Curious/surprising fact about UofL's roster and recruiting

[gamecockcat]

According to Rivals official roster, 34 of UofL's players are from KY with 22 from Louisville. I know that Radcliff and LJ are both from Florida but, with this many from KY, are we selling the quality of KY kids short? Mind you, UK has 40 kids from KY so probably not. But, many of us, me included, have been screaming about recruiting OH, FL, GA, VA, et al but UofL has seemed to get a pretty significant percentage of their players from KY and sprinkled in a few others from many different states. And, btw, they've kicked our asses for the past several years. I don't know their roster very well so I don't know how many KY kids are big contributors but they've certainly got the numbers. I, for one, was surprised at how many KY kids they have. Thought they were getting a number of transfers and overlooked kids from FL (I think I counted 16 on UofL's roster from FL; 17 on UK's). Probably shows the difference in coaching/development more than anything else but I'm not sure.

Just thought it was curious and surprising.

 

[Sales Weasel]

Besides Quick and the kicker from Shelbyville I can't thik of many KY players that are key contributors right now. They may have several redshirting since they have an experienced team. A good portion of their key contributors right tnow are from Fla, AL and several transfers from UGA, TCU, UAB and JUCOS.

 

[Tskware]

I think I will have to disagree with you here on Louisville. Outside of Quick, and Hughley (a walk-on from Lex Lafayette) and a handful of others who play a little bit, e.g., Bonnafon, and Kyle Bolin, 90% of the 35 or so players who are actually the nucleus of Louisville's team come from somewhere else. A whole lot of the kids on their roster from in state are walk ons.

Still think UK has to get the cream of the crop from instate, for obvious reasons, but don't believe that Louisville has built their program on locals.

 

[dcspurlock]

I think it goes back to developing players. They can take kids a little rough around the edges and turn them into players after a year or three. We however can not. That's the difference.

 

[cardinalfan123]

We have the luxury of having depth. Now that's not to say we've got the same kind of depth that Alabama or Ohio State have, but most of the freshmen coming in aren't expected to immediately contribute. We were able to redshirt most of our 2016 class including guys like Jawon Pass and Desmond Fitzpatrick which will pay big dividends down the road. They have a year plus an offseason to learn the playbook and spend time in the weight room.

Now I haven't followed UK very closely but it seems like Stoops is forced to throw his underclassmen to the wolves because you guys don't have any experienced upperclassmen. While it's good that the younger guys are getting game reps they're also getting their teeth kicked in on a weekly basis.

 

[UKWinsAgainYep]

I have always said there is enough talent in Kentucky to supply the nucleus of a very good UK team. You only have SO MANY spots on a football team.

Every year, Kentucky has some top recruits going to schools out of state.

If we can keep some of those(See Landon Young, Leavitt, Damien Harris, etc.), we will be just fine in the SEC.

The old argument about Kentucky not producing enough players for UK to be good is the single biggest B.S. excuse I've ever heard on this board.

 

[lookinfor8]

I have always said there is enough talent in Kentucky to supply the nucleus of a very good UK team. You only have SO MANY spots on a football team.

Every year, Kentucky has some top recruits going to schools out of state.

If we can keep some of those(See Landon Young, Leavitt, Damien Harris, etc.), we will be just fine in the SEC.

The old argument about Kentucky not producing enough players for UK to be good is the single biggest B.S. excuse I've ever heard on this board.

You got to win some games in order to get any good recruits
much less Ky boys.

 

[cookscats]

Regardless of who you get the coach must development them

 

[13space82]

I have always said there is enough talent in Kentucky to supply the nucleus of a very good UK team. You only have SO MANY spots on a football team.

Every year, Kentucky has some top recruits going to schools out of state.

If we can keep some of those(See Landon Young, Leavitt, Damien Harris, etc.), we will be just fine in the
.

Leavitt is from Ohio.

 

[UKWinsAgainYep]

Leavitt is from Ohio.

My bad...I meant the other top O-Line recruit from Kentucky we signed.

 

[Larry00]

I have always said there is enough talent in Kentucky to supply the nucleus of a very good UK team. You only have SO MANY spots on a football team.

Every year, Kentucky has some top recruits going to schools out of state.

If we can keep some of those(See Landon Young, Leavitt, Damien Harris, etc.), we will be just fine in the SEC.

The old argument about Kentucky not producing enough players for UK to be good is the single biggest B.S. excuse I've ever heard on this board.

According to the UK Athletics website, the roster for this year, including walk ons, has 110 players. Of that 110, 35 are from the state of Kentucky. That's 1/3 of your roster from the home state, and that's no where close to supplying the nucleus to a very good team.

There is not enough talent in this state consistently to recruit. The upcoming 2017 class is a great example of this. By Rivals, they have 5 players listed as 3 stars or above...Scout has 8 players listed...247 composite rankings have 13. Of that 13, 3 are QB's, and we got the commitment from Wood, who is the highest of the 3. The other 2 committed to Cincinnati, his only offer, and Western Carolina. So that leaves you with only 10 more ranked 3 stars or higher. Your not gonna sign every one of them because of priorities to either the player or school...Some kids aren't going to UK, some kids UK isn't going to want. And if your gonna sign lower rates kids to "develop", then I'd much rather that kid come from Florida or Alabama or Georgia, where the HS football is consistently much better than here in the state of Kentucky.

