Bleed Blue Kentucky

Update with Connecticut QB Boeing Brown

Jimmy — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:15 +0000

The recruiting process has just started for Boeing Brown and its only been hectic so far. Being is a 6’4″ 220 lb. pro-style quarterback from Brookfield, Connecticut, its hard to go unnoticed, especially with listed forty-times of 4.5-4.6 and a vertical leap of 36″. However, Brown has still yet to land a high-FBS offer.

Brown told me yesterday that although he has yet to receive the scholarship offers, he has been getting a lot of attention from a lot of schools. In particular he said Wisconsin, Kentucky, Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, Temple, Penn State, and Rutgers are recruiting him hard, among others that have sent him letters inquiring about film, his academics, and his interest in visiting. So far Brown has unofficially visited Boston College, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Notre Dame, Penn State, South Carolina, UCF.

Brown plans to attend Kentucky’s first “Blue Lights” camp this summer which takes place the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, May 27th. Brown hopes that during the camp that Kentucky will extend an offer his way. When asked what that offer will do for Kentucky’s position in his recruitment Brown said that he would immediately put a lot more stock into what Kentucky had to offer and definitely take a closer look at him.

According to Scout.com’s bio of Brown, he was named an All-American by Offense-Defense in his 2011 year and has been a two year Varsity Starter, as a sophomore and junior. Last season, Brown has passed for a combined 2850 yards, 30 touchdowns, twelve interceptions, and had a 117 QB rating. He was named All-Conference SWC two years in a row. He is also no slouch in the classroom as he reports a 3.57 GPA.

Update with Florida DT Kyle Shortridge

Rock_Cat78 — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:11:09 +0000

Recently, I interviewed Loxahatchee, FL (Seminole Ridge) DT Kyle Shortridge (6’3, 280) to get an update on his recruitment. Shortridge simply said that recruiting, “Is going great,” and he is currently up to 16 offers. Some of those offers include: Kentucky, USF, Louisville, Mississippi State, WVU, Indiana, Cincinnati and most recently, Texas A&M. He stated that the offer from UK came through his coach.

To this point, Shortridge claims no leaders in his recruitment. “It’s still early and everyone is even,” he said. As far as visits go, Shortridge has been to USF for a Junior Day and will likely start making additional visits this summer. However, those have yet to be planned out at this time. A decision is likely to come sometime during his season and he stated that distance from home will play no factor in his choice of school.

Shortridge described his talents as being a guy that comes off the line and plays with a lot of fire and able to rush the passer. In 2011, he said that he had approximately 70 tackles and had a great season overall competing against many big time players. Be sure to view Shortridge’s film below.

Photo for this update courtesy of insidetheu.com

Recruiting Round-up: Wide Receivers

Jimmy — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:30:51 +0000

After the 2012 season, the Kentucky coaching staff will be looking for some playmakers on the perimeter after the loss of several scholarship players to graduation. The team (without the 2013 class) will only have seven scholarship players at wide receiver: Bookie Cobbins, Daryl Collins, Rashad Cunningham, J.D. Harmon, A.J. Legree, Demarco Robinson, and DeMarcus Sweat. So, it is important for the staff to add two-to-three wide receivers in the 2013 class.

For this class, expect the staff to hit familiar territory aggressively in order to pull out quality players. Players that I list “On the Board” are guys that UK has offered and/or are actively recruiting (actively means visiting their school and have invited to UK summer camps). Other players that are close to being offered or that the staff has just started to recruit are listed under “Names to Remember”.

On the Board

Tyree Harris – 6’2″ 170 lbs. from Marietta, GA (Marietta)
-Offers from Boston College, Mississippi State, Missouri, and Syracuse

Trey Kilgore – 6’2″ 175 lbs. from Cincinnati, OH (St. Xavier)
-Offers from Boston College and Cincinnati

Mykal Moody – 5’11″ 180 lbs. from Conway, SC (Conway)
-Offers from NC State and Ole Miss

Jonathan Rumph – 6’5″ 195 lbs. from Cayce, SC (Holmes CC MS)
-Offers from Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss

Khalid Thomas – 5’10″ 180 lbs. from Tallahassee, FL (Godby)
-Offers from Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), Notre Dame, South Carolina, Texas Tech
*Younger brother of UK 2012 signee Kadeem Thomas
*May play running back, listed as an ATH

Ryan Timmons – 5’11″ 180 lbs. from Franfort, KY (Franklin County)
-Offers from Arkansas and Purdue
*May play running back, listed as an ATH

