Kiyaunta Goodwin locks up historic class for Kentucky football

Mark Stoops and his Kentucky football program had a ton of momentum in the 2022 recruiting cycle. However, in many ways, the class was going to be determined a major success or not based on what five-star offensive tackle Kiyaunta Goodwin decided.

The ball bounced the way of the Big Dog.

After multiple delays and plenty of drama throughout the day, the Louisville native stayed firm with his commitment and will continue his playing career in the SEC suiting up for the Wildcats.

KSR is here to provide some context as Vince Marrow just recorded the biggest win of his recruiting career.

Fence was built

For any college football program to be at its best, the top players in your backyard must play for your team on Saturdays. Since Marrow took over recruiting in the Bluegrass State, Kentucky has mostly accomplished this mission.

However, occasionally the top players have left the state. Kentucky missed out on Wan’Dale Robinson in 2019 and Walker Parks in 2020. The Wildcats were able to secure Jager Burton in 2021. The same thing happened in 2022.

Goodwin is a legit five-star talent that many programs wanted. Similar to Jedrick Wills and Damien Harris, Kentucky did a great job but did not have enough recruiting juice to win in the end. After six consecutive winning seasons and a head coach who is committed to the program, the Wildcats had enough to close in 2022.

The recruiting win raises the program’s ceiling.

Years of consistency

Some college football programs who can show up late and convince blue-chip prospects to come to their institution after just weeks of recruiting. Kentucky is not at that level.

The Wildcats offered Kiyaunta Goodwin as an eighth-grader and recruited the offensive tackle nonstop over the last five seasons. Marrow built a strong relationship with the blue-chipper and convinced Goodwin to come to Lexington over a dozen times in the recruiting process.

Despite trips to other schools and never taking an official visit to Kentucky, the longevity of Kentucky’s recruiting won out in the end.

Kentucky has a recruiting blueprint, and the Wildcats stuck to it in the pursuit of Goodwin. That was proven to be a wise strategy as it paid off with a major recruiting win.

Strong relationships secured commitments on Wednesday.

Kentucky has arrived

Kentucky has recorded a 9-3 regular season record twice in the last four years. The Wildcats have also logged a pair of top 25 recruiting classes during that time. Kentucky owns wins over Florida, LSU, Penn State, Tennessee and has dominated its rivalry with Louisville.

These are the good times, but the program feels so close to climbing the ladder and becoming a legit top 15-20 program in the sport that can consistently compete for division titles.

Mark Stoops confirmed that by committing to the program this offseason. The Wildcats double-downed when defensive coordinator Brad White decided against joining Brian Kelly’s first staff at Notre Dame. The signing of Kiyaunta Goodwin is just more proof that the Wildcats have arrived.

There are still hoops to jump through and more adversity will hit, but the 2021 season was tangible proof that the Wildcats are here to stay and that this program is on a collision course for Atlanta.

The 2022 recruiting haul confirmed that with Kiyaunta Goodwin’s decision to stay home. Ceilings are being smashed as the arrow points up for Kentucky football.