In the coming weeks, SDS will grade each team’s current state of recruiting based upon the factors listed below. Today we continue the series with one of the SEC’s recent surprise standouts, the Kentucky Wildcats.

KENTUCKY WILDCATS

HOME-STATE TALENT: B+

Kentucky is not the most fertile of recruiting grounds in SEC country, but Mark Stoops has still recruited his program’s home state well, especially considering how UK’s in-state recruiting has stacked up to a program like Louisville’s during Stoops’ tenure. UK’s head man nabbed four of the state’s top 5 talents in 2013, two top-10 prospects in this past recruiting class (including four-star linebacker Eli Brown) and has commitments from the state’s top 2 prospects in 2016 — both four-star offensive linemen. If Stoops continues to secure the few four-star talents Kentucky produces each year, it’ll do wonders to supplement his already established recruiting pipeline in Ohio.

RECENT SUCCESS: B-

Joker Phillips, UK’s head coach before Stoops, brought in some of the program’s greatest recruiting classes ever and yet was fired after three years for running the program to rock bottom at 2-10 in 2012. Stoops has brought in perhaps even superior talent to what Phillips attracted, but he’s still only won seven games in two seasons with said talent. Part of that was due to the transition from the Phillips regime, but Stoops will now have to prove he can develop talent as well as he recruits it. His grade is docked some for finishing behind most of the rest of the SEC in the national recruiting rankings in 2015, but he wins some back for recruiting well at key positions, namely quarterback (Drew Barker) and receivers for UK’s Air Raid system (the 2014 recruiting class).

FAN SATISFACTION: B

Fans are certainly satisfied with the trajectory Stoops has UK’s program heading both in recruiting and on the field, but you can understand why they might be a bit frustrated by last year’s six-game season-ending skid that cost 5-1 UK a bowl berth. As long as Stoops can earn that sixth win in 2015, fans will continue to love the guy. But he needs to take that next step and win six games, both to continue the positive trend in win total and to get the program over a rather daunting hump. Again, if Stoops and his staff can develop talent as well as they recruit it, this should be no issue in a suspect SEC East.

COACHING STABILITY: B

We touched on this above, but Stoops is in no jeopardy of losing his job. If he misses a bowl game again he may begin next season on the hot seat, but there’s no way this dude doesn’t coach UK through at least 2016. UK made a transition at offensive coordinator, but it brought in another Air Raid coach to maintain stability on that side of the ball. Most of this year’s roster is Stoops’ own players, and those players almost universally seem to adore their head coach. We’ll see how that relationship holds up when the coming season draws to a close.

SUM IT UP: Kentucky is facing a pivotal third year in Lexington. It’s facing major postseason expectations, but also modest six-win expectations all at once. Stoops has been lauded for his recruiting at what is traditionally a basketball school, and the administration has responded by sinking money into the football program to make it more attractive to a higher class of recruits. Stoops needs to deliver a sixth win this year, and if he does his recruiting should only pick up more. Given his connections in Ohio (one of the SEC’s strongest pipelines in that state), and given UK’s superior recruiting to rivals like Louisville in its home state, there’s no reason to believe Kentucky won’t continue to rise in the coming years.

Editor’s note: Any reference to recruiting ratings in this series – team or individual – are to 247Sports.com’s industry composite ranking.

At the end of the series we will rank the SEC’s recruiting situations from 1-14 based on the grades we assign each program.