 

[jauk11]

I have always said there is enough talent in Kentucky to supply the nucleus of a very good UK team. You only have SO MANY spots on a football team.

Every year, Kentucky has some top recruits going to schools out of state.

If we can keep some of those(See Landon Young, Leavitt, Damien Harris, etc.), we will be just fine in the SEC.

The old argument about Kentucky not producing enough players for UK to be good is the single biggest B.S. excuse I've ever heard on this board.

Getting much better but Kejntucky had ZERO four stars in the whole state in 2010. We got the highest rated in Patterson, remember him?

 

[megablue]

What surprises me is that we do not have a starter this year from Louisville.
Hatcher and Tubman (maybe) would've started.
It just seems like we have ALWAYS had a least one starter from Louisville.

 

[tonyyw]

According to Rivals official roster, 34 of UofL's players are from KY with 22 from Louisville. I know that Radcliff and LJ are both from Florida but, with this many from KY, are we selling the quality of KY kids short? Mind you, UK has 40 kids from KY so probably not. But, many of us, me included, have been screaming about recruiting OH, FL, GA, VA, et al but UofL has seemed to get a pretty significant percentage of their players from KY and sprinkled in a few others from many different states. And, btw, they've kicked our asses for the past several years. I don't know their roster very well so I don't know how many KY kids are big contributors but they've certainly got the numbers. I, for one, was surprised at how many KY kids they have. Thought they were getting a number of transfers and overlooked kids from FL (I think I counted 16 on UofL's roster from FL; 17 on UK's). Probably shows the difference in coaching/development more than anything else but I'm not sure.

Just thought it was curious and surprising.

Why do we always worry what Louisville does...they right now are on a much higher level than we are and worrying about them is a sign of jealousy. They must be 3 or 4 years ahead of us...go big blue

 

[Cats78]

Why do we always worry what Louisville does...they right now are on a much higher level than we are and worrying about them is a sign of jealousy. They must be 3 or 4 years ahead of us...go big blue

You're a horrible troll. Try something else.

 

[CardHack]

Louisville has very few contributing Kentuckians, they were listed earlier.

I used to think you could win with Kentuckians, but have come to the conclusion that at best you can only augment your roster with them. You have to land your home state targets of course and not lose them to the heavyweights, but there will never be a case again at Louisville where we'll see so many high caliber Kentuckians as we saw in the mid 2000's with Bush, Brohm, Urrutia an O lineman like George Bussey and guys like Earl Heyman being part of the team's 2006 core...and Kentuckians were at the core of your team of the same timeframe. You guys have to land the Harris' and the Wills'...we seem to do fine without them but it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit to get a Wills and have him play guard for us. That caliber of player isn't going to be gotten out of the Deep South to come up here. You have to get it when it's in your backyard.

Football isn't played enough here with the length and off-season dedication--and coaching which carries back into a kid's technical ability--to truly get a gauge on a player. A really good Division I prospect might not realistically face another Division 1 prospect if he's a lineman for any more than a few snaps until he gets to college. Kids coming out of the Deep South might face multiple depending on where they are from. We came to grips with that reality about thirty years ago.

 

[UKWinsAgainYep]

So I guess you guys are saying players like Damien Harris, Shaun Alexander, Michael Bush, Jeff Brohm, etc. etc. etc. etc....

None of those players would have helped UK's football program.

And the excuses continue.....

"Blah blah blah, we can't win, we can't do this, we can't do that....we don't have enough state talent, etc."

 

[DerVille]

Louisville give maybe 2-3 scholarships per year to Kentucky players (usually from Louisville). 30 plus from Kentucky? Those are mostly walk-ons. They aren't giving scholarships to 8 Kentucky kids per year. Look through their last few recruiting classes. The 2015 class didn't have any KY kids, the 2014 class had one. Most of that number of 30 KY players on the roster is walk ons.

 

[DerVille]

So I guess you guys are saying players like Damien Harris, Shaun Alexander, Michael Bush, Jeff Brohm, etc. etc. etc. etc....

None of those players would have helped UK's football program.

And the excuses continue.....

"Blah blah blah, we can't win, we can't do this, we can't do that....we don't have enough state talent, etc."

That's correct because you don't have enough of them. You mentioned 4 players over a 25 year span. Your argument is misguided. No one said that zero good players come from this state, what is being said is that you can't sign 12-15 kids per year from KY and have a top team. KY doesn't produce ENOUGH talent to build the core of your team on and for that team to be top 20 level.

 

[LeonThe Camel]

According to Rivals official roster, 34 of UofL's players are from KY with 22 from Louisville.
Just thought it was curious and surprising.

I had mentioned that before in the KY does not have enough quality recruits type threads.

You mesh less talented role players with skilled players and you can do great things.

Look at our 2 big star Kentucky kids Elam and Barker. They are not coached up, it appears they are left to themselves to improve. Five games in and Elam still stands straight up when the ball is centered. Never gets a push on his man, he just waits till the center comes at him.