Official Visit Preview: Top Two Uncommitted In-State Stars at Kentucky

This weekend will serve as the first of three significant official visit weekends as Kentucky pursues its top targets in the class of 2025. There will be a few mid-week officials sprinkled in, but these have transformed into the biggest recruiting weekends of the year, rather than waiting until after the end of a player’s senior season.

Kentucky is ahead of schedule with six players committed in its top 25 class of 2025 recruiting class. This weekend a couple of those commits will receive the red carpet treatment alongside the top two uncommited prospects from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Two Linemen from Kentucky

Javeon Campbell, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive lineman from Frankort’s Western Hills High School, is one of the fastest-rising prospects in the country. Now considered the No. 1 player in Kentucky by On3 and 247 Sports, this top 200 talent has not played football for long. He became a hot commodity for college football programs following his junior season.

Campbell opened the summer with an official visit to Ohio State. Following this weekend in Lexington, he’ll travel to Auburn, Alabama, and Georgia. When scoping Kentucky’s defensive line targets in the 2025 class, Campbell is at the top of the list and there aren’t a ton of other talented options. The Wildcats are the leaders in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine and they must maintain that momentum through the official visit season.

Isaac “Spike” Sowells is one of the top centers in the country. Hailing from a traditional Louisville pipeline, Male High School, this looked like a classic Governor’s Cup recruiting battle from the jump. When the open recruiting period began, Jeff Brohm and Vince Marrow were two of the first people to make the trek to Preston Highway.

Don’t be fooled. This is not a two-horse race. NC State has aggressively pursued Sowells for quite some time and he’s been receptive to their pitch. In addition to trips to Louisville and Miami, the Wolf Pack will get the last official visit. 247 and On3 NC State insiders have submitted predictions for Sowells to make the move to Raleigh. We’ll see how much proximity matters for Kentucky and Louisville in the coming weeks.

Two Kentucky Commits

Tucker Kattus was a top priority for the Kentucky offensive line long before Eric Wolford returned to Lexington. Vince Marrow offered the youngest of the three Kattus brothers a few months before he entered high school. Kentucky’s lengthy relationship with the family won out when the mauler committed to the Cats in March.

Stone Saunders is another commit who had to deal with a coaching change. His father trained Liam Coen when the former Kentucky offensive coordinator was preparing for the NFL. Saunders committed to Kentucky in August of 2023. He kept that commitment following Coen’s departure, even though Bush Hamdan pursued another quarterback in the class, Brennen Ward. It may make things a bit tenuous, but Kentucky needs two quarterbacks from the high school ranks to add reinforcements to a room that severely lacks depth.

Locked in for the weekend!😎 #BBN pic.twitter.com/1P0eXeq8wX

— Stone Saunders (@Stone_Saunders8) June 5, 2024

Top Offensive Tackle Target

When Tucker Kattus announced his commitment on Kentucky Sports Radio, Matt Jones asked who Kattus would like to bring with him to Lexington. Derrin Strey was the first name mentioned.

A 6-foot-6, three-star offensive tackle from Michigan, Eric Wolford made Strey a priority as soon as he accepted the job to return to Kentucky. The Wildcats will receive the first official visit, followed by trips to Wisconsin and Stanford. The latter is the one to watch. There’s something about the campus in Palo Alto, when Stanford finds their kind of guy, it’s hard to pull them away. Surviving that official visit will be the key for Kentucky in this recruitment.

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