Vandagriff 1st Five Star QB at UK since?
- Thread starter HerrosHeroes
- Start date
Was Couch even rated a 5 star? I mean don't get me wrong I know he was extremely talented, I just don't know if the recruiting services rated him 4 or 5. I was in school back then and the internet wasn't as robust so I don't even know if the recruiting stuff worked like that then.
I just read where, at the time, he was considered the 6th best high school athlete ever. So yeah, he qualified as a 5 star easy.
Dude was phenomenal at Leslie.
Was thinking Morton Newgan and Andre Woodson were both rated highly by at least 1 service
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If Couch had played for someone like Trinity or St. X or one of the Lexington Power schools, he would have been an even bigger name than he was. Brian Brohm was on the cover of Sports Illustrated if I recall. In terms of stature though, Couch's High School accolades put him up there with the likes of Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Peyton Manning, etc. Granted he wasn't able to have the kind of pro career he could have, had he been drafted to a better team, but Couch was a legend and would have certainly garnered a 5 star ranking. He was essentially the top recruit nationally.
They didn't have star rankings back then like they do now, but he was widely considered the #1 recruit in the nation.
Oh I knew he was highly sought after, I'm just answering the OP question, not sure UK has ever had a QB that was rated at 5 stars until now. Couch would certainly qualify if he had those services, but I didn't think (and others have confirmed) they didn't have that system then.
I'm pretty sure that one recruiting service had Morgan Newton as a 5-star. Might have been Scout?
I don't believe Andre Woodson was ever a 5-star, but he was regarded as a high 4-star.
Ryan Mossakowski was highly regarded too. I don't remember if he had 5-star status for a period of time, but he was definitely a high 4.
If not for Couch we would have had a couple of more seasons of Curry. His threat of transferring prompted Curry getting fired.
After having to be begged to stay. Couch was almost a Vol. Think about that and how lucky we were to have him.
I remember thinking it was some kind of coup for us to land both Newton and Mossakowski in the same class. My how badly that backfired on us. Still wonder how good Moss would have been if not for the shoulder injury.
Well, recruiting “sites” were frequently printed magazines, widely available in the Deep South, and the “Star” rating system was beginning in the mid-nineties.
I bought a recruiting pub in Bama whilst on vacation, the Summer prior to Couch’s Senior season. He was rated a Five Star, and was on the cover.
There were more than 400 players mentioned/rated, most in very fine print. Only 5 of those listed UK as a possible destination, Couch included.
Those who were not alive or fans in 1995/96 have no idea how big Couch “blew up,” especially after breaking Josh Booty’s high school passing record at Emanuel Christian in Louisiana (the record set as I recall in 1994).
There were local and even regional 30 minute television programs about Couch and his recruitment that aired in Kentucky and Tennessee, etc. Paul Hornung (America’s “Golden Boy,” and graduate of Flaguette HS in Louisville, and Heisman winner at Notre Dame in ‘57, ) called Couch the best HS recruit since Joe Namath, more than 30 years prior.
Leslie County opened the ‘95 season in Lexington, I think at Bryon Station or Henry Clay. I talked my girlfriend into dinner and attending the first half of the game. A guy from California sat next to us in a sold out stadium. Late in the first quarter, he pulled out the first “flip” phone I had seen, phoned someone, telling them, “he’s everything they have said he is and more.”
The recruitment of Dennis Johnson, the consensus Defensive POY in 97/98 was high profile, but dims in comparison to the frenzy that followed Couch his Junior and Senior seasons.
I will always believe Couch’s December, 1995 commitment to Kentucky served as a “watershed” moment in the history of Kentucky football: we’ve had our struggles since, but such a high profile player at Kentucky put the program briefly on the map . . . perhaps just enough for Rich Brooks and a young Stoops to take notice of the program, and it’s possibilities.
I remember when Leslie County played Hoptown and got crushed, Couch didn't have a lot of help and Hoptown had one of their better teams with the Merrit brothers. Migel Merrit went on to start at Alabama, I'm sure Couch remembers that game.
We’ll, yeah, just two classes ago an Offensive lineman, and 2015, a defensive lineman who played until a true frosh Q. Bohanna replaced him in the 2017 season.
We’ve had several 5 Stars. Rogers from
Michigan who transferred to Auburn. Landon Young, who lived up to his hype.
