Ky Cat Stats

For comparison sake, this guy=John Wall.  Yep.

We are now just 30 days away from National Signing Day, and Ky Cat Stats will be bringing to you a series of posts between now and then to get you ready for it.

We are now past the dead period and coaches have already begun contacting and visiting with players in bulk.

Weekend Rundown

The big news from the past weekend obviously was the commitment of cornerback Jaleel Hytchye.  Jaleel is one of the top recruits in the Cincinnati area, and is a 4* player according to ESPN, who has him as the #24 CB in the country.  His commitment comes on the heels of Louisville nailing down top wide receiver James Quick.  Fitting.

UK was represented in homes across the country this weekend also, as coaches were out visiting in full force.  Coach Peveto was in Louisiana to visit with players from John Curtis, who ended the season as the #1 high school team in America.  Of particular interest was his visit with Duke Riley, a linebacker at the school who has a gray-shirt offer from LSU, and is also being recruited by Ole Miss and TCU.  Duke will be visiting Kentucky the first weekend in February, giving UK the last shot at nailing down his services before he has to make a decision.

Peveto also visited Houston commit wide Receiver Donald Gage, and Riley’s teammate OL Anthony Taylor.

Meanwhile, new running backs coach Chad Scott was in Florida over the weekend to visit with Marques Valdes.  According to rivals.com, Valdez is a 3* recruit, and the decision appears to be coming down to either NC State or Kentucky.  He also has offers from Cincinnati and Houston, and will be visiting UK the weekend of 11/18.

Jeff Drummond of Kentucky Scout got in touch with JUCO Defensive Tackle Jerran Reed who will be taking a visit to UK the weekend of 11/25.  He has offers from Ole Miss, North Carolina and Florida, and is reportedly a soft verbal to Ole Miss.  Reed was actually roommates with recent Kentucky commit Za’Darius Smith, and was coached by new Defensive Line Coach Jimmy Brumbaugh.

1/11, D-Day

I’ve already said it before, but you really can not downplay the importance of the upcoming weekend is going to be for UK football recruiting.  On one hand, you have many committed players come up on campus.  On the other hand, you have some of the highest ranked recruits that you’ve ever had on campus coming up on the same weekend.

The big prize visiting this week is the #1 ranked Dual-Threat QB in America, Asiantii Woulard.  Woulard is currently being recruited by UK, NC State, and USF, but scuttlebutt is that Florida has recently reached out to Woulard.  It is uncertain at this point if he will be receiving an offer from Florida, but the general consensus seems to be if Florida offers, it will make it tough for UK to land him.  Still, with the style of offensive Neal Brown runs compared to Brent Pease, well, UK should have a shot.

After Woulard the next biggest prize would have to be Ra’Shaad Samples, current Oklahoma State commit.  With UK losing on James Quick, pushing tOSU closer to offering Ryan Timmons, some of the other Wide Receiver recruits that UK is after become more important.  It starts with Samples, as his commitment would be the perfect off-set for Louisville landing Samples, and hedges your bet in case Timmons ends up somewhere other than UK.

Next, Kentucky will have current USC commit Jason Hatcher on campus as well.  The 4* Defensive End from Louisville is reportedly looking around since Monte Kiffin has been let go at USC and things are in a general mess under Lane Kiffin.  Not to mention the heat he’s received in Louisville since committing to USC, may have him re-thinking his decision, and possibly heading to Kentucky to further stick it to his Louisville haters.  Just a thought (a hope).

That’s just a few of the guys that will be on campus though.  Others include Kyle Meadows (3* OT), Antoine Miles (3* DE), Lovell Patterson (3* DL/C), JoJo Kemp (3* RB), Janarion Grant (3* WR), Aregeros Turner (3* RB), all to go along with two guys who may have been the best commits of the Joker era for this class, Alvonte Bell and Blake McClain.  It certainly doesn’t hurt that McClain is a High School teammate of Asiantii Woulard.  UK will also be visited by teammate of Kyle Meadows, 2014 running back Mikel Horton.

That’s all for now, we will be updating this week and next week as we get closer to Signing Day: 2013.  Stay tuned……