Trio of four-star players join up with Kentucky on first day of early signing period
A banner recruiting class was already in the cards for Kentucky’s football program heading into the start of the early signing period. It got better on Wednesday.
Three players rated as four-star prospects by at least one major recruiting service signed with UK over the course of the day. Two of them, Ja’Kobi Albert and Deone Walker, signed with the Wildcats early on Wednesday, while the last, Zahquan Frazier, signed later in the day. UK hosted all three on campus before a dead period went into effect on Monday.
Outgoing inside linebackers coach Jon Sumrall, recently named the head coach at Troy, was Albert’s primary recruiter since he attended a UK summer camp. He worked with the receivers and defensive backs during that camp, but is expected to initially join Kentucky as a defensive back prospect.
Rivals rates Albert (5-11, 175 pounds) as a four-star recruit and the 20th best “athlete” in the country. He was committed to Auburn coming into the week.
Deone Walker, a defensive tackle, never made a public commitment but he was considered a Michigan lean for much of his recruitment. Offensive line coach Eric Wolford was his lead recruiter.
Frazier, the last of the trio to commit at 6 p.m. EST, is rated by Rivals as a four-star cornerback and is considered the No. 3 junior-college player in the country. The addition of Frazier — 6-4, 190 pounds — eases the loss of another junior college defensive back, DeCarlos Nicholson, suffered earlier in the day; he flipped to Mississippi State, from whom UK had gotten him to flip in November.
Their commitments brought UK’s total number of 2022 players ranked as four-star prospects or better by at least one service to 11. Tayvion Robinson, a wide receiver transfer from Virginia Tech who also committed on Wednesday but whose silent commitment was widely reported Saturday, was rated as a four-star in the 2019 signing class.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 6:37 PM.
