How Kentucky Closed the Talent Gap With South Carolina

by:Andrew Cassady09/14/15

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In Economic Theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain (or loss) is exactly balanced by the losses (or gains) of the other participants. College football is a zero sum game. If one team is winning that means another team is losing and in Kentucky's case that team is proving to be South Carolina. With back-to-back wins over the Gamecocks, Kentucky has seemingly bypassed SCAR in the echelon of the SEC East. The biggest key to that rise? Kentucky's 2014 class.  In 2014, Kentucky finished closer to South Carolina in the recruiting rankings than any point since Spurrier got them rolling. The Cats were 22nd to South Carolina's 19th but most importantly they beat the Gamecocks for 6 guys that could have impacted Saturday's game. Those guys were: Drew Barker- There is a very good chance that had Drew Barker picked USC that he would've been the Gamecock's starter on Saturday night. That would give them a passing threat that could deliver the ball to superstar Pharoh Cooper or another sophomore wide receiver from the Palmetto State by the name of Blake Bone (see below). While Drew may not have taken a snap yet for the Wildcats, just having him on the roster has already impacted the SEC. Blake Bone- For some reason Bone wasn’t credited on the stat sheet but he caught both balls thrown his way for very short yardage Saturday night. While he didn't have any game changing plays I'm glad we had the 6'5 Bone on our side rather than another target outside of Pharoh Cooper. "Boom" Williams- Boom picked the Cats over West Virginia and Clemson but he still held an offer from USC. Kentucky has struggled to stop the run so far this year and would have little hope of chasing down Boom. Kentucky also picked up Thaddeus Snodgrass, Kendall Randolph, and Jared Tucker in that class that held offers from the Gamecocks.  For the future, Kentucky's jewels of the 2016 class, Landon Young, Tate Leavitt, Drake Jackson, and Kash Daniel, all held USC offers as well. Kentucky has closed the talent gap with the Gamecocks and some of the other SEC teams as well. With Mark Stoops piecing together his potentially best class the Cats will be primed to keep on climbing.

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