What to know about UK football four-star quarterback recruit Matt Ponatoski
After a slow start to the 2026 high school recruiting cycle, Kentucky football finally started to pile up commitments this month.
But the class still lacked star power. At least until now.
Four-star Ohio prep quarterback Matt Ponatoski committed to the Wildcats Sunday over finalists Alabama, Arkansas and Oregon. Ponatoski is expected to play both baseball and football at Kentucky, but despite splitting his focus between the two sports, Ponatoski has seen his stock as a quarterback increase in recent weeks.
The 247Sports Composite ranks him as the No. 21 quarterback in the 2026 class. That is a similar range current UK redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley was ranked in the 2024 class by the time he graduated from Lexington Christian Academy.
Here is what you need to know about Ponatoski.
Matt Ponatoski is a two-sport star
As a junior at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ponatoski was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Ohio in both football and baseball.
He earned Ohio Mr. Football honors too after throwing for 4,217 yards, 57 touchdowns and just three interceptions while leading his team to the OHSAA Division I state championship. In the spring, he hit .462 in 27 baseball games.
It is the chance to play both baseball and football in the SEC that helped Kentucky land Ponatoski despite the Wildcats’ offensive struggles in football last year. UK baseball coach Nick Mingione and his staff deserve partial credit for the commitment as the program continues to build off its 2024 College World Series appearance.
Ponatoski’s status as a baseball prospect does complicate his football projections. An optimist could easily argue that there is even more room for him to grow as a quarterback because he has split time between the two sports in high school, but there is also a risk he could ultimately opt for baseball over football. Perfect Game rates him as a possible 2026 MLB draft pick.
There are examples of high-level quarterbacks playing both football and baseball in college (see Kyler Murray at Oklahoma and Russell Wilson at N.C. State), but there are even more examples of athletes who entered college with the intention to play both sports before ultimately choosing to focus on one. That was the case for former UK football players Brian Adams and Shane Boyd.
Matt Ponatoski impressed at the 2025 Elite 11 camp
When many of the top class of 2026 quarterbacks gathered in California this month for the annual Elite 11 finals, Ponatoski was not among the most hyped players at the camp but still turned heads from analysts in attendance.
The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman called Ponatoski “the most pleasant surprise to me.” On3 ranked him seventh of the quarterbacks at the event.
“That arm wowed me Thursday morning in his 7-on-7 performance,” Feldman wrote of Ponatoski. “The 6-1, 196-pounder, who is uncommitted, made two ‘wow’ throws to receivers who didn’t look open at all, but he fired the ball into the only spot he could and completed the passes. It was impressive.”
Ponatoski won the pro day competition at the Elite 11 camp and was named to the 12-man Elite 11 finalist list, beating out at least eight of the 20 quarterbacks in attendance. The last time Kentucky signed a high school quarterback who was named to the final Elite 11 team was Drew Barker in 2013, though recent transfer quarterbacks Brock Vandagriff and Devin Leary were Elite 11 quarterbacks in high school.
An important statement for Kentucky recruiting
As with almost all Ohio high school stars, Ponatoski’s primary point of contact at UK was former UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow earlier in his career, but offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan took over his recruitment more recently. Ponatoski is the first Ohio recruit to commit to Kentucky since Marrow left UK for archrival Louisville this month.
Landing Ponatoski is undoubtedly a statement for UK’s 2026 recruiting efforts. The Wildcats had piled up commitments in June, but the class included just two four-star prospects, according to the 247Sports Composite, before Ponatoski.
Whether his commitment says anything about the Ohio recruiting plan post-Marrow will take longer to determine as quarterback recruiting always brings additional considerations.
Ponatoski visited Oregon after the Elite 11 camp. While he raved about his experience on that trip in subsequent interviews, the Ducks landed 2026 quarterback Bryson Beaver, another Elite 11 standout, after that visit, paving the way for Ponatoski to pick Kentucky. UK was the only team in Ponatoski’s four finalists that had no quarterback committed in the 2026 class by the time of his announcement.
Matt Ponatoski highlights
This story was originally published July 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM.