‘I’d never had that happen in 20 years.’ UK’s new commit could be another juco gem.
The newest player to commit as part of the University of Kentucky’s 2021 recruiting class currently doesn’t have any stars attached to his profile, but that wasn’t always the case.
Jacorius “Joko” Willis, an inside linebacker at Independence Community College in Kansas, committed to the Wildcats on Friday, becoming the 10th player overall to choose Mark Stoops’ program. He’d also reported offers from Arkansas, Mississippi State and Kansas State.
Coming out of Troup County High School in LaGrange, Ga., Willis was rated as a three-star prospect at outside linebacker by Rivals. Willis now is considered more of an inside linebacker, and has added about 30 pounds to his high school frame. He’s 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds after a redshirt year at Independence, and will have three years of eligibility at Kentucky beginning with the 2021 season.
“He’ll probably be one of the premiere juco linebackers in the country,” said Tanner Glisson, who was Willis’ head coach in high school. “ ... He’s a really special talent.”
Willis is the fourth player from Troupe to make his way to the Southeastern Conference in Glisson’s time with the program. Former teammate King Mwikuta played some for Alabama as a true freshman last season while Kobe Hudson (Auburn) and Andy Boykin (Arkansas) each signed with their respective schools as part of the 2020 class.
Kentucky might have ended up with the best of the lot. Inside linebackers coach Jon Sumrall took the lead on his recruitment.
“He was probably the best player on the field every night except for the night we played Trevor Lawrence,” said Glisson, referencing a loss to the current Clemson star’s team during Willis’ junior season.
A testament to Willis’ athleticism? In 2017 he was named to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s All-Class 4A Team as a linebacker. As a senior, when he was asked to do more on offense, he was named to the same squad as a wide receiver.
“I’d never had that happen in 20 years,” Glisson said. “It was very, very impressive. He was a three-star linebacker coming out of high school, but he’s a four-star talent now that he’s gained the weight. It’s a big difference being 220.”
Willis felt like he was made to feel like he was a “very high priority” for Kentucky, according to Glisson. Stoops got directly involved with his recruitment and sold him on their need at linebacker moving forward. Heading into the 2020 season, Kentucky has only six inside linebackers on scholarship: junior Marquez Bembry (who was converted from defensive back), redshirt freshman Jared Casey, junior Jamin Davis, true freshman D’eryk Jackson, junior Chris Oats (who recently suffered a medical incident that is expected to sideline him this fall) and junior DeAndre Square.
Glisson coached UK sophomore Qua Mahone while he was at Manchester High School in Georgia, and the defensive tackle has raved about his experience in Lexington. Stoops’ commitment to Kentucky has caught the eye of Glisson and other coaches in Georgia, he says, and makes the Wildcats stand out as more of an increased recruiting threat in the South.
“I think everybody down here expected Stoops to turn that thing around and then jump ship and maybe go to Florida State or somewhere else,” Glisson said. “When he didn’t do that, I think people stepped back and said, ‘Wow, if he’s gonna be there for a while and he’s got stability, we’ve gotta look at Kentucky as being on par with these other programs in the SEC East. That was an eye-opener, at least for the circle that I’m in with high school coaches and high-profile players.”
Juco success
Kentucky has had more hits than misses with junior-college prospects in Stoops’ tenure.
The most notable recent addition was Brandin Echols, who arrived at Northwest Mississippi Community College as a wide receiver and left as a highly touted defensive back. Echols last season proved to be a stabilizing force for a young, inexperienced secondary, and whom Pro Football Focus grades as the best returning Wildcat this fall. He started 11 games at cornerback and was fourth on the team with 52 tackles to go along with a team-high nine pass breakups.
Junior-college quarterbacks have been a godsend for UK over the last half-decade. First there was Stephen Johnson, who came from College of the Desert in California and assumed the full-time reins in Lexington after an early-season injury to Drew Barker in 2016. Johnson led Kentucky to the first two bowl games of Stoops’ regime, and another junior-college product — Terry Wilson — would do the same in 2018. Wilson, who arrived from Garden City Community College with three years of eligibility, would probably have made it four straight seasons that a former junior-college quarterback led UK to a bowl if he had not torn his patellar tendon in 2019.
In addition to Echols and Wilson, Bembry, defensive back Quandre Mosely and defensive lineman Phil Hoskins — who gained a sixth year of eligibility in January and figures to be a big factor on the defensive front this fall — were junior-college transfers. Current NFL stars Lonnie Johnson and Za’Darius Smith made their bones in the junior-college ranks before starring at UK, as well.
One of the highest-rated prospects in UK’s 2020 signing class — Jeremy Flax — is a junior-college transfer. The 6-foot-6, 320-pound lineman was a late-comer to the class and a consensus four-star recruit who chose UK over overs from Auburn, Texas Tech and West Virginia.
UK’s success with in-state and Ohio prep recruits gets a lot of attention, but the staff’s monitoring of the midway junctures — where many former high school stars end up, to shore up their academics, discipline and/or their bodies — has been crucial in its ability to transform Kentucky into a perennial bowl visitor.
