The Bleacher Report breaks down the top 15 recruiting states for football prospects. As we know, UK is focused on recruiting several key states (Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida). I'm a little surprised by the article as it calls North Carolina the top state for football recruiting. I would have figured Texas or Florida would have been the easy choice. NC is loaded with talent, especially in the Charlotte-Metro area. UK has managed to crack into Georgia and South Carolina, but haven't been able to pull recruits from the Tarheel state. The Cats have offered K.J. Brent (WR) and have been involved with Jeoffrey Pagan (DE) and Jared Barber (LB) who are top NC recruits. With Butch Davis gaining momentum, Clemson and South Carolina down the road, there are a lot of options for these players.
Click on the link above to read the article.
The best recruiting states on UK's regular football recruiting board are Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina, in that order.
ReplyDeleteIt must not take much of a resume to become a "senior analyst" for the Bleacher Report, because Mr. Kelly's suggestion that North Carolina is a better recruiting state than Florida, Texas, and Georgia is preposterous on its face. While it's certainly true that 2009 and 2010 are back-to-back great years in North Carolina, especially at the top of those two classes, OTOH there is three times as much quality D-1 talent in Georgia and at least five times as much in Florida. At best, North Carolina is comparable to South Carolina or Mississippi.
In the last three classes, UK's coaching staff has stepped up its recruiting efforts in North Carolina for a number of reasons. So far they have nothing to show for it. A couple of North Carolina prospects (Danny Dembry, Spencer Shuey) have been interested in verballing to the Cats, but they never received firm UK scholarship offers. I think UK's recruiting efforts in North Carolina will continue because of the luck Joker has had across the border in South Carolina. One of the biggest reasons UK is recruiting harder in North Carolina is because Butch Davis has been going up against UK's staff head-to-head for prospects in Tennessee and Georgia for the last several years. In other words, Joker wants to make Davis expend more recruiting resources to protect his own back yard.
For the most part, Butch Davis and Dabo Swinney have no competition for top players. Spencer Shuey wanted to commit to UK (they have verbally offered), but then the staff told him they didn't have room. He was a good player and did well in the Shrine Bowl (which led to Clemson offer). Your right on the money, UK needs to spend the most time in Georgia, Florida, Ohio and Texas.
ReplyDelete