How UK and South Carolina's starters compared as recruits
Recruiting rankings won't have any impact on the outcome of Kentucky and South Carolina on Saturday night, but sometimes the stars tell us a little about the kinds of teams that will line up.
Here's how Kentucky and South Carolina's starters stack up based on how they rated as recruits.
Jake Bentley and Stephen Johnson have some similarities. Namely, they took over floundering offenses last year, early or mid-season, and have sparked a resurgence in their respective spots. But as recruits they weren't too similar. Johnson was a journeyman, from Grambling to two-star recruit at the College of the Desert, while Bentley was one of the nation's top pro-style quarterback prospects coming out of the Deep South. Furthermore, Bentley skipped his senior year of high school to get an early start in Columbia.
Snell and Dowdle had similar high school rankings, both coming out of the Class of 2016. Snell has been the more productive of the two thus far in their college careers, although Dowdle hasn't been a slouch. But Dowdle had the slightly higher ranking. He was classified as an all-purpose back even though he's proven himself to be an every-down guy.
Kentucky has some receivers on the roster who had lofty recruiting rankings. Blake Bone, for one, and he performed at a high level last week. But South Carolina's receivers, collectively, were ranked a little higher. Interestingly enough all three of the Gamecocks' listed starting receivers are Palmetto State natives.
Hayden Hurst....Former elite pitching prospect. He committed to Florida State as a prized baseball recruit but here he is as one of the nation's top tight ends. C.J. Conrad was an elite prep prospect as well, only as one of the Buckeye State's top football players. Both players have lived up to their billing coming out of high school, though Hurst's path has been a little more winding.
Kentucky's starting offensive linemen were, for the most part, highly-regarded recruits with Landon Young as UK's first Rivals.com five-star and both Stenberg and Meadows as near four-stars.
South Carolina's starting offensive line is filled with former quality recruits as well, although interestingly enough Knott was the only listed tackle and he's a center now.
For the most part South Carolina's starting defensive linemen were judged to be more talented than Kentucky's starters were coming out of high school. Naquez Pringle is a Palmetto State native but coming out of junior college Kentucky prioritized him whereas the Gamecocks did not. For UK football fans who follow recruiting, Dante Sawyer should ring a bell because Kentucky made quite a push for him as a recruit.
All of the starters at linebacker in the Kentucky-South Carolina game were rated at least three-star prospects with two of South Carolina's starters listed as fours. The Gamecocks might not have much depth at the position, but their starters were highly regarded recruits. There's also a lot of experience at linebacker starting in this game.
Kentucky and South Carolina's starters in the secondary had comparable recruiting rankings. Making this interesting is the fact that Kentucky had really zeroed in on a couple of the Gamecocks' starters: D.J. Smith and Chris Lammons.
Smith was wooed not only by Kentucky's staff but also by Drew Barker, ever the enthusiastic recruiter as a prospect himself, and he was also in touch with Jared Tucker (now at EKU) at one point.
