Bolstering recruiting department will help Kentucky keep pace with SEC

Billy Napier is entering his first year as the head coach at Florida, and the former Sun Belt coach is building an army in Gainesville. Since being hired by the Gators, Napier has hired 63 full-time staff members with 15 serving in an off-field coaching role and others serving in multiple areas within the football organization.

The Gators are trying to chase Alabama and Georgia where the Nick Saban blueprint is gobbling up wins and trophies. Napier is attempting to utilize that same blueprint by using strength in numbers when it comes to recruiting.

“We’re going to hire an army of people here. We’re going to create an infrastructure. Not only in the personnel department but also from on-campus recruiting, creative media, name, image, and likeness. We’ve got a great vision for the organization that we’re going to create here.” Napier said during his introductory press conference.

At Kentucky, Mark Stoops is also building a talented off-field recruiting roster. The Wildcats won’t be as deep in the recruiting department as Florida, but the program is bolstering their support staff department that will assist recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow.

“We all know I’m paid too much,” Stoops said during his signing day press conference. “So for the staff and for the support staff — everybody talks about specifically recruiting budget. It’s not recruiting budget. There’s a lot to it. There’s guys over here with me, Chase Heuke over here, and I could point out Chase. I can’t even tell you the amount of hours that he works and what he does and what he puts into it. So getting some support and some building — continuing to build our organization.

Heuke serves as the Director of Recruiting at Kentucky where he runs the recruiting office for the program, but the former on-campus recruiting coordinator will be getting some help in 2022.

Last week, Kentucky hired Texas A&M staffer Danielle Braswell to be the Executive Director of Recruiting to support the Kentucky recruiting operation. The former Auburn grad has worked at Arkansas and Texas A&M over the last three seasons. The addition will allow Kentucky to continue to evolve.

“Continuing to grow. Continuing to put people in position to help in all areas. That was a discussion that Mitch [Barnhart] and I had early this offseason,” Stoops told reporters on Wednesday. “Again, I have full support for areas we need to grow. Areas where we need to expand.”

Kentucky is committed to sustaining a winning football program and to do that investments must be made consistently. The latest will help bolster the recruiting efforts in Lexington as the Wildcats look to stay up to speed as the game begins to change with name, image, likeness, and the transfer portal.

“I’m not saying I need an army of people like some people do, but you certainly need manpower — womanpower in this case — and people to help you in your organization,” said Stoops. “I’ve received that support and we need to continue to push and we gotta continue to grow.”

Alignment is the name of the game.