Kentucky wants to use junior college recruiting to supplement roster

Kentucky wants to be a “recruit and develop” program. However, you have to have players stay on your roster for multiple years to be developed. Last offseason, this program added 50 new players to the roster. Only 23 of them were high school signees. In the 2026 cycle, UK only has 13 high school commits. That means another big transfer portal class is on the way.

But UK is looking at other ways to supplement the roster and add players to the program with multiple seasons of eligibility. How are they doing that? By going shopping in the junior college market.

Offensive tackle TJ Taylor, defensive back Da’Mare Williams, and linebacker/EDGE Taylor Schaeffer will all complete official visits to Kentucky this week before Thanksgiving arrives. Each is a junior college transfer who will make their decision during the early signing period next week. UK is very likely to add multiple junior college transfers to the roster for only the second time since 2019.

Why is Kentucky shifting to this strategy now with the portal opening in January? Head coach Mark Stoops was asked about that on Monday.

“Sometimes out of junior college they replace some of the high school (players), right? Because you get a guy with multiple years,” Stoops explained. “Sometimes with the free agents so to speak, you don’t want all of them to be one-year guys. You would like to have some multiple, some guys (with multiple years remaining).”

“They are a little more mature, they have some more football under their belt, we have seen more on tape and you maybe feel a little more confident that they can come in and help you next year and have multiple years. The free agent market is awfully expensive.” 

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Kentucky believes this is a way to supplement high school recruiting. That is needed in the 2026 cycle that has the lowest volume high school class that we have seen in the Stoops era. It’s also a way to be cost-efficient since UK is going to have to spend high dollar to add a handful or starters (or more) when the transfer portal window opens in January.

This football program is in a one-year mindset right now. Kentucky had a bad season in 2024 and had to get transfer-heavy last offseason to try and flip it in 2025. That has led to a 5-6 record with one game left to play. The Wildcats are treading water right now and need to win in the short term.

“You have to look at a roster in one-year increments right now. There are some schools that have – again, I am not afraid to talk about it anymore, let’s not dance around it – there are some schools that have a boat load of money to buy high school kids. I need to make sure those kids can help us win next year,” Stoops said. “That make sense? I only have so much money, you have to get your team, you have to get fillers for next year and then you have to be able to recruit high school kids. There is a lot to it.”

Kentucky has a salary cap. Their salary cap is not as big as some of their peers in the Southeastern Conference. The program has to get creative in roster-building. UK is hoping that the junior college market can help them fill some roster holes without breaking the bank before jumping into the portal.