Backstory on Mac Jones
I'm confident that four-star quarterback Mac Jones never would have decommitted from Kentucky if the Cats hadn't parted ways with Shannon Dawson. Jones really liked Dawson as a coach. Now, I realize most of you are going to think, "Well, wasn't worth keeping Dawson anyways." I don't disagree with you. Just telling the story. Jones loved the fact that Dawson took a risk on him when everybody else said he was too small. He loved his offense and how he wasn't going to turn Jones into a runner. Jones is quicker escaping the pocket than a lot people realize, but he doesn't have the speed to turn that pocket bailout into a longer run.
Anyways, one thing that I think really turned Jones off was the fact that it took Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw about a month to reach out to him after they took their new jobs. Jones was kind of watching and just waiting as patiently as he could -- as he has it -- and not understanding why they wouldn't talk to a commitment from the 2017 class. Of course, the coaches upon arrival were focused on finding Stephen Johnson, a more immediate task. The coaches actually seemed more focused on Walker Wood, too, because they had already favorably evaluated him at Cincinnati. But Jones was turned off by how long it took them to reach out.
He didn't immediately decommit, which makes this seem moot, but I think when he later decommitted it was always in the back of his mind. I don't think it was a grudge. In fact, Jones told me multiple times how much he trusted and respected Hinshaw as a quarterback coach. I think it was a lingering doubt about how they felt about how he would fit into the offense. When he saw the course of Kentucky's season I don't think he was turned off by Stephen Johnson running a good bit, because he saw that with Drew Barker they weren't asking him to run much. At one point Jones was pinpointing mid- to late-September -- about four weeks/games into the season -- as the time when he would decide on whether to stick with Alabama or flip to Kentucky. And he was very serious about it. He wanted to see how Kentucky's offense would be under the new coaches.
Kentucky made the calculation that they didn't want to wait on Jones (which I think says a lot about how they felt about the need at the position this year; it was not a luxury but a necessity beyond Wood) and they wanted to go ahead and move on Danny Clark. But I will go to my grave thinking that if they had waited they would have had Jones' signature on NSD. Would that have been the ideal scenario? Will let you be the judge for yourself.
No easy way to handle some things
After former UK running back commit Mike Warren committed to Toledo (he's bound for Cincinnati, due to events since then), I posted, innocently enough, that he did not have an offer from Kentucky. I didn't mention his Twitter account in my tweet (i.e. didn't link him in) and I was fairly coy about it so as not to call him out in the worst way. My goal wasn't to call him out. I was answering people who were shocked that Kentucky "lost" him to Toledo. There had been continued talk about Warren as though he was still a target, so I wanted to set the story straight in the most polite way possible.
I guess there's no way to do that. I got a pretty angry message from Warren demanding that I never mention him, write about him, etc., again. I didn't need hindsight to realize that he was upset and for understandable reasons, but it was one of those deals where actual reporting was bound to ruffle feathers and there's no way to get around it if you want to tell the real story.
The deal with Danny Davis
I still don't know the whole issue here but a lot of things were at play. My understanding is that in some respects Davis dealt with some anxiety issues when it came to traveling, being away from home, etc.,but I don't know that this was any part of UK's calculation at all.
I think two things were probably at play. One, I think Davis was probably spooked a little bit by Lynn Bowden's commitment. UK's receiving class is pretty stacked and that could have impacted his interest. But secondly, UK did back off for a while. At one point I heard that Isaiah Epps may actually have been higher than Davis on Kentucky's wish list, and if that's true it just underscores that the rankings and a staff's board do not always perfectly align.
Marrow maintained a good relationship with Davis and his crew throughout the process. I and many others were surprised when he picked Wisconsin because it doesn't seem like a great offensive fit. I think a lot of people were counseling him that, if it's between Wisconsin and WVU, the better choice is WVU because of the offense....and I totally understand that line of thinking. But some kids care about things beyond style of play. Thought Davis was a great kid when I met him over the summer.
Speaking of Epps....
A lot is made about 'sleepers' and 'late bloomers' and I can tell you that the answers often aren't any easier for coaching staffs than for people on boards like this one. Why didn't Epps have more offers from Big XII schools? Very easy to write it off as, "Your junior year is your most important for recruiting," and Epps didn't play his junior year. But that really only explains it to a certain level. Lots of guys blow up late and get huge, so the senior year thing doesn't explain all of it.
