Kentucky Stays in Detroit, Extends into South Florida with 2023 Recruiting Class

Mark Stoops diversified Kentucky’s recruiting portfolio in 2023, thanks to contributions from his older brother and the Wildcats’ wide reach in the transfer portal.

Kentucky’s home recruiting base is within a 6-hour radius of Lexington. That’s still where a majority of the players call home, but this year the Cats extended their reach with 23 players coming from 11 different states.

Ohio has been a home from home with Stoops and Vince Marrow at Kentucky. Over the last two classes the state of Tennessee has become a vital recruiting resource. Those three states produced 10 players. Another nearby state has produced stars, particularly one school, Detroit’s Cass Tech. Even though Steve Clinkscale is now recruiting that area for Michigan, Kentucky still secured a commitment from All-American tight end Khamari Anderson.

“I think it’s important to keep that pipeline going,” Mark Stoops said at his signing day press conference. “I’m very happy with Khamari. I think he’s very athletic guy and just a big-time tight end. We’re excited to get him.”

Brad White has also worked his way into success in the Mid-Atlantic for the second straight recruiting cycle. After picking up Tyreese Fearbry from Pittsburgh, Zach Yenser helped recruit IOL Austin Ramsey from Philadelphia. Kentucky also beat out a late push from Rutgers’ Greg Schiano to land Irvington, NJ cornerback Nasir Addison.

“I’m very excited about him,” said Stoops. “Just great length, very strong, competitor, versatile. I love guys that can play receiver. If you’re going to coach corners, you’d want them to be able to catch and run. Nasir is versatile, length, very good top end (speed). I like how competitive he is.” 

Kentucky Returns to South Florida

When Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw got to Kentucky, the Wildcats hit the trail hard in the Sunshine State. Kentucky signed eight players from the state of Florida in the class of 2017. That strategy was abandoned shortly thereafter, but Stoops felt the need to get UK back into Florida when Mike Stoops joined the staff. Four-star linebacker Jayvant Brown was a late signing day surprise.

“We needed to get back in there. We had success as you know early on, and then without trying to say anything negative, but a few guys didn’t work out. So we kind of got away from there,” said Stoops.

“With Mike (Stoops) coming on board, he got a little stretched out. He went all the way from the west side (of Florida), trying to cover the whole state and that’s pretty hard to do, you get spread out. But he got in front of a lot of people and getting a guy out of St. Thomas out of South Florida is very important, especially a very talented player in an area with, a guy that we needed. I think it was really good for us to get back in there. You know the athletes that you can get out of Florida.”

Transfer Portal Knows No Boundaries

Ray Davis is from San Francisco. Marques Cox grew up in Peoria. Devin Leary is the state of New Jersey’s all-time leading passer. Proximity plays an important role in high school recruiting, but it’s all about fit in the transfer portal.

“With this portal, it is a different world right now,” said Kentucky’s head coach. “You’re going to lose some, you’re going to gain some, but it helps you address specific needs. Again, we’re very confident that we hit on some areas of some proven players that we needed some help.”