Woodford County OL Tristan Cook excited to camp at Kentucky; wants to earn offer

On Thursday, Tristan Cook will get his first true Kentucky Football experience.

The 6-foot-5, 300-pound offensive tackle at Woodford County High School has already visited the Lexington campus once for the program’s annual Spring Game back in April, but this time around will be much more immersive for the rising senior. Cook will participate in camp workouts in front of the Wildcats’ coaching staff with hopes of eventually earning an offer. This will be his third camp of the month, the first two coming at Wisconsin and Purdue. He’ll camp at Marshall after his trip to UK, too.

Cook currently holds just two Divison I scholarship offers from Eastern Kentucky and Ball State, but an impressive junior season at Woodford County that saw him completely change his body should boost his stock sooner rather than later. Cook was a top performer at both the Wisconsin and Purdue camps. He expects to continue building relationships with those schools and eventually earn an offer.

If Cook does at Kentucky what he did at those two schools, he could very well leave Lexington with an offer in hand.

“Same as every camp,” Cook said of mindset going into Thursday. “Just gonna be me, hopefully go out there — yes I want the offer as I want all these offers, but my biggest goal is to just glorify God. That’s truly what I go out there to perform for and I know people may think it’s cliche but that’s just truly who I go out to perform for. Yes, I care what they think but the most important person that I care what they think is God.”

Excited to attend @UKFootball camp Thursday June 9th! Ready to show the hard work I have put in! Let's get it! @UKCoachStoops @vincemarrow @OL_Coach_Yenser pic.twitter.com/t3IcZWPRjk

— Tristan Cook (@Bird05T) June 6, 2022

A Versailles native, Cook is in constant communication with former Wildcat and first-year graduate assistant Drake Jackson (2016-20), who helped establish the identity of UK’s now-famous Big Blue Wall. More notably, however, is that Jackson is also from Versailles and graduated from Woodford County as a top 200 overall prospect in the nation before a terrific career with the ‘Cats.

Cook and Jackson have quickly developed a bond as a result of that connection.

“He’s been really awesome to me,” Cook told KSR on Wednesday about Jackson. “He truly kept me in line with football in general. Outside of Kentucky, he’s just been awesome to me. But connected to Kentucky he’s just continued to keep it real with me, tell me the truth and continue to push me and guide me and kinda lead me on the right path.”

Cook also hears plenty from associate head coach Vince Marrow and is already a fan of how Marrow presents himself.

“If you’re looking for my first impression it would be that he’s serious, and that’s a good thing,” Cook said of Marrow. “Something you’re looking for in somebody is that they care and they care about the sport, and outside the sport he’s gonna care about you and care about people and he’s gonna care about things like your religion and what I believe in and he’s gonna respect that and he’s gonna be serious about it.”

While he’s not currently ranked in On3’s database, Cook should receive a significant bump in the coming updates. The folks over at Rivals have already elevated him to three-star status. Cook cut out fast food and adopted a strict diet that has completely morphed his body into excellent shape. Both on and off the field, Cook now looks the part of a Power 5 offensive lineman. He’s much quicker and far more agile than he was just 10 months ago.

“A lot on my speed. Last year my feet weren’t very fast,” Cook said about what he’s been improving. “I just continued to work on my feet and definitely moving them quicker. Run blocks, pass blocks, sitting back, being balanced, stuff like that. And definitely my body. Being able to eat better and train the way I did has changed my body. Two times a day, eating on a regime is something that has completely changed how my body looks and how it moves.”