Central linebacker Patterson focus of UK's 2010 class

Patterson is one of nation's best, but he's a U of L fan

Chip Cosby / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Chip Cosby

Now that national signing day has come and gone, the University of Kentucky football program can start shifting its focus to 2010. The primary in-state target without question will be Central's Tim Patterson, widely considered the No. 1 in-state prospect in the junior class and one of the top linebacker recruits in the nation.

Kentucky already has four Central players on its roster: junior defensive tackle Corey Peters, redshirt freshman defensive tackle Joe Scott, and linebacker Ridge Wilson and defensive tackle Mister Cobble, who signed on Wednesday.

Central Coach Ty Scroggins said Patterson will clearly be the best of the bunch. He's been labeled as a four-star recruit by Scout.com and was the only Kentuckian on the Rivals.com early list of the nation's top 250 prospects. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound Patterson was the leading tackler for Central's back-to-back state championship teams.

Scroggins said Kentucky, Louisville and Indiana have already offered, and schools such as Southern California, Florida, Florida State, Alabama and Tennessee have expressed interest.

"He's definitely a national prospect," Scroggins said.

The Wildcats are selling Patterson on replacing Micah Johnson at middle linebacker when he departs after next season, but there might be a couple of obstacles. For starters, Patterson still has some work to do in the classroom between now and next year, Scroggins said. Also, Patterson is a die-hard Louisville fan.

"His family is all Louisville fans, and he never takes a U of L shirt off," Scroggins said. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that's where he's going to go. It doesn't hurt when four guys from your high school are at Kentucky."

Central has another prospect in its junior class, Stephan Robinson, a 5-9, 165-pound receiver/defensive back. Robinson has offers from Indiana and Illinois, and Scroggins thinks Kentucky is on the verge of extending an offer.

"He's a fast, speedy kid that runs in the 4.3-4.4 range," Scroggins said. "He told me last week that if he gets an offer (from Kentucky) that he wants to go and keep the pipeline going, and his grades are a lot better than Tim's right now."

Final recruiting rankings

UK had a slight rise in the final recruiting rankings released by Scout.com and Rivals.com. The Wildcats moved from 32nd to 26th in Scout's rankings and 44th to 42nd in Rivals'. It is regarded as Brooks' best class at UK. Here's a year-by-year look at Rich Brooks' previous six classes:

2003: Brooks and his staff arrived at UK in December and had to put the finishing touches on a class that was started by Guy Morriss and featured program-turners Andre Woodson, Keenan Burton and Jacob Tamme. Morriss gets credit for nabbing the overlooked Burton out of Manual and getting Woodson to commit, but Brooks and his staff were able to secure Woodson's commitment after Morriss left. Brooks also signed Tamme after Morriss hadn't extended an offer. This class also featured solid contributors such as Eric Scott, Roger Williams and Dominic Lewis.

Former assistant Ron McBride helped sign Jan Jorgensen out of Utah, but Jorgensen went on a two-year mission before becoming a standout at BYU.

Three other players never made it to campus: Georgia prospects Emmanuel Harrell and Delaine Means and Warren Central product Leroy Wilson.

2004: Brooks' first full class at UK wasn't highly ranked, but it might have turned out to be his deepest and best. Included were Rafael Little, Wesley Woodyard, Myron Pryor and Garry Williams — players who contributed for four years and garnered All-SEC mention of some sort during their careers — and one of the most popular and productive players of the Brooks era in Dicky Lyons Jr. Marcus McClinton, Tony Dixon, Johnny Williams, Shomari Moore, B. Jay Parsons, Scott Mitchell and Nii Adjei Oninku all were solid contributors. Cornerback Trevard Lindley was also in this class but grayshirted. This class would have turned out even better if it hadn't lost four highly touted players in Aaron Miller, Lonnell Dewalt, Gabe Wallace (all to academics) and Micah Jones (back injuries). Henry Clay product Aubrey White never enrolled.