Where Kentucky football’s 2023 recruiting class finished in national, SEC rankings
Kentucky football was unable to duplicate its record-breaking 2022 high school recruiting class in the 2023 cycle, but the signing day commitment of four-star Indiana prep defensive lineman Kendrick Gilbert did ensure the 2023 class finished with a comparable ranking to most of Mark Stoops’ UK classes.
Gilbert’s commitment bumped Kentucky’s 2023 class to No. 31 nationally and No. 12 in the SEC, according to the 247Sports Composite, which averages the ratings of the major recruiting services.
Of the major recruiting services, Rivals was highest on Kentucky’s class, ranking the Wildcats at No. 26 nationally and No. 11 in the SEC. ESPN (34), 247Sports (35) and On3 (38) all ranked Kentucky’s class in the 30s nationally.
Three times in the Stoops era, Kentucky has signed a recruiting class ranked in the top 30 nationally by the 247Sports Composite, including in 2022 when the class finished at a program-best 11th nationally. The other eight recruiting classes signed by Stoops at UK have finished between 30th and 38th in the 247Sports Composite rankings.
Here is the annual national ranking of each of Stoops’ UK recruiting classes with SEC ranking in parentheses.
▪ 2023: 31 (12).
▪ 2022: 11 (4).
▪ 2021: 34 (12).
▪ 2020: 25 (9).
▪ 2019: 34 (12).
▪ 2018: 37 (11).
▪ 2017: 30 (11).
▪ 2016: 34 (12).
▪ 2015: 38 (13).
▪ 2014: 22 (10).
▪ 2013: 34 (13).
Of course, the high school rankings only represent a portion of the full measure of a class in the transfer portal era. Transfer rankings are harder to quantify, but 247Sports ranks Kentucky’s seven-man transfer class 18th nationally. On3 ranks the transfer class eighth nationally. Those rankings will likely change in May as teams add a second wave of transfers following spring practice, but Kentucky has already filled positions of need in the portal with 2022 preseason ACC Player of the Year Devin Leary at quarterback, 1,000-yard rusher Ray Davis at running back and projected starters Marques Cox and JQ Hardaway at left tackle and cornerback, respectively.
While the 2023 high school class finished 20 spots lower in the 247Sports Composite ranking than the 2022 class, the No. 31 ranking combined with the transfer portal commitments represented a strong finish for Stoops and company.
Of the seven signees ranked as four-star prospects by the 247Sports Composite, three committed after the end of the 2022 regular season.
“If you look at us through this year, some people may have been a little concerned,” Stoops said in December. “I really wasn’t. We were working hard to try to finish as strong as we could. … We just were needing to address specific areas in the transfer portal and wanted to make sure we had room for some of that.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2023 at 2:41 PM.