Once a U of L pledge, in-state football standout is now committed to UK

One of the top high school football prospects in the state of Kentucky will stay close to home for his college career, though it won’t be quite as close as originally expected.

Butler wide receiver Demontae Crumes announced his commitment to UK on Sunday evening, pledging to the Cats’ recruiting class of 2019 a little more than two months after backing out of an earlier commitment to hometown Louisville.

Crumes — a 6-foot-1, 165-pound prospect — is a three-star prospect and ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 62 receiver nationally in the 2019 class and the ninth-best rising senior in Kentucky.

He originally committed to U of L in February and then backed off that commitment a couple of months later. UK recruiting guru Vince Marrow recently took over the Wildcats’ recruitment of Crumes, who is the first wide receiver to commit to the Cats for next year’s class.

Crumes landed reported scholarship offers from Michigan, Michigan State and Oregon over the past several weeks, and he had emerged as a major in-state recruiting priority for Kentucky, landing an offer from the Cats during a visit to Lexington just one week after his initial commitment to U of L.

He had 30 catches for 770 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior this past season.

Crumes joins West Jessamine offensive lineman Eli Cox as the second in-state commitment in the 2019 class for UK, which did not sign any in-state players in the 2018 recruiting cycle.

Doss standout Shawnkel Knight-Goff was also briefly committed to UK earlier this spring, though he has visited Lexington again since backing off his pledge to the program, and he will continue to consider the Wildcats moving forward.

UK now has 11 commitments for its 2019 class.

This story was originally published June 24, 2018 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Once a U of L pledge, in-state football standout is now committed to UK."