Epps' film looks fantastic but his upper body is a little small and there could be some concern about his ability, physically, to match up and get off press coverage. Personally, I've had the same questions about Josh Ali because I don't know if it's a slot or an outside receiver and apparently at a Rivals Camp he struggled with the press coverage. An aside, though, Ali's film his senior year was really good, just like Epps.
Still, Epps was very high on Kentucky's board so they made an independent evaluation and rated him higher than a lot of other schools closer to home who recruit Jenks more heavily. Time will tell but I think in his case the film is impressive enough that you have to be excited.
Russ Yeast's situation
I mentioned this in passing before but I first watched Yeast at, I believe, the St. Louis Rivals Camp in 2015. His dad, Craig, wasn't thrilled with how it was run because he thought it was too slow to get moving (there were a lot of dudes there, just how it works with registration, warm ups, drills, etc) and he wanted Russ to get as many reps as possible.
Russ was not committed to Kentucky at the time but it was widely believed he would end up with UK. The older Yeast was not happy that Kentucky was not recruiting Russ harder. At the time Marrow had a ton of work to do in the 2016 class, recruiting commits, uncommitted guys, etc., and at the time Yeast was very young. Totally understandable he wouldn't be in center focus like a rising senior. But UK's former receiver believed that Kentucky was taking his son for granted and told me straight up that if they kept messing around (his thoughts, not mine) then Russ would end up at Louisville. He pointed out that Louisville is where he almost went before UK came in late.
Anyways, a lot of y'all have voiced your belief that Craig wanted to parlay his son's recruitment into a job. During that conversation the older Yeast did tell me that he would love to be a quality control assistant at Kentucky. He never said it in a way that linked his son's recruitment to it, but he made no secret about the fact that he wanted to coach at Kentucky. Apparently he later approached Stoops about it, maybe at a coaching convention or something like that. I think it actually backfired, my speculation only here, as I doubt Stoops would want his hand forced on something like that and appearances wouldn't have been great. I don't fault Yeast for wanting to coach at Kentucky, but inevitably given the circumstances with his son's recruitment (and Louisville looming as the alternative when he was a little disgruntled), the optics were not great.
There is no doubt Craig loves Kentucky and values his legacy. I think this whole ordeal was painful to him. He would later tell me that he never advised Russ to pick Louisville and that Russ is independent enough that he wouldn't have even listened if he did try to push him somewhere.
I'm confident that four-star quarterback Mac Jones never would have decommitted from Kentucky if the Cats hadn't parted ways with Shannon Dawson. Jones really liked Dawson as a coach. Now, I realize most of you are going to think, "Well, wasn't worth keeping Dawson anyways." I don't disagree with you. Just telling the story. Jones loved the fact that Dawson took a risk on him when everybody else said he was too small. He loved his offense and how he wasn't going to turn Jones into a runner. Jones is quicker escaping the pocket than a lot people realize, but he doesn't have the speed to turn that pocket bailout into a longer run.
Anyways, one thing that I think really turned Jones off was the fact that it took Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw about a month to reach out to him after they took their new jobs. Jones was kind of watching and just waiting as patiently as he could -- as he has it -- and not understanding why they wouldn't talk to a commitment from the 2017 class. Of course, the coaches upon arrival were focused on finding Stephen Johnson, a more immediate task. The coaches actually seemed more focused on Walker Wood, too, because they had already favorably evaluated him at Cincinnati. But Jones was turned off by how long it took them to reach out.
He didn't immediately decommit, which makes this seem moot, but I think when he later decommitted it was always in the back of his mind. I don't think it was a grudge. In fact, Jones told me multiple times how much he trusted and respected Hinshaw as a quarterback coach. I think it was a lingering doubt about how they felt about how he would fit into the offense. When he saw the course of Kentucky's season I don't think he was turned off by Stephen Johnson running a good bit, because he saw that with Drew Barker they weren't asking him to run much. At one point Jones was pinpointing mid- to late-September -- about four weeks/games into the season -- as the time when he would decide on whether to stick with Alabama or flip to Kentucky. And he was very serious about it. He wanted to see how Kentucky's offense would be under the new coaches.
Kentucky made the calculation that they didn't want to wait on Jones (which I think says a lot about how they felt about the need at the position this year; it was not a luxury but a necessity beyond Wood) and they wanted to go ahead and move on Danny Clark. But I will go to my grave thinking that if they had waited they would have had Jones' signature on NSD. Would that have been the ideal scenario? Will let you be the judge for yourself.
