'Extremely long' Zah Frazier could fill immediate need for Kentucky
Zah Frazier became the last person to join the 2022 signing class for Kentucky on national signing day. The 6-foot-3 cornerback out of Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College picked the Wildcats without much fanfare.
Defensive backs coach Chris Collins recorded his first recruiting win at Kentucky when Frazier picked the Wildcats over Utah and UTSA. The early enrollee will fill an immediate need for Kentucky.
“Extremely long, extremely fast,” Collins said on Kentucky’s NSD Film Room show. “Does a great job of tracking the football and going to be the saving grace — the eraser back there getting that ball on the ground.”
In 2021, Kentucky had just six scholarship cornerbacks on the roster, and none of them brought much size to the table. Both Cedrick Dort Jr. and Quandre Mosely are expected to move from the program after the season. Carrington Valentine will be back for his junior campaign, but not much is known after him.
The Wildcats had to address cornerback in this cycle. Kentucky needs bodies, and that was addressed by signing four potential cornerbacks. True freshmen Elijah Reed and Andre Stewart will also be in for spring football, but the youngsters were not recruited to play right away. Frazier was.
“He knows he has an opportunity here,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said about the opportunity for a junior college cornerback in his program. “When you’re recruiting a junior college player they’re going to look at opportunity and what have you done. Do we have the ability to develop them quickly? We’ve shown that. We had two corners that are playing big roles in the NFL in recent years that have come here, that have graduated, that have done very well, and we’ve turned it around quickly. They’ve helped us, and we’ve helped them.
The goal is for Frazier to follow a similar blueprint. The former wide receiver spent his freshman season at FCS Southern Illinois before making the move to junior college. While at Coffeyville, Frazier made the transition to cornerback and became an all-conference performer as a redshirt sophomore in 2021 with 11 pass breakups.
That ball production was something Kentucky desperately missed this season as the cornerbacks have combined to collect just 10 pass breakups this season.
There is an avenue to some early playing time for the transfer, but it is mainly due to the positional length that Frazier provides. Kentucky just does not have that on the roster right now.
“Big-time length, 6-3 corner,” said Stoops. “One of the top junior college players in the country that we needed. I wanted that size at corner.
That size will be on campus, and now Kentucky must attempt to develop another junior college product into a quality cornerback. The program certainly seems to have the blueprint to make that happen.
“Young man we’re really, really excited about,” said Collins.
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