First Down Kentucky: National Signing Day Recap

National Signing Day did not produce theatrical announcements for prospects around the country. It did officially close the book on the 2024 recruiting class. Kentucky finished by taking a big swing on an inexperienced athlete.

Quintavion Norman played only one year of high school football. Behind the 8-ball in the classroom, he worked his butt off to get onto the field and find the spotlight. What Kentucky found was a lengthy 6-foot-3 athlete with a ton of upside who has an exceptional pedigree. The linebacker’s older brother is Tennessee Titans cornerback Tay Gowan. The former UCF Knight believed his brother could make it and is grateful the Cats are taking a chance on Norman.

Played 1 year of Highschool football. No Offers . @CoachSkelton06 believed in my brother , Pushed him to be Great . @Mike_Stoops41 thanks for the opportunity! Thank you God. https://t.co/WnzoiJjGrz

— Tay Gowan (@focused_4) February 7, 2024

In addition to Norman, a couple of preferred walk-ons announced their intention to play for the Wildcats next fall.

Anderson Mitchell | 6-3, 190 lbs. | WR/DB | Lexington Christian Academy
Kevin Powell | 5-11, 170 | S | Monarch, Coconut Creek, FL

Powell had a couple of offers to play football in the MAC, but instead chose to test his chops as a PWO in the SEC. Godspeed.

Kentucky Recruiting Class in the Final Rankings

It’s officially official: Kentucky has another Top 25 recruiting class. That’s not something you ever said before Mark Stoops came to town. They’ve now done it three times in the last four years.

Kentucky comes in at No. 25 overall in the On3 Industry Ranking. The Wildcats are 28th in average star ranking, thanks in large part to the late unranked addition and a kicker in the class. Seven of the 22 players in the class are four-star talents. Kentucky is 13th out of 16 SEC teams. It Just Means More Crootin’ in this crazy league.

A New Kentucky RPM Prediction

Love working for our friends at On3. Even though we’ve been operating under the umbrella of the recruiting network for a couple of years now, I still sometimes forget to do what recruiting people are supposed to do, like log predictions.

Over the last couple of weeks, KSR has continued to receive encouraging intel about Martels Carter. Today I finally wised up and submitted an RPM prediction for Kentucky to land the top-ranked player from the Commonwealth. A top 200 defensive back, Vince Marrow has made Carter a priority since he moved to Paducah from Chattanooga and I do not believe the Big Dog will let the talented defensive back leave the state to play football elsewhere.

I wasn’t the only person at On3 to predict Carter to Kentucky today. National recruiting analyst Chad Simmons believes the Wildcats are the team to beat for the talented athlete.

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Welcome to College GameDay, Nick Saban

Today ESPN announced the greatest coach in college football history will enjoy his retirement on the set of College GameDay. He’ll be on the desk alongside Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and Pat McAfee. In addition to GameDay, Saban will appear at the NFL Draft and SEC Media Days for ESPN.

This move should not come as a surprise. He made regular appearances each week last fall on McAfee’s show, supplementing the annual appearances at the desk during CFB Playoff Games that did not feature Bama. Even though we won’t have him on the sideline, it’ll be nice to still have Nick Saban as a part of our college football Saturdays.