Kentucky is Recalibrating its Recruiting after Coaching Changes

As long as Mark Stoops is in charge, Kentucky and Ohio will serve as the foundation for UK football recruiting, accounting for seven to a dozen players each year. The rest of the class will be built on the ties of Stoops’ coaching staff. After undergoing a significant staff shakeup this offseason, Kentucky is once again redirecting its recruiting efforts.

Steve Clinkscale successfully secured commitments from about a dozen players from the state of Michigan over the last five years. Bully McCall was the highest-ranked player from the state, Justin Rogers was the highest-ranked commit in school history and a handful others have become multi-year starters for the Cats. Once Clinkscale joined Jim Harbaugh’s staff, he left Lexington with his close ties to high school programs in the state of Michigan.

In order to replicate that kind of production on the recruiting trail, Kentucky will not fight fire with fire in Michigan. Instead, Stoops will play to the strengths of his staff by finding comparable talents in states like Tennessee and Georgia.

“We’re starting to make some niches in different areas ourself and dive heavily into Tennessee and some other areas that we’re starting to gain some ground. We always kind of recalibrate and refocus on that,” Stoops told reporters Monday afternoon.

“Clink did a great job in Michigan and had some ties, but we have some other areas that we think we can focus in on. That doesn’t mean we’ll give up on it (Michigan), but we can kind of take our focus maybe from there and spend some more time somewhere else.”

This is not the first time Stoops’ staff has gone through a similar recalibration. In 2014-16 UK signed 28 players from Ohio, compared to just 12 over the last three cycles. Led by Darin Hinshaw and Eddie Gran, UK inked 17 players from Florida in 17-18. Since then only four Wildcats have come from the Sunshine State.

Without Clink in the picture, Stoops turned to former Georgia State director of recruiting Chris Collins. After rising through the ranks as a defensive backs coach, Stoops took a closer look than normal to ensure he was the right guy for the job.

“As you know that position for me generally takes some time to find the right person,” Stoops said. “I’m picky when it comes to that, so I went out, obviously gathered up names. You always have some ideas in place that may or may not come to fruition, but you always have some ideas. Chris was somebody I heard a lot of good things about, didn’t really know him personally and took some time. I had to talk to him several times. Each time I talked to him I came away more and more impressed.”

Collins’ connections aren’t so different that a few other coaches on the staff, in fact, he used to directly compete with Anwar Stewart for players in Georgia and the Carolinas when UK’s defensive line coach was at Appalachian State. Jon Sumrall has been incredibly successful in Georgia and Mississippi, and has recently dipped his toes into Tennessee.

The Wildcats currently have one commitment Clinkscale secured from the state of Michigan, Jeremiah Caldwell. It’s unknown if they will be able to hold onto that verbal until signing day. In the meantime, UK will use a committee approach to extend the school’s presence in the Deep South.