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The Wade Twins: Get To Know Destin and Keaten Wade

Drew Franklinby:Drew Franklin•04/16/21•

DrewFranklinKSR

wade-twins

[Editor’s Note: With the Wade twins’ announcement coming at 5 p.m. ET, let’s revisit this post from earlier in the week.]

Destin and Keaten Wade, a pair of twin brothers from the Nashville metropolitan area, are days hours away from announcing their college decision together. Not just any twin brothers, these twins are very talented high school football standouts with college offers from around the country, and the University of Kentucky is among their four finalists.

“No more March Madness but still got a Final Four,” Destin Wade wrote a week ago when he and his brother narrowed their options to Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisville and Virginia.

The Wades’ announcement is scheduled for Friday, April 16, and there are loud whispers that Mark Stoops’ UK program could edge out the home state Volunteers in the end. If that’s the case, and hopefully it is, we should brush up on our Wade twin knowledge ahead of the big date.

Here’s what you need to know about two of UK’s top targets in the Class of 2022, the two who look alike:

 

The Wade twins play their high school football at Summit High School in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Destin Wade is Summit’s do-everything quarterback with 1,509 yards on the ground, another 1,390 passing, and 37 combined touchdowns as a junior. An athlete on his recruiting profile, he was a finalist for the state’s Mr. Football award.

Keaten Wade’s season wasn’t as productive due to a foot injury that kept him on the sideline in all but three games. When healthy, Keaten Wade is the anchor of the defense at linebacker, his natural position. 247 calls him the fourth-best player in the entire state, ahead of his brother.

 

Summit won the state championship last season.

The Spartans took home Tennessee’s Class 5A trophy after compiling a 14-1 record complete with a win over Oak Ridge in the championship game at Tennessee Tech’s stadium in Cookeville. Destin Wade ran for two TDs and threw for another to help Summit win the first championship in school history.

 

Both Wades are four-star prospects ranked inside the ESPN 300.

Both twins are considered four-star prospects in the 247 Composite Rankings, and over at ESPN the Wades are so highly-regarded, they each land in the ESPN 300.

Here, have a rundown of their rankings nationally and by position in each of the three major services:

Destin Wade Keaten Wade
NAT ATH NAT OLB
Rivals — 23 156 18
ESPN 280 16 189 23
247 Sports — 56 245 22

 

They’re a package deal.

Where one goes, the other goes.

 

They took their own visits to all four finalists.

The Wade family vacation made stops in Knoxville, Louisville, Charlottesville and Lexington for tours of the four campuses in consideration. It’s against NCAA rules to host prospects on official or unofficial visits, but nothing stands in the way of prospective students touring campuses on their own, and the Wades took in all four universities in the final weeks of the process.

It is worth noting Kentucky got the final visit, the weekend before the final announcement.

 

Tennessee got cut from the list until the Vols’ new coach begged his way back in.

The Wades earned their scholarship offers from UT back in February 2020 after their sophomore seasons, but the Vols were dropped from the pack when Keaten Wade announced a top nine in early February of this year, near the one-year anniversary of the Vols’ offer.

New head coach Josh Heupel talked his way back into the picture, and now Tennessee has the only two Crystal Ball picks for each recruit. Heupel really turned things around and put the Vols back at the top of the list in only a couple of months during a dead period.

 

Kentucky was the first school to offer.

Wondering how Kentucky got into the mix? UK was the first school to extend a scholarship offer, way back in December 2019. Steve Clinkscale is the lead recruiter and both young men credit him as a major reason Kentucky is an option in the final days.

 

I don’t know why they are considering Louisville.

Then again, I don’t know why anyone would consider Louisville.

 

The announcement is coming Friday at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Everyone is welcome, they say.

 

We’ll keep a close eye on all Wade twin matters up until the announcement and hopefully beyond.

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