Friday, June 11, 2010

More names to remember

Recently City College of San Fransico running back Brandon Ford visited UK and met with Joker Phillips and Mike Summers. While Ford would love to come back to his home state to play in front of friends and family he has two teammates the Cats might be interested in as well. Brandon mentioned Nigel Malone (CB/5'10"/182.bs/4.4) and Sua Tuala (MLB/6'/225lbs) as other current players who are receiving a lot of interest from programs.

1 comment:

  1. Aaron, I believe there is a pretty good chance Brandon Ford may end up in UK's 2011 signing class, even though Brandon does not currently hold a firm UK scholarship offer. Ford runs with a great "lean", catches the football pretty well, and knows how to play the RB position in UK's offense. Once Derrick Locke has graduated, Ford would make a nice compliment to Donald Russell, Ray Sanders, and Brandon Gainer in UK's RB rotation.

    Here is how I see this possibly unfolding.

    UK currently has at least nine known scholarship offers on the table to RB prospects. However, one of the nine (Jerrell Moore) is committed to UL, and I do not expect him to switch his commitment.

    For various reasons, I do not expect UK to sign Javorius Allen, Tre Mason, or Willie Davis.

    Most of the others (e.g., Julius Pendergrass, Marcus Caffey, Eric Scott, and Trayion Durham) are probably being looked at by UK's staff as defensive prospects. We know from Caffey's own mouth that UK is recruiting him as a CB, even though most schools are projecting Marcus as a RB. UK's staff may also see Pendergrass and Scott as CB prospects. I suspect Durham is being projected by UK's staff as a MLB, and perhaps as an insurance policy in case Lamar Dawson surprises them and signs elsewhere.

    I think UK's staff would give Rickey Lunford a serious crack at playing RB. But even Lunford presents interesting possibilities as a safety prospect.

    In truth, UK probably has a viable shot to sign Caffey, Pendergrass, Scott, and/or Lunford.

    With that said, let's get back to Brandon Ford. Currently, nobody around campus has much doubt that Ford will commit to UK if Joker offers him a scholarship. I hear Ford has already told Joker he wants to be a Cat.

    Athletically, Ford is the real deal. He can play SEC football. He is fast, and he has become a stronger player at CCSF. Joker must answer four questions: (1) Would Joker prefer a four-year prospect like Lunford over Ford...and can UK actually sign Lunford? (2) Does Joker really want to take a JUCO RB in this class? (3) Does Joker have enough scholarships left to take Ford? (4) Can Ford qualify academically for enrollment at UK?

    In the end, I suspect either Lunford or Ford will probably be in UK's next class. Ford could probably help UK's offense sooner than Lunford. But it's still far too early to be sure about the remaining scholarships in Joker's next class.

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