No easy way to handle some things
After former UK running back commit Mike Warren committed to Toledo (he's bound for Cincinnati, due to events since then), I posted, innocently enough, that he did not have an offer from Kentucky. I didn't mention his Twitter account in my tweet (i.e. didn't link him in) and I was fairly coy about it so as not to call him out in the worst way. My goal wasn't to call him out. I was answering people who were shocked that Kentucky "lost" him to Toledo. There had been continued talk about Warren as though he was still a target, so I wanted to set the story straight in the most polite way possible.
I guess there's no way to do that. I got a pretty angry message from Warren demanding that I never mention him, write about him, etc., again. I didn't need hindsight to realize that he was upset and for understandable reasons, but it was one of those deals where actual reporting was bound to ruffle feathers and there's no way to get around it if you want to tell the real story.
The deal with Danny Davis
I still don't know the whole issue here but a lot of things were at play. My understanding is that in some respects Davis dealt with some anxiety issues when it came to traveling, being away from home, etc.,but I don't know that this was any part of UK's calculation at all.
I think two things were probably at play. One, I think Davis was probably spooked a little bit by Lynn Bowden's commitment. UK's receiving class is pretty stacked and that could have impacted his interest. But secondly, UK did back off for a while. At one point I heard that Isaiah Epps may actually have been higher than Davis on Kentucky's wish list, and if that's true it just underscores that the rankings and a staff's board do not always perfectly align.
Marrow maintained a good relationship with Davis and his crew throughout the process. I and many others were surprised when he picked Wisconsin because it doesn't seem like a great offensive fit. I think a lot of people were counseling him that, if it's between Wisconsin and WVU, the better choice is WVU because of the offense....and I totally understand that line of thinking. But some kids care about things beyond style of play. Thought Davis was a great kid when I met him over the summer.
Speaking of Epps....
A lot is made about 'sleepers' and 'late bloomers' and I can tell you that the answers often aren't any easier for coaching staffs than for people on boards like this one. Why didn't Epps have more offers from Big XII schools? Very easy to write it off as, "Your junior year is your most important for recruiting," and Epps didn't play his junior year. But that really only explains it to a certain level. Lots of guys blow up late and get huge, so the senior year thing doesn't explain all of it.
Epps' film looks fantastic but his upper body is a little small and there could be some concern about his ability, physically, to match up and get off press coverage. Personally, I've had the same questions about Josh Ali because I don't know if it's a slot or an outside receiver and apparently at a Rivals Camp he struggled with the press coverage. An aside, though, Ali's film his senior year was really good, just like Epps.
Still, Epps was very high on Kentucky's board so they made an independent evaluation and rated him higher than a lot of other schools closer to home who recruit Jenks more heavily. Time will tell but I think in his case the film is impressive enough that you have to be excited.
Russ Yeast's situation
I mentioned this in passing before but I first watched Yeast at, I believe, the St. Louis Rivals Camp in 2015. His dad, Craig, wasn't thrilled with how it was run because he thought it was too slow to get moving (there were a lot of dudes there, just how it works with registration, warm ups, drills, etc) and he wanted Russ to get as many reps as possible.
Russ was not committed to Kentucky at the time but it was widely believed he would end up with UK. The older Yeast was not happy that Kentucky was not recruiting Russ harder. At the time Marrow had a ton of work to do in the 2016 class, recruiting commits, uncommitted guys, etc., and at the time Yeast was very young. Totally understandable he wouldn't be in center focus like a rising senior. But UK's former receiver believed that Kentucky was taking his son for granted and told me straight up that if they kept messing around (his thoughts, not mine) then Russ would end up at Louisville. He pointed out that Louisville is where he almost went before UK came in late.
Anyways, a lot of y'all have voiced your belief that Craig wanted to parlay his son's recruitment into a job. During that conversation the older Yeast did tell me that he would love to be a quality control assistant at Kentucky. He never said it in a way that linked his son's recruitment to it, but he made no secret about the fact that he wanted to coach at Kentucky. Apparently he later approached Stoops about it, maybe at a coaching convention or something like that. I think it actually backfired, my speculation only here, as I doubt Stoops would want his hand forced on something like that and appearances wouldn't have been great. I don't fault Yeast for wanting to coach at Kentucky, but inevitably given the circumstances with his son's recruitment (and Louisville looming as the alternative when he was a little disgruntled), the optics were not great.
There is no doubt Craig loves Kentucky and values his legacy. I think this whole ordeal was painful to him. He would later tell me that he never advised Russ to pick Louisville and that Russ is independent enough that he wouldn't have even listened if he did try to push him somewhere.
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