When National Signing Day comes around, it gets a little chaotic. Players all across the country are signing with their respective programs and teams are starting to assemble their foundations for the following years. Although it is chaotic, and a product of years of hard work by the staff that all comes to fruition in one afternoon, it is still a beautiful kind of chaos and a really exciting day.
We have compiled all the afternoon scrambling into one place to help you keep your head on straight. Here's who Kentucky brought in yesterday:
Portal Signees
Devin Leary - quarterback (NC State)
Ray Davis - running back (Vanderbilt)
Jantzen Dunn - defensive back (Ohio State)
Tanner Bowles - offensive lineman (Alabama)
Marques Cox - offensive lineman (Northern Illinois)
J.Q. Hardaway - defensive back (Cincinnati)
I think Kentucky's two biggest losses this offseason were clearly going to be their quarterback and their running back, and potentially a few receivers, but fortunately, it looks like they are going to actually keep those. With that being said, the staff made their way out out into the war zones of recruiting and came back smiling with the top player at each of those positions, QB and RB, from the portal.
The staff seems thrilled to have reeled in quarterback Devin Leary, as every program who was searching for their next offensive leader got beat out by this program. Mark says it was a "home run" in landing the kid.
Stoops and Co. also signed 16 players from the High School ranks, to help lay out the future of this program, which includes 6 four-star recruits.
High School Signees:
Khamari Anderson - tight end from Cass Technical (Detroit, Mich.)
Grant Godfrey - outside linebacker from North Gwinnett (Suwanee, Ga.),
Anthony Brown - wide receiver from Springfield (Springfield, OH.)
Koby Keenum- defensive lineman from Mars Hill Bible School (Florence, Ala.)
Shamar Porter - wide receiver from Ensworth High School (Nashville, Tenn.)
Ty Bryant - defensive back from Frederick Douglass High School (Lexington, KY.)
Jakob Dixon - wide receiver from Pleasure Ridge Park (Louisville, KY.)
Malachi Wood - offensive lineman from Madison Central High School (Richmond, KY.)
Tommy Ziesmer - defensive lineman from Boyle County High School (Danville, KY.)
Jayvant Brown - linebacker from St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Fort Lauderdale, FL.)
Avery Stuart - defensive back from Alabama Christian Academy (Montgomery, AL.)
Jeremiah Anglin Jr. - defensive back from Lake Wales (Lake Wales, FL.)
Austin Ramsey - offensive lineman from Roman Catholic (Philadelphia, PA.)
Nasir Addison - defensive back from Irvington (Irvington, NJ.)
Ardell Banks - wide receiver from Massillon (Massillon, OH.)
Tanner Lemaster - tight end from Washington (Washington Court House, OH.)
Mark Stoops says he's happy with the way the recruiting class finalized.
“If you look at us through this year, some people may have been a little concerned. I really wasn’t,” Stoops said. “We were working hard to try to finish as strong as we could. We don’t always look at that, but if you look at average star ranking, we’re really pretty high, pretty strong, top 20 nationally.”
The Wildcats also did not have one player that was verbally committed to them flip to another program and that is a big win in itself. They also were on the other end of that, having a player flip to them on NSD, in Jayvant Brown, who was originally committed to Michigan State. Considering all that was brought in, on top of what they managed to retain from last year's roster after the two program faces made their exit, I considered the day a very successful one.
Once Liam Coen gets back to town and starts putting the pieces in place, this thing will start to gel together. We have got a long offseason ahead of us coming right after this bowl game. I am excited for what is to come. How could you not be? There are plenty of new faces to learn and a lot to be looking forward to for the 2023 season.
Now, let's go win the Music City Bowl with this team.