When evaluating recruiting classes, it’s impossible to assess a proper evaluation until after the class has completed its collegiate career. Not only are the top classes determined by what they looked like on paper, but on-field contributions also play a big part.

SDS takes a look at the each SEC team’s best recruiting class of the last decade based off of the recruiting rankings as well as how effective the class was on the field.

NOTE: Recruiting rankings taken from 247sports

KENTUCKY WILDCATS

By the mid-2000s it became patently clear to the Big Blue Nation and the rest of the SEC that Kentucky could not threaten the rest of the conference’s efforts on the recruiting trail.

The Wildcats routinely boasted classes that 247Sports didn’t even consider among the top 100 in the FBS, and the Cats proceeded to trot those classes onto the field in the grueling SEC with hopes that they’d found a few hidden gems along the way.

Former Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks and former Kentucky offensive coordinator and recruiting czar Joker Phillips became masters of finding those hidden gems, and beginning in 2006 the Wildcats began a stretch of five straight bowl appearances due in large part to Brooks and Phillips’ creative recruiting tactics.

Their best recruiting class during that five-year span came in 2008, when the Cats signed a number of starters on future bowl teams as well as three players currently starring in the NFL. The class was initially ranked 116th out of 122 FBS teams, but four years later the class proved to be one the best in the Kentucky program’s recent history.

2008 RECRUITING CLASS

Record: 25-26 overall

SEC Championships: N/A

BCS Championships: N/A

Class ranking: 116th overall (out of 122 teams); 12th in SEC (out of 12 teams)

Cream of the crop: Three players from Kentucky’s 2008 recruiting class went on to earn All-SEC honors while starring in the Bluegrass, and all three now play on Sundays at the game’s highest level.

Winston Guy was regarded as a four-star safety with offers from a number of premier programs, but the Lexington native opted to stay home and play for the Wildcats. He lived up to his four-star evaluation, posting 225 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and five sacks in just his final two seasons at UK.

Guy possessed size somewhere between that of the average safety and the average linebacker, but his speed in the back-end of the defense cemented his fit as an ideal free safety. Few defensive backs in America closed ground and covered sideline to sideline as well as Guy did by the end of his career, and he was rewarded when the Seattle Seahawks took him in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

Two other 2008 signees — wideout Randall Cobb and linebacker Danny Trevathan — were so far off the radar they weren’t even rated by 247Sports. Nevertheless, Kentucky took a chance on both, and both went on to post brilliant careers in the SEC.

Kentucky stole Cobb from the heart of Tennessee Volunteer recruiting country, although UK’s job was made easier when UT never extended Cobb an offer. The star athlete served as Kentucky’s starting quarterback during most of his freshman season, leading UK to a 7-6 record and a victory in the Music City Bowl in the process.

He then moved to his natural position at wide receiver and amassed 2,461 yards from scrimmage in two seasons from 2008-10 before leaving school early for the NFL. This season, Cobb was 11th in the NFL in receiving yards and fourth in touchdowns as a starter for the Green Bay Packers.

Trevathan was just as unheralded as Cobb when he signed with Kentucky, and he was just as successful as Cobb during his time in the Bluegrass. The linebacker many saw as undersized went on to lead the SEC in tackles for two straight years from 2011-12, amassing 287 tackles in that time. He was taken in the sixth round of the 2012 draft by the Denver Broncos (within 10 picks of Guy), and he earned a starting job in Denver in just his second year in the league.

Bust of the class: Guy wasn’t the only four-star Lexington native in the Wildcats’ 2008 class, as star wideout Aaron Boyd joined Guy on the list of local talents opting to stay home and play for the team they grew up supporting.

Unfortunately, Boyd was nowhere near as productive as Guy in his four years on campus, catching just 30 passes for 284 yards in three seasons of action. Boyd was seen as an explosive target with a large frame capable of exposing defenses with his big-play abilities. Instead he turned out to be a supplementary option in an abysmal passing game, and that was at his best.

Boyd is regarded as one of Kentucky’s worst recruiting busts in a long time, and the fact that he hails from Lexington does him no favors. Still, his inability to live up to expectations did not depreciate the quality of UK’s 2008 class.

Biggest surprise: Cobb and Trevathan are by far the biggest surprises from the class, rising from the realm of the unknowns to outperform many of the four- and five-star recruits from their class when their careers came to an end.

Cobb was an All-SEC standout who torched defenses as a thrower, a runner, a receiver and a kickoff and punt returner. Trevathan was as sound a tackler as the SEC has seen in some time, and his intelligence helped him to be in the right place at the right time more often than not.

Not only were these misevaluated players productive in the Kentucky lineup, but they were among the best players in the conference at any position during their years at UK. Cobb and Trevathan were not only the surprises of Kentucky’s class, but perhaps the biggest surprises in the SEC as well.