Four-star QB Beau Allen commits to Kentucky

It's finally official.

Four-star Lexington Catholic (Ky.) quarterback Beau Allen ended many months of speculation with a verbal commitment to Kentucky on Monday afternoon at a press conference held at his high school.

On Sunday night, less than 24 hours before his announcement, Allen spoke with Cats Illustrated about his decision.

"I just really felt I knew all that I needed to know and I really enjoyed the people around there," Allen said.

Allen officially visited Kentucky two weekends ago. Since that time, two other players who officially visited UK that weekend have committed: Offensive tackle John Young and cornerback Andru Phillips.

Over the course of the recruiting process Allen has become close with those prospects, and while their decisions didn't cause him to pick Kentucky the quarterback did tell Cats Illustrated, "I would say it's definitely a factor just seeing how they believe in the program and to know what they're thinking about it."

As happens any time there's a high profile recruit from Kentucky, people across the internet share their opinions and what they happen to be hearing. Many have said Allen was all but a lock for Kentucky for months. But Allen said that was not the case.

He looked back over his recruitment and it didn't seem to be clear cut in terms of favorites or trends.

"It's hard to say," Allen said, when asked when he started to lean to Kentucky. "I don't really know. Maybe the Kentucky official. I think I just really knew then and that was all I needed to know. But when I took a visit somewhere else I was definitely looking at those schools. I had a great time meeting with other schools."

One of the big questions hanging over Allen's recruitment, so far as Kentucky was concerned, was whether a traditional drop back passer would pick a school that is going on four years of dual-threat quarterbacking.

Whenever that question has been posed to Allen he has pointed to Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw's experience at Cincinnati, when he believes they proved they would allow their quarterbacks to air the ball out when that was in the best interests of the offense and when the personnel allowed for it.

On Sunday night Allen repeated that and added, "A really great thing about Coach Gran is he's been able to do all different types of things with the offense successfully."

Allen said Gran and the offensive staff have mapped out an exciting vision for what he might be able to do behind center in Lexington.

Kentucky's last two four-star quarterback commitments have decommitted. First Mac Jones flipped to Alabama and then in the Class of 2017 four-star quarterback Jarren Williams committed to Kentucky twice before finally signing with Miami.

Allen seems as though he's just the player to break the Cats' decommitment issues there. He told Cats Illustrated on Sunday night that he will not be visiting any other schools and is solid in his decision.

Now he turns his attention to helping UK recruit the best class possible.

"A lot of people I've already talked to include Izayah Cummings, a lot, Vito Tisdale, Mike Drennen, Justin Rogers, Kalil Branham and I really want to recruit Octavious (Oxendine), too."

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback is ranked the No. 4 junior football player in Kentucky by Rivals.com and the No. 15 pro-style passer in the country.

Kentucky now has four verbal commitments in the Class of 2020. In addition to Allen, Kentucky has commitments from four-star defensive tackle Lamar Goods, four-star offensive tackle John Young and three-star cornerback Andru Phillips.