Names to Remember
Corey Cooper – 6’0″ 190 lbs. from Raleigh, NC (Millbrook)

Dejon Funderburk – 6’0″ 180 lbs. from Pensacola, FL (Booker T. Washington)

Donovahn Jones – 6’2″ 190 lbs. from Hampton, GA (Dutchtown)

Alex Montgomery – 6’0″ 190 lbs. from Weston, FL (Cypress Bay)

Update with Florida DT Darius Paige

Rock_Cat78 — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:45:49 +0000

Earlier this week, I spoke with Pensacola, FL (Washington) DT Darius Paige (6’4, 293) who said that his recruitment has been exciting and going good at the moment. Paige claims 16 offers, with some of those schools being: Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas State, Clemson, Connecticut, Florida, Florida State, FIU, Louisville, USC, Tennessee, USF and South Alabama. Of those, he mentions hearing the most from: Alabama, Clemson, Tennessee and South Alabama and that those schools are his likely leaders at this point. Paige mentioned that the Kentucky offer came through his high school coach and that he has yet to speak with anyone from the UK staff.

Currently, he has visited Alabama, Florida, LSU and South Alabama and plans to camp this summer at Alabama, Tennessee and possibly LSU. Paige expects that he will ultimately make a commitment to a school after his Senior season and noted that he will likely remain close (within driving distance) to his Pensacola home. In 2011, Paige recorded 97 tackles, 32 TFL, 3 sacks and 3 forced fumbles. You can view his highlights by clicking here.

Photo for this update courtesy of Rivals.com

Latrell Wilson to Walkon at Kentucky

Rock_Cat78 — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:16:43 +0000

Earlier this afternoon, I was able to confirm that Somerset, KY (Pulaski SW) WR/S Latrell Wilson will walkon at Kentucky, starting this fall. A few minutes ago, I spoke with Wilson on the phone for a full update. Wilson, who received a preferred walkon offer from WKU, began to wonder if Kentucky might be willing to make the same kind of offer. So, the AD at Pulaski SW placed a call to Kentucky and after watching his film and a visit to the UK spring game, he was presented with the opportunity to become a preferred walkon at Kentucky as well. He stated that the offer came from LB Coach Chuck Smith and OL Coach Mike Summers.

When fall camp begins, around August 1st, Kentucky may have 105 team members report. Wilson is hoping to be one of those 105. However, he noted that due to the need for some offensive lineman, he may have to wait till later on in August to report once school starts. He said that the coaches plan to start him out as a WR and return man. The coaches have told him that his best chance to see the field early in his career is on special teams as a returner.

In 2012, Wilson stated that he hopes to redshirt as he is still only 17 years old and would like to have the year to mature. Now that he is a Wildcat, he said that he is just hoping to improve and get better every day. His goal is to earn a starting spot sometime in the next couple of years. When I asked him how it will feel to be playing in the SEC, he responded, “It’s crazy and a dream to be playing SEC football. It is the best conference and I’ll have the chance to play against and with the best of the best.”

For my final question to Wilson, I asked him what kind of player Kentucky would be getting. He responded, “A hard working, good kid with a lot of direction who will work his butt off.” One last thing, Wilson said that it had been his dream to play at UK since he moved to Kentucky as a Freshman. BBK interviewed Latrell on a few occasions last summer and fall and he was always a pleasure to speak with. It would not surprise me at all to see Latrell on the field making plays for the Cats before his time is up at UK.

Click here to view Wilson’s highlights.

Photo for this update courtesy of 247sports.com

Jalen Martindale interview

Aaron — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:00:38 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jalen Martindale of Pike HS in Indianapolis (I actually met him at a Golden Corral and he told me who he was). Jalen is a 2013 recruit who plays NT/OLG for the Red Devils and is beginning the recruiting process this summer. At this time, he is 6 ft 3 in., weighs 320 lbs. and benches about 340/350 lbs or so. The upcoming Pike Senior plans on majoring in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace minor.

Currently, he has heard from Indiana State, Ball State, and Taylor University, but has not put his name out there yet. He plans on working extremely hard this summer and camping at several schools including: Ole Miss, Minnesota and the University of Kentucky. He said that he is basically looking for a program where he can “fit in and be one of the guys”. He is very close with several other players from Pike which have UK connections.

For his Junior season, Martindale had 3.5 sacks, 15 tackles in 4 games. Jalen told me that he had a partial MCL tear which severely limited him to only 4 games in the 2011 season.

Thanks to Big Blue Bill for doing the interview.

