Mark Stoops has elevated Kentucky’s recruiting results since his arrival in Lexington in December 2012, but they’re still nowhere close to where they need to be.

That may be frustrating for passionate members of the Big Blue Nation to accept, but even though Stoops has hauled in three straight top-40 classes as the coach at Kentucky, he’s never had a class rated better than 10th in the SEC.

And considering UK plays two-thirds of its schedule every year against SEC competition, finishing in the bottom-third of the conference in recruiting on an annual basis is not going to help the Wildcats climb out of the SEC cellar.

However, although National Signing Day 2016 is still more than 10 months away, Kentucky’s 2016 class may break the mold of UK classes of years past. This might be the class that cracks the top-half of the SEC recruiting rankings and the top 20 of the national rankings.

So what’s changed? The Cats are finally winning the recruiting battles in their home state.

The commonwealth of Kentucky has only produced nine players rated four-stars or higher since 2013 (Stoops first recruiting cycle in Lexington), and of those nine players only four opted to attend UK. That’s less than half of the premier in-state recruits during the Stoops era. That’s not going to cut it, and to this point is hasn’t, as UK has won just seven games the last two seasons combined.

But the 2016 class has a chance to boost Kentucky’s talent base with the help of some home-grown talent. Both of the four-star in-state prospects from the class — center Drake Jackson and offensive tackle Landon Young — are already committed to Kentucky, giving the Cats two star offensive linemen with potential NFL futures who can step in right away and shore up UK’s protection on offense.

If winning football is built from the inside-out, implying teams who can win at the line of scrimmage often win the most games, UK is beginning to successfully follow that mold (two of its four current four-star in-state signees play along the defensive line: Jason Hatcher and Matt Elam).

Jackson is the No. 1 center prospect in the entire nation, and he could be anchoring UK’s offensive line for three of four years if he opts to attend Kentucky. Young is the No. 22 offensive tackle in the class, but he’s 6-foot-7, 270 pounds with room to bulk up, and he can reportedly run a 40-yard dash in only 4.8 seconds. Needless to say, the kid’s a dynamite athlete with size that cannot be taught.

Better yet, Young is from Lexington and Jackson is from Woodford County, located only 20 minutes outside of UK’s campus. Neither player will have to travel far from home to go to school, and both have grown up deep in the heart of the Big Blue Nation. They understand the passion of the fans and the direction the program is heading. This makes it far more likely Stoops can maintain their commitments, which is key as he seeks headliners for next year’s class.

And although there are no other four-star prospects from the state in this year’s class, Kentucky is hauling in the state’s best three-star recruits as well to supplement depth, and just as importantly to keep those talents out of the hands of regional rivals like Louisville, Ohio State and Tennessee.

Zy’Aire Hughes, a three-star athlete and the third-best prospect from the commonwealth of Kentucky, according to the 247Sports industry composite rankings, is also committed to UK. So is three-star cornerback Davonte Robinson, regarded as the No. 8 player in the state.

For what it’s worth, Louisville has two of the top 10 in-state prospects committed to Bobby Petrino and the Cardinals, while four others remain uncommitted at this time. The two power programs from the commonwealth will likely battle over all 10 guys until National Signing Day finally arrives.

But if Kentucky can continue to hold down the fort on the recruiting trail in its home state, there will be plenty of opportunities to continue growing the program.