2018 Class Finishes with a February Flurry
Back in December, Vince Marrow was confident.
Kentucky had just signed 20 players on that early Signing Day, leaving only a handful of openings in its 2018 class. Mark Stoops, Marrow and their fellow coaches would have a month and a half to fill them.
“So now you’re saying we’ve only got to zero in on four or five guys?” Marrow said in December. “I like that. I like our odds.”
The odds proved to be in UK’s favor on Wednesday.
Kentucky completed its class by signing four highly touted players on the February edition of Signing Day: linebacker Chris Oats, running back Kovosiey Smoke, wide receiver Allen Dailey and offensive lineman Nick Lewis. By adding the quartet, UK’s class moves to No. 30 nationally according to Rivals.
“I really feel like we hit a home run with the guys we signed today,” Stoops said. “Excited about this class. With these four guys here, it puts a really solid class together with 24 players in total. That’s a perfect number for us. I felt like we hit the number right on the spot.”
Oats and Smoke each announced their commitments and soon after made their signings official on Wednesday, giving a big final boost to another strong class for Stoops and company. Oats, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound native of Cincinnati who projects as a rangy inside linebacker, becomes UK’s third four-star signing of the class after he spurned offers from Ohio State and many other schools.
Marrow believes the new early signing period played an important role in landing Oats. The way he focused almost the entirety of his recruiting attention on Oats and even brought UK’s entire defensive staff for a visit wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
“I think us signing them guys and having 20 guys secure really played a factor in me going full bore on Chris Oats,” Marrow said. “Because when you’re trying to get that type of kid, it’s a constant—you gotta recruit that kid every day.”
Smoke, coming from Wetumpka, Alabama, adds much-needed quality depth at the running back position. Rated as a three-star prospect and the No. 29 running back in the class according to Rivals, Smoke and December signee Chris Rodriguez will join a positional group that already includes returners Benny Snell Jr., Sihiem King and A.J. Rose. Smoke, however, has the best name of the bunch.
“That will be fun to say,” Stoops said. “Let’s hope he scores a lot of touchdowns. Great guy.”
Dailey comes from Pinson, Alabama, less than two hours north of Smoke’s hometown. Before Smoke and Dailey, Alabama had not been fertile recruiting ground for Kentucky, but those two players are important additions.
“Kavosiey was a big get for us,” Stoops said. “There was a lot of competition for him late as well. He’s a very good player, both with him and Allen. I think you all know he’s LiAllen, but he goes by Allen. He and Allen both played at a high level in Alabama, state championship game right there, very close to each other. Very, very good players.”
As good as they may be, they’re still dwarfed in sheer size by their new classmate. Lewis is a monstrous Jacksonville, Florida, native who was originally committed to Washington State. Before even setting foot on campus, he has the attention of Kentucky fans for a photo he posted on social media in which Stoops had to stand on a bench to come close to standing eye to eye with the 6-foot-9, 348-pounder.
“He’s a big boy,” Stoops said. “He has a great personality. That’s a fantastic school there, Jacksonville Bolles. Just to walk around with him, spend some time with him at the school, seeing the way his peers interacted with him, he’s a very likable guy, a lot of people are attracted to him. He’s just very positive. He’s got a good smile. Very big guy. We love that size. We need to get bigger, more physical. He’s certainly a good start.”
A good start to improving UK’s physicality and a good finish to UK’s 2018 class.
“We signed 13 offensive players, which we needed, nine defensive players, two specialists,” Stoops said. “Really complete class. I feel very good about it. It worked out really well. I appreciate the efforts of our assistant coaches. They worked tirelessly around the clock for years sometimes to recruit these guys. It paid dividends here with this recruiting class.”
