UK just landed its first 4-star recruit of the 2021 class. Could he help get another?
Vince Marrow, the University of Kentucky football team’s recruiting coordinator, said last month that wide receiver would be a priority in the 2021 class. He wasn’t kidding, based on the early returns.
Dekel Crowdus on Sunday became the third receiver to announce his commitment to UK, joining Georgia’s Chauncey Magwood and Ohio’s Armond Scott. Crowdus is the highest-ranked member of the trio — and, to this point, the only four-star prospect to pick Kentucky — but together they for now constitute the three highest-ranked members of the Cats’ 2021 class (eight commits as of Sunday).
Beyond fortifying the receiving corps for the future, what does Crowdus’ commitment mean in the big picture for the UK football program?
In-state weapons
Kentucky’s path to becoming a program that regularly goes to bowl games has been built, in part, on the backs of high-profile in-state recruits, but not ones who receive or run with the football.
In fact, if you don’t include quarterbacks, UK didn’t sign an offensive skill player from the state of Kentucky during Mark Stoops’ time with the program until 2019, when it inked Butler High School receiver Tae Tae Crumes. It earned its second such signature when Male receiver Izayah Cummings signed in December. Neither were considered four-star prospects, like Crowdus, however.
Kentucky striking out, at times, is circumstantial; sometimes the perceived talent level does not fit what UK’s after. In the 2017 class, for instance, the highest-rated offensive skill player in Kentucky was Keyron Catlett, a Christian County receiver who originally committed to Western Kentucky but followed Jeff Brohm to Purdue, from which he transferred last year. On the flipside, Kentucky wasn’t much of a factor in the recruitment of Rondale Moore, the state’s No. 1 player in the 2018 class and who’s projected as a possible first-round NFL Draft pick in 2021 after two standout seasons at Purdue.
The Cats in the next recruiting cycle failed to secure the signature of Wan’Dale Robinson, a Western Hills star who originally committed to UK but ultimately landed at Nebraska. UK got Cummings last year but was not much of a player for the state’s top-ranked player, tight end Michael Mayer, and saw Jordan Watkins, Crumes’ former teammate, flip to Louisville.
Crowdus is the third 2021 in-state player to pick Kentucky, and the second skill guy to do so (North Hardin running back La’Vell Wright committed on Wednesday). Much can change in the seven months leading up to the early signing period — Robinson committed in November and decommitted weeks later — but, for the moment, things are trending the right direction in regards to the Cats’ prospects with in-state weapons.
Although they weren’t in-state recruits, seeing guys like Lynn Bowden and Benny Snell have success at UK and then get drafted into the NFL has had a positive impact on recruits’ perception of the program. Prior to the Pittsburgh Steelers selecting Snell in 2020, UK hadn’t had an offensive skill guy drafted since Randall Cobb in 2011.
“I think the more that they can show kids that skill guys can get drafted out of Kentucky, they’ll continue to recruit those positions well,” 247Sports analyst Allen Trieu told the Herald-Leader. “… You see how one explosive player can change the offense like Lynn did, and I think that’s what you have here with Dekel.”
Buddy ball
Crowdus, depending on which recruiting service you prefer, is the No. 2 or No. 3 player in the state. The prohibitive No. 1 guy is a fellow four-star prospect with whom he shares a locker room.
Jager Burton, a 6-foot-4, 271-pound lineman, is considered a top-10 offensive guard and a top-200 recruit nationally. His five official visits — UK, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oregon — are on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so he no longer plans to announce in August, as he originally intended. The decision could instead come much sooner.
Burton tweeted on Wednesday: “I’m getting closer to a decision be patient with me!”
Having played high school ball together helps in some cases — former North Hardin lineman Octavious Oxendine signing with the Cats in December helped influence Wright’s decision — but does not guarantee anything (see: Lafayette star Jedrick Wills choosing Alabama despite Walker Wood and Landon Young opting to wear blue). It’s possible, too, that a prep bond might bite Kentucky: Burton’s best friend, Walker Parks, signed with Clemson as part of the 2020 recruiting class.
Regardless of how Burton’s decision plays out, Crowdus’ commitment could still pay dividends down the road; Douglass sophomores Ty Bryant and Dane Key both have offers from UK.
Top 30
The commitment of Crowdus pushed UK’s ranking up to No. 29, from 40, in Rivals’ list, according to Cats Illustrated’s Justin Rowland.
More additions will come, star ratings ebb and flow and other teams will continue doing their thing as well, but Kentucky appears seems like a lock to finish among the top 40 programs again under Stoops — something it has achieved every year of his tenure — and could for the fourth time end in the top 30.
If it achieves that feat, the 2021 class would join the 2014, 2017 and 2020 classes with that distinction.
