Early signing period: Which 2021 seniors have committed to Kentucky football?
Quality over quantity.
It’s not as large as last year’s haul, but the University of Kentucky football team’s expected 2021 signing class checks a lot of boxes for a program in the midst of an offensive transition.
It features three top-100 receivers and as many top-100 offensive linemen. There’s a quarterback who led his team to a championship his junior year and threw for more than 2,000 yards in a pandemic-impacted season. There’s a running back who amassed 1,000 all-purpose yards and scored 12 touchdowns in just seven games of action.
Defensive additions are inbound, too, but grabbing more playmakers and continuing to fortify the “Big Blue Wall” were priorities this recruiting cycle, and keeping those recruits on board in part prompted Mark Stoops’ decision to move on from offensive coordinator Eddie Gran.
“You have an obligation to make sure we’re progressing and having an offense that is exciting to watch, that puts fans in the stands,” Stoops said last week. “We need that. We need to attract the right guys in recruiting and constantly move forward. … I want to be balanced but I want to be exciting as well.”
Top gets
Kentucky didn’t need to look far to find two of the most-coveted prizes in this year’s group.
Offensive guard Jager Burton and wide receiver Dekel Crowdus both play for Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School. They’re each rated as four-star prospects by 247Sports, and Burton has a four-star rating from Rivals as well. Both services consider Burton a top-10 player at his position and a top-200 prospect nationally. Crowdus has a three-star rating from Rivals but both services regard him as a top-100 receiver.
Rivals and 247Sports rate receiver Christian Lewis as a four-star recruit, and Rivals has him as the top prospect committed to UK. He and Chauncey Magwood, who’s a three-star receiver, hail from further south. Lewis, 6-foot-3, 190-pound standout from Pleasant Grove, Ala., is considered a top-10 prospect in that state and a top-60 receiver nationally. Magwood, 6-foot, 187-pound recruit, hails from Leesburg, Ga.; he’s rated by 247Sports as just the No. 46 player in Georgia but as the No. 87 receiver in the country. Jon Sumrall, who coaches inside linebackers, is credited as the lead recruiter of both.
Ohio, meanwhile, gives Kentucky two offensive tackles in Paul Rodriguez and David Wohlabaugh. Both are three-star recruits and top-40 prospects in the state who stand about 6-foot-6. Wohlabaugh (Stow, Ohio) is regarded by Rivals as the No. 3 recruit in the class, behind Lewis and Burton, while Rodriguez (Mason, Ohio) lands right behind him at No. 4 in its rankings. They were the earliest commits of the class, each announcing Kentucky as their choice in February.
Bluegrass boys
Burton and Crowdus aren’t the only in-state prospects coming to UK next year. The Wildcats expect to sign six of the state’s top-10 players in a class that has no shortage of FBS talent.
Jordan Dingle is the most recent addition to the fold. The Bowling Green tight end committed last month; he reported offers from Ohio State, Purdue and Louisville, among others, but picked UK from a final four that also consisted of Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech.
North Hardin’s Jordan Lovett and La’Vell Wright will join former teammate Octavious Oxendine, one of last year’s signature pick-ups, in Lexington. Both are three-star prospects, according to 247Sports and Rivals, who committed to UK in May. Wright (5-11, 202 pounds) is considered the No. 12 all-purpose back in the nation by Rivals; he totaled 1,162 all-purpose yards (884 rushing, 278 receiving) despite playing just seven games due to a late-season injury. Lovett, a 6-2, 195-pound safety, is tabbed as the nation’s No. 54 safety by 247Sports.
No class would be complete without a quarterback, and for the second straight year the state’s No. 1 option at that position will end up at Kentucky. Kaiya Sheron, a three-star prospect out of Somerset High School, led the Briar Jumpers to the Class 2A state title in dramatic fashion last season, throwing the game-winning touchdown as time expired to give them their first crown. His only other reported offer was from Marshall, though the pandemic likely set back other schools looking to recruit him.
Defensive additions
Offensive players lead the way as far as rankings and total numbers are concerned, but there are seven signees expected on the defensive side of the football.
Depending on which service you consider, either Martez Thrower (247Sports) or Kahlil Saunders (Rivals) is considered the highest-rated defender in Kentucky 2021 class. Thrower’s a 6-2, 212-pound linebacker while Saunders is a 6-5, 260-pound defensive end, and both were recruited by Sumrall (Thrower’s from Georgia, Saunders from Alabama). Both are consensus three-star prospects.
Linebacker Joko Willis stands out because he’s the only junior-college player known to be committed to the Wildcats (the lack of a junior-college playing season likely played a role in that). He’s a three-star recruit out of Independence Community College who chose Kentucky over Arkansas, Kansas State and Mississippi State; 247Sports considers him to be the No. 21 junior-college player in the country.
Two three-star defensive backs in addition to Lovett — Maxwell Hairston and Adrian Huey — committed in the summer. Hairston, a 6-1, 160-pound prospect out of West Bloomfield, Mich., reported offers from Cincinnati, Mississippi and Purdue, while Huey (6-foot, 175 pounds) hails from Nashville and chose Kentucky over Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee. Defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale recruited both.
Jamarius Dinkins, a defensive end out of Columbus, Ohio, rounds out Kentucky’s incoming prospects. A 6-foot-5, 245-pound three-star prospect, Dinkins’ recruitment was led by Marrow, and he chose UK over Cincinnati, Iowa State, Michigan State and West Virginia.
Who else?
Kentucky’s only other expected signee is another three-star prospect, though one who could see the field sooner than many other incoming freshmen. Wilson Berry is a former Australian-rules football player joining the Wildcats out of ProKick Australia, the same organization which helped current punter Max Duffy hone his craft.
Berry brings UK’s total number of expected signees to 17, well below the maximum of 25 allowed by the NCAA during each signing period. Teams are allowed a total of 85 scholarship players year over year, and Kentucky had exactly that amount on its roster in 2020. Sixteen seniors were on scholarship and sophomore Kelvin Joseph has declared for the NFL Draft, leaving 17 open scholarships.
Any amount of those seniors could choose to return for an additional year of eligibility due to a waiver granted by the NCAA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any amount of financial aid provided to those seniors would be exempt from the 2021 team limits, meaning their scholarships would not count against the 85-member total. Athletics programs have the discretion to not provide financial aid for returning seniors if the conditions of their original scholarship letter were met.
As is the case most years, UK is likely to lose and gain players to mid-year and summer transfers. As of Tuesday, no current players have been identified as having entered the NCAA transfer portal. Those additions and subtractions would affect the 85-scholarship total.
