Why Mark Stoops is not worried about UK football’s 2026 recruiting class ranking

One week from the start of the December signing period for high school and junior college football prospects, there does not appear to be much reason to get excited about Kentucky’s 2026 class.

After two decommitments this month, the class holds just 13 pledges. The 247Sports Composite ranks it 69th nationally.

Yet UK coach Mark Stoops insisted Monday those numbers are not cause for alarm.

“It is very different now,” Stoops said. “You are having conversations with your own team right now. You have to build this team from the inside out. You have to start with your guys on your team. Some of the biggest recruiting battles that we will have are with our own team.

“That is no different than anyone in the country. Everyone wants to retain their good players and build out from there.”

There are still options for Kentucky to add to the class before signing day.

Kentucky hosted Florida four-star running back commitment Carsyn Baker for a visit earlier this month. The Wildcats have also hosted four junior-college transfers for visits this month.

“Sometimes out of junior college they replace some of the high school because you get a guy with multiple years,” Stoops said. “With the (FBS transfer) free agents, so to speak, you don’t want all of them to be one-year guys. You would like to have some guys (with multiple years remaining).

“(Junior-college transfers) are a little more mature. They have some more football under their belt. We have seen more on tape, and you maybe feel a little more confident that they can come in and help you next year and have multiple years.”

Adding junior-college transfers before next week would do little to address a lack of perceived star power in the class, though.

Only two of the current commitments are rated as four-star prospects by the 247Sports Composite: safety Messiah Tilson and quarterback Matt Ponatoski.

Even if he signs with UK next week, it cannot be assumed Ponatoski will make it to campus, because he remains a possible early round pick in next spring’s MLB draft. Ponatoski plans to play both football and baseball at Kentucky, but if he is drafted early enough, he might elect to start his professional baseball career instead.

“You have to look at a roster in one-year increments right now,” Stoops said. “I am not afraid to talk about it anymore, let’s not dance around it: There are some schools that have a boatload of money to buy high school kids. I need to make sure those kids can help us win next year.

“I only have so much money. You have to get your team, you have to get fillers for next year and then you have to be able to recruit high school kids. There is a lot to it.”

Keeping as many of the talented young playmakers that have emerged for Kentucky on both sides of the ball this season has to be priority No. 1 for Stoops as he builds a roster for 2026.

That group is led by redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley. Stoops indicated on his radio show Monday that Boley plans to return, but it is too early to assume any player will be back next season. Even if Kentucky’s coaching staff remains intact, how the coaching carousel plays out elsewhere in December will have an effect on which players enter the transfer portal when it opens in January.

Boley is not alone on UK’s roster in being likely to garner back-channel transfer interest in the coming weeks.

Freshman wide receivers Cam Miller and DJ Miller have shown promise in part-time roles. Freshman outside linebacker C.J. Works has grown into an important role for UK’s defense and has the size that makes it easy to dream of him developing into a star.

Older Wildcats with eligibility remaining — like right guard Jalen Farmer, tight end Willie Rodriguez, defensive linemen Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace, Tavion Gadson and Jerod Smith and cornerback DJ Waller — would all likely be attractive plug-and-play options for power-conference programs with needs at their positions.

After back-to-back Monday news conferences that featured extended conversations about the importance of revenue sharing and outside NIL funds for roster construction, Stoops was asked this week whether he feels Kentucky is in a financial position to keep its best players and add needed transfers.

“We’re working on it, hard,” he said. “We are working hard. The university, the administration, myself, JMI, everybody is working very hard to get this done. That I really appreciate.”

Even if Kentucky retains all its important players with eligibility remaining, transfer additions will be needed.

Right tackle, left guard, wide receiver, nose guard, inside linebacker and punter are positions where adding a starter-caliber transfer looks essential. Many other positions will need instant impact help in the form of increased depth.

As evidenced by the emergence of the Millers and Works, that instant impact can still come from the right freshmen, too. Each of those players was rated as a four-star prospect by at least one recruiting service, though.

Stoops built his early success at Kentucky by elevating the Wildcats’ high school recruiting rankings.

He has never signed a class ranked worse than 38th in the 247Sports Composite. Each of his UK signing classes to date had at least 18 commitments.

Last year, even as the staff signed a 24-man transfer class, it added 21 high school signees. That group was ranked 29th nationally by the 247Sports Composite.

Perhaps there are some under-the radar gems in the 2026 group ranked 40 spots lower. While Stoops has been applauded for developing overlooked talent over multiple seasons, he also found instant-impact players rated as two- or three- star prospects, including program legends Benny Snell and Josh Allen.

Signing junior-college transfers has helped Stoops before, too, with quarterbacks Terry Wilson and Stephen Johnson, cornerbacks Lonnie Johnson and Brandin Echols and defensive linemen C.J. Johnson, Phil Hoskins and Za’Darius Smith among the notable success stories.

The staff’s hit rate on FBS transfers improved this season from the year before.

All of those are positive signs for Stoops’ ability to field a competent roster in 2026 if he remains Kentucky’s coach, but the competition is not getting any easier.

The 247Sports Composite ranks Kentucky’s class 15th of the 16 SEC programs. With the league moving to a nine-game schedule next season, the Wildcats will add one more game against one of those programs Stoops noted has the NIL funds to attract both top transfers and high school talent.

Kentucky’s path to joining that group involves the decision to move outside NIL collective operations in house, under the direction of multimedia marketing rights partner JMI Sports, panning out.

“We need everybody to support that,” Stoops said. “All of us, as a university, all of our student-athletes, need that to work. For me personally it takes another job off my plate. So that in itself is enormous.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Jon Hale

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 414-6776

Jon Hale is the University of Kentucky football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the Herald-Leader in 2022 but has covered UK athletics for more than 10 years. Hale was named the 2021 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. Support my work with a digital subscription