Kentucky is creating recruiting pipeline in Mid-Atlantic

Under Mark Stoops, Kentucky has created a recruiting backbone for the first time in modern history. With Vince Marrow leading the way, the Wildcats have been able to successfully recruit Ohio tagged with successful in-state recruiting. That has helped raise both the ceiling and floor for Kentucky football.

Since Marrow became the primary in-state recruiter for the Kentucky staff, the Wildcats have averaged nine high school signees from Kentucky and Ohio combined per class. Among the 13 verbal commitments in the 2023 cycle, seven of those players hail from those two states. These players create the foundation for Kentucky’s roster building.

However, over half of the class will need to come from outside the home base each year. How Kentucky has managed this has fluctuated during the Mark Stoops era. Early on Kentucky dipped down into Central Florida. The Wildcats later moved into South Florida. A strong pipeline in Metro Detroit was also created. In the last three classes, the Wildcats are having a lot of success in Middle Tennessee. As with most staffs, Kentucky prefers to stay within a six-hour radius. But sometimes you must extend beyond that.

Things can change quickly in college football recruiting, and oftentimes staffs must pull players from where they have the most connections. Thanks to a pair of coaches — Brad White and Scott Woodward — having some strong northeast roots, we are seeing Kentucky find some recruiting value in the Mid-Atlantic.

To start, let’s categorize the Mid-Atlantic region. To put everything in a box, this area consists of the following states: Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington D.C. New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina could also be thrown in here. Historically, Penn State has recruited this area very hard but there is less SEC competition outside of the elite prospects. That gives the area value.

The Wildcats are attempting to take advantage of that value.

After signing no players from the area in 2021, Kentucky leaned into the territory in 2022. The Wildcats signed three players in the defensive front seven with Tyreese Fearbry being a legit blue-chip recruiting win over Pittsburgh, Penn State, and Auburn.

Move forward to this year, and Kentucky is leaning hard into the area again with both White and Woodward mining the region for talent. The party got started in June when Kentucky received a commitment from offensive guard Austin Ramsey out of Philadelphia (Pa.) Roman Catholic as Zach Yenser found a big interior player with good movement ability. Over a month later, Kentucky completed a flip from Maryland to land cornerback Nasir Addison out of Irvington (N.J.) High. Both of these prospects had legitimate Power Five interest from other programs. The Wildcats aren’t done yet, either.

Three-star offensive tackle Naquil Betrand is set to announce his decision on Saturday, and the Philadelphia native has just transferred to prep powerhouse Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances Academy. Kentucky is competing against Auburn, Syracuse, and Texas A&M.

Blue-chip edge rusher Neeo Avery was one of many official visitors to Lexington over the summer. The DMV native is a former Penn State commit who has Kentucky as a finalist along with Maryland, Ole Miss, and Oregon.

In the past, Kentucky has had success recruiting the DMV landing blue-chipper Josh Paschal in the class of 2017. Now the Wildcats are digging into this area more heavily to help fill up their recruiting classes. The SEC East program is banking good evaluations in a lighter recruited area to find some quality wins on the recruiting trail.

Kentucky could have as many as 7 or 8 high school signees over the last two cycles with a pair of blue-chip finds.