Everyone from the media in attendance to the diehard fans watching live online at home and at work knew exactly what Mark Stoops was talking about.”As you all know and have been following, it’s been a little bit of a grind,” Stoops said.Stoops had just put a bow on his third recruiting class as Kentucky head coach. After reeling in a record haul the first time around and doing it again in 2014 with a group remarkable for its lack of turnover, the 2015 ride had, in his words, some “ups and downs.”The downs were very public, with a handful of longtime pledges opting to de-commit and go elsewhere in January. For the first time since his arrival in late 2012, momentum seemed to trend in the wrong direction.But not for long.By securing a number of late commitments, Stoops and his staff put together a 23-member class – the exact number they set out to hit – that ranked 35th nationally as of Wednesday afternoon according to Rivals.com. Outside of Stoops’ first two classes – rated 29th and 17th, respectively – it’s the best in the history of the ranking service and the ranking doesn’t take into account Nebraska transfers Courtney Love and Greg Hart.”There are some very good football players that are going to be joining us and very excited to have them,” Stoops said. “So just overall very pleased, very happy. I really appreciate our staff. I feel like this group of coaches worked extremely hard. They work relentlessly, around the clock, did an awful lot of traveling, and really worked hard to hold this class together.”They did more than hold the class together; they filled needs.Thirteen of the 23 members of the class are defensive players, headlined by unanimous four-star linebacker and Bowling Green, Ky., native Eli Brown. Brown joins Love and Jordan Jones – both of whom enrolled in January and will practice this spring – and Josh Allen in adding depth at linebacker, while the likes of Kengera Daniel, Courtney Miggins, JaVon Provitt and Alvonte Bell – a Signing Day surprise and UK commitment out of high school – give the Wildcats some much-needed size along the defensive line.But Stoops, with his background as a defensive backs coach, is most excited about the infusion of talent his secondary will get. That talent, by the way, is tall, too. Derrick Baity, Will Jackson and Chris Westry all stand 6-foot-3 or taller.”Y’all know, you’ve listened to me enough after each game, we had some bad matchup problems at times,” Stoops said. “We play against some guys in this league that have great size and great skill at the receiver position, and I felt like we really needed to upgrade and get some quality guys in the secondary, and I feel very good about this group.”Baity, Jackson and Westry figure to have some good battles on their hands with the wide receivers joining them in this class. Therell Gosier, Jabari Greenwood and Tavin Richardson are 6-6, 6-3 and 6-3, respectively.”When you’re talking about physical in length, you’re talking about all levels of your team,” Stoops said. “So I really felt like we needed to continue to improve that size and that physicality in the secondary and in the wide receiver position and linebackers and so on and certainly tight ends.”At tight end, UK added two 6-5 targets in Hart and C.J. Conrad, both of whom are on campus this spring. Four offensive linemen – all standing 6-5 or taller (surprise, surprise) – also join the class. The trend of Stoops and his staff transforming Kentucky’s roster continues.”I think we’re much closer to where we want to be,” Stoops said. “… So it’s very exciting to wrap up this class.  Everybody asks me all the time, what do I feel about this?  We put a lot of hard work, and it’s good to get it wrapped up. It’s good to introduce them to our fan base and to the media and talk about these guys publicly, which is nice.”Now that the class is public and Letters of Intent are signed, the risk of further de-commitments evaporates. With that in mind, Stoops spoke Wednesday on behalf of a rule change that would create a new early signing period.”I think it’s a situation that probably needs to be addressed on a national level, but, again, I’m not concerned about the guys we did not get,” Stoops said. “I’m very excited about the players we got.”He has reason to be.”Overall, I feel very good about this group,” Stoops said. “I felt like it was key for us this last week, these last couple days, into last night and into this morning to close on a few guys. As you know, it gets very delicate when you try to hit that number perfectly. Heading into this recruiting class, we had 23 spots available. … That’s what we signed. I feel very good about that.”