UK football lands commitment from another highly touted defensive end

The success on the football recruiting trail continues for Kentucky, which landed a commitment Wednesday from three-star defensive end Jordan Wright.

Wright — a 6-foot-5, 230-pound prospect from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — is the Wildcats’ seventh commitment this month and the 21st pledge for the recruiting class of 2017.

247Sports ranks Wright as the No. 21 weakside defensive end in the 2017 class.

During his recruitment, Wright had reported scholarship offers from national powers Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana State, Michigan, Oklahoma and Southern Cal, but most of those schools hadn’t pursued him in recent weeks.

Arkansas recently emerged as the Wildcats’ top competition for Wright, who took an official visit to Fayetteville earlier this month. He took his official visit to UK in September during the weekend of the home victory over South Carolina.

Wright — also a standout high school basketball player — spoke on the phone with Coach John Calipari earlier this year about possibly joining the Wildcats’ basketball team as a walk-on should he commit to Mark Stoops’ program, but it now sounds as if Wright is likely to play only football at Kentucky.

He’s the third defensive end this month to commit to the Cats, joining four-star prospect Joshua Paschal and three-star recruit Chris Whittaker. UK also received earlier commitments from three-star defensive tackle Quinton Bohanna and three-star defensive lineman Phil Hoskins.

Wright is also the seventh player from Florida to join UK’s class, one more than the six commitments that the Cats have from Ohio. Offensive coordinator Eddie Gran was Wright’s primary recruiter.

Kentucky now has the No. 20 recruiting class nationally, according to Rivals.com, jumping league foes Mississippi State and Florida with Wright’s commitment.

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 12:32 PM with the headline "UK football lands commitment from another highly touted defensive end."