With the final signees of the Early Signing Period crawling across the finish line, Kentucky is hanging around the middle of the SEC picture with a very solid class (No. 23 overall, No. 9 in the SEC). The class is dominated by offensive and defensive linemen. Here are 5 quick takeaways from UK’s Early Signing Period, which includes 20 recruits.

1. Kentucky is serious about upkeeping the offensive line

Throughout the 2nd half of the SEC season, Kentucky’s offensive line was one of the better groups in the conference and nation. They did nothing to change that on Early Signing Day, adding Virginia OL R.J. Adams and JUCO OT Jeremy Flax (who will have 3 years of eligibility) in the final hours before Signing Day.

Kentucky had previously secured in-state standout John Young, a 4-star standout per 247sports.com. Kentucky added Michigan standout Deondre Buford and Alabama late-bloomer Joshua Jones, and led by the late additions, secured an excellent class up front. Jones, who is 6-5, 304, played for Central HS in Phenix City, Ala., the same school that produced 4-star receiver E.J. Williams (Clemson) and 4-star OT Javion Cohen (Alabama).

2. Ditto on the d-line

That said, Kentucky’s biggest gains on Day 1 of the Early Signing Period probably came on the defensive line. Kentucky’s recruiting efforts in that area have perhaps never seen greater fruition, as top 50 recruit Justin Rogers signed his letter of intent and was joined by fellow 4-star pass rusher Samuel Anaele and 4-star Ole Miss decommit Josaih Hayes. Hayes and Rogers are massive impact players on the interior, and Anaele projects as a speedy pass-rusher. Tennessee product Tre’vonn Rybka and Kentucky in-state target Octavious Oxendine are also superb interior line prospects. Had Kentucky grabbed Tyler Baron from Knoxville, this might have been a top 5 defensive line class nationally. It’s still ridiculously good.

3. QB keepers

Kentucky is probably set at the QB spot for the next few seasons, with the announced transfer addition of Joey Gatewood from Auburn and the signing of in-state QB Beau Allen. Gatewood, of course, was a 4-star dual-threat QB 2 cycles ago. Kentucky will try to get him immediate eligibility. Otherwise, he’ll have 2 years to play come 2021. Allen is the No. 37 QB prospect in the class. His father was a QB at Kentucky, and given a year to develop (particularly given the tweaks to the redshirt rule that would allow him to play in up to 4 games), he’s the heir apparent to Gatewood in 2023. Of course, as this season proved for UK, you can never have too many quarterbacks.

4. More to come (?)

Expectations are that Kentucky will add a couple more players to the class, perhaps even having a few other letters of intent in hand, but delaying any announcement consistent with the requests of the player(s) in question.

The most likely suspects for other additions are DB Joel Williams from Louisiana and in-state DB Vito Tisdale.

Both have been strongly linked with UK. Neither has announced elsewhere and the expectation is that 1 or both 4-star recruits will be officially announced as Wildcats soon. Tisdale has indicated his intention to announce his choice at the Under Armour All-American game on Jan. 4. Kentucky is on slightly more uncertain ground with Ohio 4-star athlete Michael Drennen. He is believed to be leaning toward UK but is expected to sign in February.

5. Upping the game

Certainly, Kentucky has a long way to go to reach the SEC’s upper echelon with Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M and Auburn. But this Kentucky class looks to fit comfortably, perhaps even toward the top of the league’s 2nd tier with Tennessee, South Carolina, and Mississippi State … and far ahead of Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Arkansas.

In previous years, Kentucky was doing well to finish at the top of the 3rd tier of teams. Given a move up to around 8th in the league — and 20-25 in the nation — it’ll be interesting to see how this impacts Kentucky’s standing on the field.