Winnetonka head coach Benny Palmer talks upcoming visits for 3-star WR Jason Essex

(Photo provided by Benny Palmer)

Jason Essex scheduling an official visit to Kentucky was a bit of a surprise, even to his head coach.

Benny Palmer, the head coach at Winnetonka High School over in Kansas City, MO, said it was a shock when Essex told him that he had added a third school to his official visit list for June. Essex, a three-star wide receiver from the class of 2022, has long had official visits to Iowa State (June 4) and Colorado (June 25) set and ready to go, but it wasn’t until Tuesday when news surfaced from Allen Trieu of 247 Sports that Essex was adding an official trip to Lexington for the weekend of June 11.

“It was a shock when he finally told me,” Coach Palmer told KSR on Wednesday about his conversation with Essex regarding a visit to UK. “He goes ‘Yeah so I set up my official visit to Kentucky,’ and I was like ‘Really?’ and he was like ‘Yeah. Those coaches are cool, I like them.’”

Along with Kentucky, Iowa State, and Colorado, Essex will also make an unofficial visit to Ole Miss during the weekend after his trip to Lexington. With three official visits lined up, Coach Palmer tells KSR that Essex will hold onto his other two official visits and use them in the fall. Essex also holds offers from the likes of Arkansas, Baylor, Nebraska, and a few other Power 5 programs.

But if his June itinerary tells us anything, it’s that Iowa State, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Colorado are the four schools currently at the forefront of Essex’s recruitment. Coach Palmer added that he does not believe Essex will add another official visit this summer, but that could very well change.

“He likes Kentucky,” Coach Palmer said of Essex. “He likes the idea of everything that goes along with the Big Blue Nation and all that stuff. He likes all that. (Safeties) Coach (Frank Buffano) has done a really good job of getting him to start thinking that Kentucky might be his home.”

The Kentucky coaching staff has been on Essex for well over a year now. His offer from the Wildcats didn’t come until this past February, but the contact and intrigue from UK has been there since early 2020. Coach Buffano is fond of what he sees in Essex.

“Kentucky has actually been contacting him for a long time,” Coach Palmer added. “Coach Buffano, he reached out to me–this would have been over a year ago–first started making contact and discussing [Jason] and whatnot. It was, this guy is intriguing, this guy is gonna have a heck of a year. It was way back then they had already started talking to him. It was quiet all the way through the process because they were just talking to him, talking to him quietly whenever they could and it’s been a really good job to where he feels really well with that staff and with Coach Buffano about Kentucky Football.”

It’s the potential of Essex that Coach Palmer believes keeps college programs interested in the rising high school senior. Essex didn’t begin playing organized football until his eighth-grade season when he participated in just two games playing as a quarterback. But when he came to Winnetonka as a freshman, he was quickly elevated to a full-time starter on offense and held that wide receiver position down strong as a sophomore and junior. Once he hit his junior season, Essex dabbled–and thrived–in playing defense, spending four games this past fall at cornerback.

Essex earned 1st Team All-Conference honors at wide receiver during the 2020 season and was tabbed as a 2nd Team All-Conference defensive back. He was also a 1st Team All-Conference basketball player as a junior and even runs track for his high school. Coach Palmer says Essex is a tireless worker who spends the majority of his time in the gym or on the field.

COVID-19 restrictions limited the 2020 football season for Winnetonka, but the school was still able to play all 10 games that were scheduled along with the postseason playoffs. Coach Palmer says that Essex caught 51 passes for roughly 800 yards to go along with 12 touchdowns. He did all this despite still being 16 years old; Essex could technically be in the class of 2023. By the time he steps on a college campus heading into his freshman season, he won’t turn 18 until that July.

“Jason is a very talented kid,” Coach Palmer explained. “He’s extremely strong, he’s a very well-built young man. He’s 6-foot-2, up to about 204, 205 (pounds). His bench is over 300 pounds, he squats close to [400]. He works his tail off–on and off the field. The thing that is most intriguing to everyone across the board is his ceiling is so much higher than where he’s at right now. He goes out there and makes great plays and catches over top of people or breaks three tackles and goes to the house. He does all these things and you’re still sitting there going ‘This guy could be even better once he figures it out,’ because he’s only played three years of football… He could take a two-yard throw and take it to the house from 50, 60 (yards) out with relative ease.”

Coach Palmer noted that Essex is just excited to finally be able to get back on the recruiting trail–He’s got all these offers and talked to all these people over the phone but he’s never actually met them–and that June is about getting a feel for what his life might be like around this time next year. As with most prospects in his position, this is the first time since last March that Essex can go see what’s out there.

Check out his film below.