Ky Cat Stats

Players like Marcus McWilson never gave UK the time of day, and then Coach Stoops came along.

Last season was a painful one for Kentucky football fans, very painful.

We watched our team not just lose 10 out of 12 games, but in most of the losses not even be competitive.  Our Wildcats were out coached and could not overcome the lack of depth and inexperience all season.

Fast forward to today and thankfully changes were made to the coaching staff and Mark Stoops was named Head Coach on November 27, 2012.  Since becoming the Head Coach, Stoops has done a few things that have changed the outlook for Kentucky football going forward.

The biggest difference has been in recruiting.  In a recent interview on Kentucky Sports Radio, Stoops said the base of the program is “recruit, recruit, recruit.”

The star system in recruiting has long been debated about.  Three  or four different recruiting services give different rankings to players.  For example, a player may be a 4 star on Scout.com but only a 3 star on 247.com or ESPN’s recruiting website.  The one thing to look at instead of the stars is which schools has the player been offered by.  That is a much better measurement of not only a players ability but also the prospect of eligibility.  That is where we should be looking at the difference in the previous staff’s recruiting and the current staff.

In the past we were beating out schools like Miami (OH), Kent State and Troy for players.  Now were flipping kids that were committed to Auburn, Nebraska and West Virginia to Kentucky.

Another big recruiting difference between the two staff’s is the success of this staff in Ohio. Coach Stoops recently said “There’s tremendous football being played in Ohio and we want to treat that as a home base (in recruiting).” The additions of verbal commitments like Lovell Peterson, Kyle Meadows and Jaleel Hytchye to our program is going to be huge. Other possible additions from Ohio are out there, only time will tell.

Finally, when it comes to recruiting the current coaching staff knows no fear. They are not afraid to go after any recruit and believe in the product (Kentucky Wildcats football) that they are selling.  How do we know that?  Several “big name” recruits that were ignored by the previous staff like Jason Hatcher, Asiantii Woulard and Drew Barker have been pursued and have visited campus. You can’t win if you don’t play the game and this staff is playing the recruiting game better than any other at Kentucky maybe ever.

Kentucky is on it’s way to the best recruiting class of the Century, and we won’t stop there.  Eventually, this recruiting, will pay off on the field.  You can bank on it.

Go Big Blue!