Five-star Jordan Smith Jr. updates recruitment and discusses timeline for a decision
Jordan Smith Jr. breaks down his finalists — Arkansas, Duke, Indiana, Syracuse, Georgetown, and UK — along with a timeline for his decision.
5-star Jordan Smith Jr. talks UK, updates recruitment
- Thread starter Joe Tipton
- Start date
Seems like it will either be dUKe or the Hawgs. Would love to have him, but with Pope whiffing and the JMI deal, I am not confident
Love to get him but my hope meter for nabbing any high level HS player right now is about at a 1 on a scale of 0-100. Thank you Mitch Barnhart. You really have set the main programs up for failure until 2040! Any winning is in spite of him 100%.
Offer him $4 million and let him have Oweh's salary slot.
Yup, we need to figure out a way to pay the studs differently, maybe offer them the guaranteed rev share money. Give the backups the JMI deals that require the issues but overpay. That or set up a donor fund that pays them outside of it all. Screw Mitch.
Watched this kid in a game his team was playing on ESPN the other day. He's one that clearly stands out as a guy who will be a difference maker for whatever college team he plays for next year. He's a guy that you write the check for and forget about being above getting into bidding wars. You have to do what is necessary to get players like this on your team, and then build around them with complimentary players.
Definitely supposedly a Duke lean but I’ve been hearing some positive things from our side over the past week. I’d love to see the staff sway him to UK over puke. We could use a Boom and some encouraging recruiting news. Once the first one falls they seem to domino.
There has to be a way around that contract bro. Theres ways around just about everything in the world. Theres always a way. You know how things are. If we don’t win 9 this year and by some miricle we got rid of Mitch and Pope and got Pearl. He could hire a GM. Good lawyers and hell. Blackmail em. Idk how. But there’s always a way to do stuff like that.
But we won’t get him. We should’ve came outta this class with Rippey Crowe. Maximo and Stokes.
I think the NIL deal with JMI has killed us in recruiting and Pope not being able to close the deal on these recruits has killed us. I hope this can be corrected because it sucks!
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Sadly, I wish it was the Pope closing deal — that’s an easy fix. Just put another coach in the closing role.
Unfortunately, we are having issues in the JMI negotiations, which occurs after. Won’t be an easy fix, gonna take time.
According to this attorney:
Is Pope and his staff recruiting during this time off? Cal going all in for Smith Jr. I think Smith Jr. will go to Duke or Arkansas.
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Sadly, Pope is not built to recruit with the big boys and that is pathetic with all the resources available at UK.
I hope he can start recruiting better because as of now it seems like he’s in over his head.
I hope JMI can start putting together contracts recruits actually are willing to sign. Still find it hilarious people say in every thread on this board that Pope can't recruit but he had 2 of the top 10 players in this years class at the signing table, ready to commit, and the players families, agents, group refused to sign the contract put in front of them by JMI. Pope can recruit, at least at a decent level, while having some glaring issues also, but at the end of the day, not one single player has signed to play for UK since the JMI deal was inked. Coincidence?
I wonder if some of these recruits talk a certain way and find it difficult to jive with an analytical professional like Pope.
lol @ anyone believing Mark Pope can recruit
Rippey about to sign with dUKe and UK is over here with zero recruits for 2026…but please, tell me again how Pope isn’t a huge part of the problem.
I think it would be hard for any coach to recruit here with how NIL is being handled from what I have read recently. Look at what happened with the Christian Collins recruitment. We had the kid committed but they weren’t happy with NIL and backed out
Thank your AD, Mitch Barhart!
Oh he plays a major part in it with the JMI deal, but Pope isn’t some world class recruiter either
Mitch doesn't care, he's still celebrating the volleyball team's finals run. He doesn't get it and he never will.
No shot at all for Smith. It will be Arkansas or Duke.
im at the point where that roesnt bother me, if that what it takes to get a good player than so be it
jason hart is asleep
There’s been a buzz this past week that we are picking up steam with this one. Wouldn’t be surprised if now that Rippey signed with Duke we gain even more traction here. Would love to see this be our first domino to fall for next year.
Me too. Caught him on ESPN2 I think it was a week or two ago. That guy is physically ready. He could hang in the SEC today.
Where is the buzz? I haven’t read anything or seen anything.