Stoops on early signing day: ‘We’ve got to be smart about how we finish off the class’

As current Kentucky football players prepare for finals and the upcoming Music City Bowl, there are other potential future players roaming around the football practice facilities with their families this weekend.

With the new early national signing day coming on Dec. 20, it’s been an even more intense timeline for the UK coaches.

So far, so good, Coach Mark Stoops said on Saturday.

“It won’t be hard for us to fill our spots,” said Stoops, who said UK likely will sign just 23 or 24 players in this class.

“We’ve got to be smart about how we finish off the class. I think it’s very critical as we get into the last two or three spots, but it won’t be difficult. It will be difficult making decisions and deciding which way we go on some of them.”

While UK anticipates getting a bulk of its signatures early, players still have the option of waiting for the secondary signing period in February.

How will that work? Will Kentucky’s coach hold onto a few just in case something else happens?

“If we’re really solid and feel very comfortable with the guys we have, we’ll close it out,” Stoops said. “I’m not sure. This is the first time we’ve gone through this. It is different. So we’ll see. I anticipate signing a majority of the class, and that’s the way we’re approaching it now. I would like to keep a couple.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Stoops on early signing day: ‘We’ve got to be smart about how we finish off the class’."