KSR Roundtable: Quick hitters from Kentucky's Sunday Showcase Camp
Recruiting season is off and running in college football. The Kentucky football program did not having any official visitors on campus this weekend, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any action in Lexington. At Kroger Field, the Wildcats hosted hundreds of high school football players for the first camp of the summer.
KSR had boots on the ground for the on campus recruiting event and is live from Lexington to cook up some instant takeaways. Nick Roush and myself are emptying the notebook after an eventful evening at the stadium.
In-state wide receiver stands out
LUCKETT: Cutter Boley is in the headliner in the class of 2024. The Lexington (Ky.) Christian Academy quarterback is the No. 1 player in the state and is locked in to join Liam Coen‘s quarterback room at Kentucky. However, these camps serve as a good chance to get a head start on rising junior prospects. A Danville (Ky.) Boyle County product might have been the best player at Kentucky’s camp on Sunday.
Montavin Quisenberry is an unranked recruit in the class of 2025 but the 5-9, 160-pound receiver looked the part at Kroger Field. The in-state prospect jumped out on the field and is a prospect to monitor moving forward.
Quisenberry was one of the top players on Boyle County’s 2022 state championship squad as a sophomore who led the team in receptions (57), receiving yards (833), receiving touchdowns (13), and also chipped in 1,009 rushing yards with 10 more scores. One of the most explosive players in the state is currently on the radar for the Wildcats.
4-Star Talents from Ohio
ROUSH: A large contingency of talented prospects from Cleveland Heights, the old stomping grounds of Dorian Baker, traveled to Lexington on Sunday. Marquise Davis was the headliner. A four-star running back in the 2025 recruiting class, he’s a top 200 overall prospect and one of the five best players in the state of Ohio. He was joined by three-star defensive lineman Brandon Caesar and a couple of rising prospects in the 2026 class. Vince Marrow spent plenty of time around the impressive underclassmen.
Rocco Williams flashes
LUCKETT: There weren’t a ton of potential FBS QB targets at Kentucky on Sunday, but one immediately stood out. Pickerington (Ohio) Central quarterback Rocco Williams was the first man up in Liam Coen’s group and delivered a good ball with zip. That’s even before getting to Williams’ flow.
The native of the Columbus suburbs was seen rocking a beautiful mullet and that certainly helped him stand out from the competition. Williams is on track to be a potential Power Five prospect and is a player to monitor closely as a rising sophomore.
New Kroger Field turf pops
LUCKETT: The first thing that stood out when we walked into the stadium today wasn’t the music playing over the speakers, the graphics on both jumbotrons, or the pre-football activities taking place on the field. The immediate thing that popped was the brand new turf at Kroger Field.
The new playing surface is soft, there are no more checkerboards in the endzone, and the blue paint at midfield and the endzones really pops. Fans will notice a difference when they walk into the facility in Week 1 when Kentucky faces Ball State for a high noon kickoff on Labor Day weekend.
Kentucky’s new QB1 was even caught spinning the football on the new carpet. Week 1 will be here soon.
First Look at the New Kentucky Shark
ROUSH: Current players play an informal role at these camps, although this group was more involved than most of their predecessors. Devin Leary was throwing balls to wide receivers, Dane Key was the get-back coach during one-on-ones, Shamar Porter was corralling loose balls and Grant Godfrey got in the mix with the linebackers. Godfrey, a four-star talent starting his career at EDGE, certainly has the size and frame to play that position well. Some times Porter gets left out of the equation when discussing the UK wide receivers, but if you size him up in person, you will not make that mistake again.
Another freshman, Anthony Brown, threw a few passes at unsuspecting teammates to keep them on their toes. Brown is one of those guys that’s always around, a promising sign.
Among the newcomers was NC State running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye. After a formal introduction and an informal pronunciation guide, I asked DSK a very important question: “Are we sticking with the Shark nickname?” The “Slippery Shark” or “El Sharko” was not a self-made nickname, so if the BBN wants the Sharko to stick, he’ll happily carry that banner.
An Enormous QB at Sunday Showcase Camp
ROUSH: As Luckett mentioned, this was not the deepest group of talent Kentucky has ever assembled for a Sunday Showcase Camp. There’s still two weeks to bring in the big dogs. However, there was one big dog I could no keep my eye off. At first, I thought he was an injured offensive tackle that was observing drills. Then I saw the 6-foot-7 athlete take a snap and throw the football. What a unit.
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