What we learned during June recruiting period

One of the biggest open recruiting periods of the calendar year in college football is now complete. Sunday was the final day for schools to host 2023 prospects for official visits. From now until the end of July, college recruiting enters a dead period before training camps begin in August and then programs can start hosting recruits on campus for games in the fall.

KSR’s recruiting department has been hard at work over this last month covering all of the developments going on in and around the Joe Craft Football Training Facility as well as monitoring the national landscape. After a month of taking in a boatload of information and gathering intel, it feels like a good time to get into some takeaways before a bunch of decisions for 2023 prospects come in July as the football season quickly approaches.

Kentucky has ground to make up

At this time last recruiting cycle, Kentucky had 11 verbal commitments with seven players who would end up as top-500 prospects in the final rankings update. In the class of 2023, Kentucky currently has seven verbal commitments with just one top-500 recruit in the fold.

No matter how you shake, Kentucky is behind entering July.

The Wildcats have done a good job recruiting their own backyard by landing four players from Kentucky, and that could soon be five if Cristian Conyer picks the Wildcats on July 3. Meanwhile, Shamar Porter was a huge top-200 recruiting win out of Nashville. However, more work needs to be done.

Kentucky only has one player currently in the class from Ohio as Vince Marrow is still trying to close on Springfield wideout Anthony Brown. The rest of the coaching staff has gone blue-chip fishing in Alabama as the Wildcats have legit shot at a pair of top-250 prospects in receiver Karmello English and defensive back Avery Stuart.

Things could really get rolling in July or the climb could be steep. Kentucky is looking at four or more decisions coming in July that will have a seismic impact on their recruiting class. If the Wildcats do not win most of those, there will be a lot of ground to make up during the season.

Billy Napier is off to a rough start

Last year was rough on the field for Florida, but the 5-6 record was not why Dan Mullen was fired heading into the rivalry game with Florida State. The fact of the matter was that the Gators were not recruiting at a championship level, and the supporters of the program refused to accept that.

Athletic director Scott Stricklin went on the hunt to find the next head football coach that could lead Florida back to national prominence. However, that search did not last long as Stricklin quickly zeroed in on Louisiana head coach Billy Napier. A former staffer under both Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney, Napier was set to bring a unique blueprint to Gainesville and the administration has financially supported him by allowing the former Arizona State offensive coordinator to hire a support staff army.

That staff is behind the eight-ball in the class of 2023.

After signing a pair of top-100 recruits late in the 2022 recruiting cycle, Florida has yet to land one in 2023. Publicly, the Gators were beat out for top-50 cornerback A.J. Harris by Georgia, and Florida then saw top-50 quarterback Jaden Rashada head to Miami. Before the Rashada news, in-state offensive line prospect Roderick Kearney committed to Florida State just a couple of hours after his official visit at Florida ended. Meanwhile, top-200 running back Treyaun Webb was long seen as a Florida lean, but recent picks have the Jacksonville native headed to Penn State.

After the Rashada commitment to Mario Cristobal’s program on Sunday, news leaked out that the NIL package was reportedly bigger at Florida. Earlier in the week, Napier wrote a letter to the Florida fan base asking for patience and support. All this feels like Florida is falling behind in the NIL game combined with Napier and his staff having a hard time getting traction in what should be a really good class for them. Gator Nation is currently in meltdown mode, and the collective is now punching back.

pic.twitter.com/KECMRpWKHe

— Gator Collective (@GatorCollective) June 27, 2022

Before even coaching a game, the new head coach at Florida is starting to feel some heat. Only in the SEC.

Brian Hartline is an elite, elite recruiter

Brian Hartline spent seven seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns after his playing career ended at Ohio State. The Canton (Ohio) GlenOak product would begin his coaching journey in 2017 when Urban Meyer brought him on at Ohio State to be a quality control assistant. After the Zach Smith debacle, Hartline was promoted to wide receivers coach in 2018 and that has turned into a big-time move for the Buckeyes.

Ryan Day retained Hartline when he took over in 2019, and the recruiting result have been off the charts.

The position coach has signed six top-100 receiver prospects since the class of 2019 and has logged three more wins in the class of 2023. Hartline beating Alabama and USC for Brandon Inniss and stole Carnell Tate from Tennessee. Meanwhile, he also went into North Carolina to land Noah Rogers.

Last year, we saw three former Ohio State wide receivers drafted in the first round. Get ready for that to happen again as the Buckeyes keep reloading at wideout thanks to the efficient recruiting work from Hartline.

Luckett’s Notebook

— Don’t look now, but Clemson might be back. The Tigers have 14 commitments with eight top-300 targets. Dabo Swinney’s staff is recruiting at a top-10 pace as this program is still in good shape despite losing some steam last year.

— Marcus Freeman has four top-100 prospects in the fold for Notre Dame in 2023, and the Irish landed their QB of the future when 2024 top-50 prospect CJ Carr committed this month. Freeman has Notre Dame at a top-five recruiting pace. This development could allow this program to finally break through and win a national championship.

— As of right now, Louisville has nine top-500 prospects in their 11-man class and is trending at a top-15 pace. The Cardinals are one of the biggest stories of this recruiting cycle and should easily record their best class in program history as long as things don’t crumble over the next five months.

— Despite a bunch of buzz created early by their NIL collective, Tennessee has come back to earth a little bit. The Vols have six players outside of the top 700 and are no longer recruiting at a top-10 pace. We may have all gotten ahead of ourselves early claiming that the Big Orange is back.

— Mel Tucker and Michigan State are cashing in after a big season. The Spartans have seven top-500 recruits in the fold and are trending for five-star offensive tackle Samson Okunola. The Big Ten program could be on its way to a top-15 class.