‘Most athletic defensive lineman in the country’ commits to Kentucky

Kentucky has landed one of its biggest football commitments yet for the class of 2017.

Joshua Paschal — a four-star player and one of the top defensive ends in the country — picked the Wildcats over Notre Dame and Oklahoma on Monday, giving Mark Stoops and his coaching staff a high-profile commitment at a position of need.

Paschal — a 6-foot-4, 255-pound prospect out of Good Counsel (Md.) — is ranked by Rivals, Scout, ESPN and 247Sports as a four-star recruit. 247Sports classifies him as the No. 11 strongside defensive end in the country for 2017.

247Sports national analyst Steve Wiltfong told the Herald-Leader that Paschal’s ranking would be even better by the end of the 2017 recruiting cycle.

“This summer, at two different events, his testing numbers that he put up tell you that he is the most athletic defensive lineman in the country,” Wiltfong said. “The development for him as a player from junior to senior year — he really had a great senior year, did things on both sides of the ball. He’s a pass-rush presence from across the line of scrimmage. He’s a guy with the strength to set the edge. Just a very versatile player, and a guy that we have under-ranked.

“He’ll be going up in our rankings. He just had a terrific senior year.”

UK now has two commitments from Good Counsel, with Paschal joining classmate Naasir Watkins, an offensive lineman who committed to the Wildcats last week. UK sophomore linebacker Kobie Walker is also a former Good Counsel player.

Paschal has another tie to the Wildcats: his brother, TraVaughn Paschal, is a former UK linebacker and now serves as an intern in the football office. TraVaugn’s ties to UK — and the pursuit by Paschal’s primary recruiter, Vince Marrow — helped the Wildcats beat out traditional powers Notre Dame and Oklahoma for his commitment. Rivals.com recently ranked Paschal as the top remaining target on the Fighting Irish’s recruiting board for the class of 2017. Oklahoma was seen an more of a long shot in his recruitment.

Paschal took official visits to all three schools before making his decision. He joins wide receiver/athlete Javonte Richardson as the only UK commitments with a four-star rating by all four of the major recruiting services.

Kentucky now has four defensive linemen committed for next year, with Paschal joining Quinton Bohanna, Phil Hoskins and Chris Whittaker in that group.

The Cats have a total of 18 commitments for 2017, and 247Sports ranks UK’s class at No. 27 nationally with many of the program’s highest-rated recruiting targets — such as Lynn Bowden, Danny Davis and Thayer Munford — still uncommitted.

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 10:15 AM with the headline "‘Most athletic defensive lineman in the country’ commits to Kentucky."