Update With Florida LB Freddie Stevenson

Rock_Cat78 — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:48:18 +0000

Recently, I spoke with Bartow, FL (Bartow) LB Freddie Stevenson (6’1, 230, 4.54) who ranks as the #32 OLB prospect nationally by Rivals.com. Currently, Stevenson is up to 20 plus offers that can be viewed by clicking on his profile above. While Rivals.com lists Stevenson’s leaders as WKU, Texas A&M, Florida State, WVU and Penn State, Stevenson mentioned the first two in particular during our interview. He noted that WKU and Texas A&M are probably the two schools that have been in contact and shown the most interest to this point.

So far, his only visits have been to some of the local Florida schools, including Miami, USF and UCF. Right now, his plans for future visits include hitting up all of the Florida schools, including the ones he has yet to see. Stevenson, who describes himself as a sideline to sideline play making LB says that he would like to make his commitment sometime this fall after he gets the opportunity to take more visits. Kentucky LB Coach Chuck Smith is recruiting Stevenson for Kentucky and it appears that the Cats have quite a bit of catching up to do in this recruitment.

Photo for this update courtesy of 247sports.com.

Update with Ohio WR Trey Kilgore

Rock_Cat78 — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:35:36 +0000

Yesterday, I caught up with Cincinnati, OH (St. Xavier) WR/ATH Trey Kilgore (6’2, 183, 4.5) to get some insight into his recruitment. Kilgore stated that recruiting has been pretty fun and is going great. Currently, he is up to ten offers including: Kentucky, Akron, Kent State, Miami of Ohio, Boston College, Toledo, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Bowling Green and Eastern Illinois. Kentucky Defensive Coordinator Rick Minter has been the primary recruiter thus far for Kilgore. The UK defensive boss visited the St. X campus a couple of weeks ago and after watching film with the St. X staff, he noted how he felt that Kilgore could be a big part of the UK offense.

Even though it is still early in his recruitment, four schools have emerged as early leaders for Kilgore. Those four are: Cincinnati, Boston College, Toledo and Kentucky. Kilgore also made special mention that he does not have those four in any particular order. So far, he has been able to make visits to an Illinois Junior Day, as well as visits to Miami of Ohio, Cincinnati, Bowling Green and Toledo. Visits to Kentucky, Boston College and possibly Akron are in the works for the near future.

Kilgore admitted that he has yet to really think about when a possible decision might come. He said that in the next couple of weeks, he will sit down with his family and they will really begin to discuss all of the possible options. Then, a commitment will come “when the time is right,” he said. It also appears that Kilgore may be looking to get out of the immediate Cincinnati area when it comes to picking a college. He stated that his parents kind of want him to get away from home and experience something new.

Cincinnati St. X is a known power in Cincinnati/Ohio football, so it should come as no surprise that they had an outstanding year last year and that expectations are there for another great year in 2012. They will be looking to build on a regional final four appearance in 2011. Kilgore will certainly do his best to make sure that happens. “No matter what the situation is, I’ll make a play and get the job done,” he said. While he prefers the WR position, he noted that Kentucky is looking at him as a WR/ATH.

Photo for this update courtesy of cincinnati.com

Jalen Allen interview

Aaron — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:30:21 +0000

I recently interviewed Jalen Allen of Pike HS in Indianapolis. Jalen is a 6 ft 3 in, 260 lb Offensive Center from Pike HS and will be a 2014 recruit. When asked how long he had played center, Jalen laughed and said “all of my life” which means since 2nd grade. At this time, Allen benches about 270 lbs and plans on majoring in Sports Journalism. He is looking for a situation where he “fits in with the guys and his position coach”, and is just beginning the recruiting process. So far, he has heard from Bowling Green and Indiana State the most, but is getting ready to really focus in on the recruiting process.

The 2011 season was Jalens 1st year of varsity football and he is very excited about his football future. He did attend Illinois State Spring practice and looks to be a big time prospect. Allen met with several other coaches about a month ago when they visited Pike, so look to hear much more about him in the future. Jalen said that he takes pride in moving guys off of the ball and he goes against a load on occasion in the person of fellow teammate Jalen Martindale who plays NT for the Pike Red Devils.

Special Thanks to Big Blue Bill for doing the interview.

Jacob Hyde video

Aaron — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:17:12 +0000

Jacob Hyde (2013-DT) from Clay County, KY may be one of the most underrated recruits in quite some time. He is every bit 300 lbs and can move. He has impressed at camps and combines. I wouldn’t be shocked if other teams tried to jump into the mix for his services. Based on BBK’s interviews, schools will have a difficult time flipping him on signing day. Hat tip to Rivals for the video.