While Kentucky looks to end its five-year bowl drought, and have its first winning season since 2009, Mark Stoops is again building early recruiting momentum.
Thanks to its latest commitment from a four-star receiver from Ohio, JaVonte Richardson, Kentucky has moved into the top 10 of national team rankings in the 247Sports Composite, and is second in the SEC behind Alabama.
Richardson is the No. 30 wide receiver in America in the 2017 class as ranked by 247Sports, and also had an offer from Michigan.
It continues a trend that began with 30 recruits from Ohio in Stoops’ first four classes. Four of the 10 commits for the 2017 class for Kentucky are from Ohio. Another, WR Russ Yeast, has since moved to Indiana but previously lived in Ohio.
A focus on Ohio has been a departure from previous coaching staffs at Kentucky, which largely focused on Georgia and Florida for out-of-state recruits. Rich Brooks particularly liked players from LaGrange (Ga.) High School.
Stoops’ success in Ohio has fueled the recruiting prowess, and it’s one reason assistant Vince Marrow has collected raises in recent years and in January, 2015 received a multi-year contract.
That came after Marrow declined an offer from Michigan, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, and his pay bumped to $350,000 a year through June 30, 2016, then increases to $375,000 through 2017 and $400,000 through 2018.
One of the top in-state players who signed with Kentucky in the 2016 class, center Drake Jackson, told the Courier-Journal that in-state players pledging with Kentucky sends a message to other players, including those from Ohio.
“It shows that Kentucky football does mean something,” Jackson told the paper. “When a guy from Ohio comes down he wants to know, ‘What does it mean to the people locally?’ The fact that me, Kash, Landon, Zy’Aire, Davonte are all committed here … shows these guys that we’ve been here, we’ve lived it, we grew up with it and we want to come here.”
While recruiting has improved, and become consistent under Stoops, it also puts more pressure on his on-the-field record. He has overhauled the coaching staff and while his boss isn’t making it an ultimatum, fans are increasingly looking for results.
Not to mention that the roster, which includes three U.S. Army All-Americans, is almost exclusively recruited by Stoops and his staff. And after three offensive coordinators in four years, it’s difficult to see what else could change that Stoops hasn’t already. In an interview with the Courier-Journal, athletic director Mitch Barnhart wouldn’t go along with a “bowl or bust” mentality.
“It is a real important part of the growth of this program. It’s extra practice for our guys. It’s our young guys getting reps. It’s being able to see your physical effort rewarded in other areas off the field,” Barnhart told the paper. “Those pieces are really, really important to us. Getting to a bowl, it’s absolutely important. So is it bust (if not)? No. But we’ve got to find our way through.”
Of course, Stoops’ buyout is a consideration. Before the upcoming season, it is $15.5 million; after the season it’s $12 million, while his salary is $3.25 million.
Kentucky benefitted in the 2016 class from having a better-than-usual crop of in-state talent that the staff identified early and kept from rival programs. The challenge now is extending that beyond the Bluegrass State line and keeping commits like Richardson that other recruiters will go after.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
