be interesting. Remember that schools have a limited number of official visits they can pay for each recruiting cycle. By my count Kentucky is right around 30 scheduled official visits for the summer which is slightly over half of their allotted total. I understand not saving more of those trips for later especially since they only have three commitments right now.
** 6'4 Lakewood (Fla.) receiver Shamar Rigby plans to officially visit Kentucky but he still doesn't have the date yet. A number of other receivers do have official visit dates for Kentucky. For example, Cameron Monteiro and Emmanuel Ross are expected in the following weekend (6/9). So it's interesting that Kentucky hasn't given him a date yet.
Rigby did tell me that he has official visits scheduled for Iowa State (6/9) and Purdue (6/16), so that at least reveals who the competition would be right now. Rigby may be the tallest of the receivers Kentucky is targeting but Monteiro and Ross are listed at 6'3 and 6'2 respectively so size on the outside definitely seems to be the preference especially after adding Anthony Brown.
I wanted to add that this very well may be the biggest, most hectic month of recruiting coverage in the history of Cats Illustrated. Consider: The amount of portal work Kentucky has to do in basketball to get ready for the upcoming season on the court, three consecutive weeks of football official visits with only three commitments to date, and camps in Lexington.
But without further ado, here's a dive into where things stand with each of the upcoming OVs. We won't get into guys who are visiting the weekends of June 9th and June 16th as that will come later.
** Before beginning, want to say that we know of one big-time visitor for the middle of next week who we can't mention yet. He's committed to another school and would be one of the most talented players Kentucky is recruiting. Once he makes the trip and gets on campus should be able to mention him but somebody worth getting excited about. He would be the headliner among visitors over the next week.
** The weekend of 6/2 (coming up) is not nearly as big as the weekend of 6/9 (which will be their biggest) or even 6/16 and it appears they are going to be bringing guys in mid-week as opposed to over the weekend. This is going to be a crazy weekend in Lexington with everything going on so might be for the best. The following weeken
** Defensive lineman Dominic Kirks was going to take official visits to the following schools on the following dates: Kentucky (6/2), Pitt (6/9), and Washington (6/16). However, there has been a change to those plans. Kirks will be officially visiting Pittsburgh this weekend instead of Kentucky. I can report that Kirks has rescheduled his official visit to Kentucky for 6/9 so he essentially just flipped weekends. Haven't heard anything good or bad about that necessarily. UK won't be a tone-setter but it will make its case after Pitt, and it means that Kirks will be on campus when UK commits Cutter Boley, Hayes Johnson, and Aba Selm are in Lexington, so there's that.
For now it looks like UK, Pitt, and Washington make up a solid top three for Kirks even if he hasn't officially announced it as such, and there's a chance he could be ready to make a decision shortly after those visits.
** One player who we know will be coming in for a midweek trip (6/5) is Cincinnati cornerback Terhyon Nichols.
He also has official visits scheduled for Pittsburgh (6/9), Penn State (6/16), and Michigan (6/23). Nichols currently has a top six which consists of Cincinnati, Kentucky, Michigan, Pitt, Penn State, and Ohio State.
While I'm not aware of any scheduled official visit for Ohio State the Buckeyes did offer last month. His comments didn't make it seem like it changed everything but he has been to the school a lot of times before so that's something to keep in mind.
Nichols has been to Kentucky multiple times before and Kentucky has recruited the city of Cincinnati well. He would definitely be one of the top corners on the board but there are some programs here that make it a tough battle ahead.
** Rivals.com's Sean Williams reported this week that Tennessee EDGE defender Steven Soles will also take a midweek (6/5) official visit to Kentucky in the coming days. He's someone we first reported on last month and the official has been in the works for a while so it's not a late addition under the radar or anything. Kentucky has a lot of solid EDGE options in this class.
As we've said, Virginia Tech is one of the other main schools in play here. South Carolina is there as well and Soles took spring visits to Miami, USF, and Tech. Because of the other options at EDGE available to Kentucky, one has to wonder if they might be bringing Soles in to check him out as much as he plans on checking them out. Brad White tends to be very methodical in his evaluations and so I'd expect they will learn a lot about him this weekend.
Initially Kentucky was reluctant to offer because he's listed at 6'3 and their "standard" for the position was taller, more length, but when the staff visited and sized him up in person I suppose he passed the look test.
"When I talked to the coaches they did kinda sound like coaches and people I would want to be around as far as their mentality, being real southern football types," he said. "They're just real energetic and I know they would take good care of me. It would be a nice place to be at," he said to Cats Illustrated weeks ago.
He was a big-time producer with 135 tackles and 17 sacks last year and those are numbers you like to see. When I spoke with Soles in the past he expressed a desire to take a number of official visits. I don't have a timetable update but keep that in mind in terms of his mentality.
** Yet another midweek official visitor for next week that we can confirm is Greenville, Miss., DL Alex Foster (6'5, 245).
Mississippi State has made Foster one of its top in-state targets so Kentucky is recruiting against a local school plus some others. He does have other official visits scheduled to Georgia Tech and Baylor for June after he sees Kentucky. Foster is also taking some unofficial visits and was recently at Arkansas. It doesn't seem like he's close to a decision so I wouldn't necessarily have him on commitment watch next week when he's in Lexington, with the caveat that when a kid is on campus there's always the possibility that it could be what he falls in love with.
** One thing to watch is going to be the impact of the change on July 1st, when players are allowed to take as many official visits as they want. So you may have guys who plan to take three or four officials in June, but ultimately end up taking 2-3+ more visits once the season begins. Ordinarily those players would be a lot more limited and would be more enticed to go ahead and commit right after those visits but with more at their disposal late that could be interesting. Remember that schools have a limited number of official visits they can pay for each recruiting cycle. By my count Kentucky is right around 30 scheduled official visits for the summer which is slightly over half of their allotted total. I understand not saving more of those trips for later especially since they only have three commitments right now.
** 6'4 Lakewood (Fla.) receiver Shamar Rigby plans to officially visit Kentucky but he still doesn't have the date yet. A number of other receivers do have official visit dates for Kentucky. For example, Cameron Monteiro and Emmanuel Ross are expected in the following weekend (6/9). So it's interesting that Kentucky hasn't given him a date yet.
Rigby did tell me that he has official visits scheduled for Iowa State (6/9) and Purdue (6/16), so that at least reveals who the competition would be right now. Rigby may be the tallest of the receivers Kentucky is targeting but Monteiro and Ross are listed at 6'3 and 6'2 respectively so size on the outside definitely seems to be the preference especially after adding Anthony Brown.
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