UK commitment Mac Jones on Cats’ new offense: ‘Love at first sight’

For months, four-star quarterback recruit Mac Jones has been waiting to visit the University of Kentucky and see the Wildcats’ new offense with his own eyes.

Jones — a native of Jacksonville, Fla. — originally committed to UK last July, but the Cats made a coaching change in December, bringing in Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw to replace first-year offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.

Gran and Hinshaw immediately started re-recruiting Jones, who was in Lexington in February for UK’s first junior day for the class of 2017 but has been pining to return and see the new coaches’ offense on the field in spring practice.

That visit finally happened Tuesday, and it was a resounding success.

“Love at first sight,” Jones told the Herald-Leader. “Pretty much what Coach Gran and Hinshaw do is put you in the best situation to be successful on a play. They don’t make things cut and dry, and they never say, ‘I want it this exact way.’ The offense is mostly in the power of the QB’s hands, and whatever the QB feels comfortable doing for that specific defensive look, Coach Hinshaw will explain how you can put stress on the ‘D,’ and he always shows the positive routes for that play.”

The questions that Jones had regarding UK’s new offensive direction appear to have been answered during Tuesday’s trip, which came a week after the Florida native visited Arizona State and California during a West Coast swing to see some family members.

Jones’ recent rise in the recruiting rankings — Rivals now has him as the No. 15 QB in the class of 2017 — and the turnover on UK’s coaching staff has led to speculation that he could flip his commitment to another school.

The 6-foot-3 prospect talked about that with Coach Mark Stoops on Tuesday, and he told the Herald-Leader that he does not have plans to visit any other schools.

“Thinking about it, I’ve seen everywhere I wanted to see, and Kentucky is the best fit,” Jones said. “I’m not going to go out of my way to visit any more (schools).”

That’s tremendous news for UK, for which holding onto Jones’ commitment is one of the biggest priorities in the 2017 recruiting cycle. Over the weekend, he was named the top quarterback at the Rivals camp in Atlanta and received an invitation to the Rivals Five-Star Challenge — of the most exclusive camps in the country — for later this spring.

Rivals.com national analyst Mike Farrell wrote Tuesday that Jones threw the “best ball” of anyone at the Atlanta camp, which included Clemson commitment Chase Brice and several other top quarterbacks. Farrell called Jones a “fluid, accurate and smart” QB.

Jones was impressed with UK’s quarterbacks at Tuesday’s practice, which was only one part of the recruiting visit. It started at the 6 a.m., meeting and included a tour of the football training facilities that are still under construction but should be done by the time Jones’ class gets to campus.

During the visit, Jones tweeted a picture of himself in a construction hardhat and vest with the message: “We are trying to build something special at UK.”

Jones also met with UK President Eli Capilouto, not a common occurrence for visiting recruits.

“He was very personable,” Jones said. “He took time out of his busy schedule to sit down and talk with us. … Not many presidents of big universities would sit down with a football recruit and have a casual conversation like he did. I hope I left a good first impression, and he most definitely left a very, very good first impression regarding the university.”

Jones was the first commitment in a recruiting class that has the potential to be one of the best in the program’s recent history. Commitments from Ohio standouts Alex King and JaVonte Richardson over the past few days have pushed the Cats’ class to No. 8 overall and No. 1 in the Southeastern Conference, ahead of Alabama, in the 247Sports rankings.

Richardson’s commitment, in particular, got Jones’ attention. The 6-foot-4 wide receiver is ranked by Rivals as one of the Top 100 recruits in the class of 2017, and he is UK’s highest-ranked out-of-state commitment in the era of modern recruiting rankings.

“He’s a freak of nature,” Jones said. “That kid can play. I’m nervous I’m only going to get to play with him for three years, and then he will be in the league.”

Jones and his family, who were due to fly back to Florida late Tuesday night, had visited Lexington several times previously, but this trip seemed to cement his commitment to the program.

“I enjoyed literally every second of my visit,” he said. “From the 6 a.m., meeting all the way to the meeting with the president. And I obviously love talking some ball with Coach Stoops, Gran and Hinshaw. Those guys are the masterminds of the whole operation.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 11:23 PM with the headline "UK commitment Mac Jones on Cats’ new offense: ‘Love at first sight’."