Playmakers were a priority in UK’s 2021 class. How quickly will they make plays?
As the University of Kentucky football program looks for a fresh brush with which to color its offense, it can rest somewhat easy knowing that there’s some shiny, new paint already on its way to Lexington.
College football’s early recruiting signing period opens Wednesday, and during it three wide receivers ranked in the nation’s top 100 are expected to sign with the Wildcats. Two of them, Dekel Crowdus and Christian Lewis, are considered four-star prospects by at least one major recruiting service. The other, Chauncey Magwood, won two state titles as a receiver and has led his high school team to the state semifinals this year as its quarterback. And, while not a receiver by position, top-20 tight end Jordan Dingle is another marquee addition to the class who should expect to see the ball thrown his way often in the years to come.
Gifted playmakers are coming. How quickly might they be able to contribute in Lexington?
Physically, Lewis might be the receiver most ready to compete for playing time. He’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, and in just two full varsity seasons racked up nearly 2,500 yards and 40 touchdown receptions. He would have played his entire sophomore season at Pleasant Grove (Ala.), too, but a shot to the ribs during a game resulted in a kidney laceration that sidelined him for most of that campaign.
Lewis is considered the No. 13 overall player in Alabama and the nation’s 51st-ranked receiver by 247Sports. Rivals rates him as Alabama’s 10th-best prospect and No. 58 overall at receiver. Both rate him as a four-star player. He had offers from most schools in the Southeastern Conference as well as national juggernauts Notre Dame and Oregon, but neither Alabama nor Auburn ever extended a scholarship. That was a point of debate during the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game over the weekend, in which Lewis caught both of Alabama’s touchdowns in a 19-7 win to help snap his state’s three-game losing streak in the series.
“A lot of coaches were trying to figure out how he’s sneaking out of the state, why the in-state schools were allowing him to leave,” said Darrell LeBeaux, the head coach at Pleasant Grove.
LeBeaux says Lewis’ relationship with Jon Sumrall, UK’s linebackers coach and its preeminent recruiter throughout the South, helped him stay on board with the Wildcats while their offense sputtered throughout the 2020 season. And where fans saw struggle, Lewis saw an opportunity to come in and ignite change.
Kentucky also was the first SEC school to offer Lewis.
“The relationship he created with Coach Sumrall is awesome,” LeBeaux said. “That was one of those things that stuck with him. He knew who jumped on board with him first and believed in his talents early. That’s kinda been his thing.”
It didn’t hurt that Wesley Woodyard, a former All-SEC linebacker out of Kentucky who spent a decade in the NFL, is a cousin of LeBeaux’s wife, and got to know Lewis during his recruitment. Woodyard was evidence, in the flesh, that Kentucky is as capable of producing NFL players as any other program.
And that’s ultimately where Lewis — or ‘Deuce,’ as LeBeaux likes to call him — hopes to be.
“His work ethic will speak for itself and the character of him as a young man will speak for itself also,” LeBeaux said. “If you’re not ready to work, he’ll embarrass you from that aspect of it. ... The big games are when he shines. It’s not like when we’re just playing scrubs and he’s ballin’. When the lights are bright, you better figure out where ‘Deuce’ is at, ‘cause he’s gonna make plays whether you’ve got two (defenders) over there or not.”
Lexington star
Crowdus’ senior season was not as highlight-packed as it could have been due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Frederick Douglass lost about a month’s worth of its season to game postponements and cancellations; the Broncos, who fell in the Class 5A state semifinals on Friday, played almost as many playoff games (four) as they did regular-season contests (five).
He still managed to rack up 331 yards and nine touchdowns on just 25 receptions, all from a first-year quarterback who transferred from across the country and had little preseason time to develop chemistry.
“I thought he matured a lot this year as a senior and just went to work,” Douglass head coach Nate McPeek said of Crowdus. “He was a quiet leader for us. He’s not an abundant talker, social-wise, and knows that’s something he’s gotta continue to grow in. I thought he did a really good job for us all year. He was really attentive on and off the field.”
For Crowdus, 2020 was more of a whirlwind than most. He left Douglass for IMG Academy following his sophomore year, but re-enrolled at Douglass after the fall semester of his junior year finished up in Florida. Crowdus entered this fall without assurance that he would be able to play high school football again regardless of if the pandemic allowed it.
The IMG experience didn’t go quite as hoped for Crowdus, McPeek believes, but he thinks it was a valuable one.
“There’s a lot of other good players in the country and I think that kind of eye-opened him a little bit, as far as the dog-eat-dog mentality of what college football’s gonna be,” McPeek said. “Because when he shows up on campus, they’re gonna want to take his job. The same thing when all these guys go. You’re gonna be playing in the best conference of all of college football.”
Crowdus will be one of the fastest players on UK’s roster next season — he’s been clocked at 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash — but how quickly he can get on the field will be somewhat up to the weight room. He’s listed at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds.
“I think he can be in the mix early on just because of the athleticism but that’s gonna depend on how big he gets, the weight he puts on the next four to six months,” McPeek said.
Latest addition
Dingle, a consensus three-star recruit, committed to Kentucky in mid-November. He remains the newest member of its 2021 recruiting class as of Monday.
It was not a decision he came to lightly. An ace in the classroom, Dingle considered his options as thoroughly as any player Bowling Green head coach Mark Spader has observed.
Dingle’s final call came down to Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech. Ohio State also offered him.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen somebody put more thought into a decision, almost to the point it was painful for him,” Spader said. “I had to keep reminding him, ‘Please appreciate the fact that God gave you some talent and then you worked hard in the classroom and on the field. Now you have these tremendous choices at your disposal here.’ He wanted to make the perfect decision and academics were a big factor. He was back and forth. There were times throughout the summer he’d come to me and say, ‘I think I’m leaning toward so and so, don’t say anything to anybody.’ A couple weeks later, ‘I think I’m leaning toward so and so.’ It almost haunted him.”
Kentucky’s healthcare administration program helped win over Dingle, but so did the familial vibes given off by head coach Mark Stoops and his staff. Dingle also got to observe the recruitment of former Bowling Green star Vito Tisdale as it was happening, and watched the former four-star defensive back play his way into a starting role as a true freshman by the end of the 2020 season.
It helped, too, that recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow was Dingle’s lead recruiter; he’ll be his position coach when he gets to Lexington.
“I’ve watched him now with two of our kids, he gets down with ‘em and forms a good relationship,” Spader said of Marrow. “And I’m not saying we have a buddy relationship, but he opens up communication with me as well. I still check on Vito through him. It’s not something where they just try to get kids and move on. They’re constantly touching base.”
Of the Cats’ six in-state commitments, Dingle is the only one still in the hunt for a state title: His Purples meet Owensboro in the Class 5A finals on Saturday. His season-long stats — 473 yards and two touchdowns on 36 receptions — don’t necessarily pop off the page, but have no doubt about it: Dingle will be a handful, this weekend and beyond.
“He’d love to catch it 100 times a game,” Spader said. “He’s not selfish by any means, but he wants the ball. As the season has gone along, he has been, in my opinion, steady for our offense. And steady, as far as defensively, you really have to know where he is. ...
“We were able to hit some deep balls simply because of how South Warren treated him (during a 41-27 playoff win). Most games he’s still gonna get his catches in, but that was a game where you look at the stat sheet after and he had zero catches. But was he a major factor in the game? By all means. He’s always been able to block and he’s a winner. He busts his can and I’m so glad he’s on our team.”
