Walker Wood may seem like the most typical of Kentucky commitments, at least according to history. He's a native of the Commonwealth who wanted to play for the Wildcats before he was ever offered.
But in 2017 he's been the exception, not the norm.
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Recruiting is more unpredictable than ever. Verbal commitments still often turn into signed letters of intent, but decommitments seem more common than ever. The decommitment bug bit Kentucky this year. In fact, most of Kentucky's early commitments jumped ship and found future homes elsewhere.
Not Wood.
The Lexington (Ky.) Lafayette quarterback committed to the Cats shortly after landing an offer from Mark Stoops staff. There's never been even a hint, nor any whispers, that Wood might change his mind.
"I never second-guessed myself," Wood told Cats Illustrated this week.
But he watched as, one by one, his fellow commitments decided they wanted to attend other schools. James Hudson flipped to Michigan. Mike Warren and UK parted ways with the Toledo running back ultimately choosing his hometown school. Russ Yeast picked UK's archrival Louisville. Demarco Artis decommitted earlier and selected Florida State. Tight end Charles Reeves? Pittsburgh. Mac Jones famously switched to Alabama.
"It definitely wasn't what I expected it to be," Wood said of the 2017 class he's remained a part of for the better part of a year. "I still talk to Russ Yeast all the time and we're pretty close because he's from Lexington and went to Jessie Clark Middle School. I still talk to Mike Warren and James Hudson all the time. I got pretty close to them. I like them a lot and it was tough to see them go. I wish them the best at Louisville and Michigan and Toledo, and wherever all the other guys are at."
It's easier for Wood to wish those former teammates-to-be well for one simple reason.
"The guys we have coming in now are really good," he said.
Indeed, Kentucky's recruiting class has soared into the Top 25 of the national rankings. This is the highest-ranked a Kentucky recruiting class has been one month out from National Signing Day since January of 2014, when that class finished No. 17 (No. 18 after late additions elsewhere).
Wood's constancy and unflinching confidence in his choice certainly made him unique among the Cats' early commitments. Something else makes him unique, too. He's from Kentucky.
Surprisingly, the Cats have just two in-state commitments from the 2017 class. That's not unprecedented. Kentucky signed just two Commonwealth recruits from the 2015 class as well. That's not by design. In that class UK hoped to sign Damien Harris, just as the Cats had hoped to land a commitment from another five-star, Jedrick Wills, in this class.
Regardless of the reasons, it's still a small in-state haul for a program that generally needs to maximize the amount of top-tier talent it pulls in from the state, since there isn't as much as in the league's other states.
As a Kentuckian, Wood was hoping to land an offer from the Cats. So when it came, Wood's decision was easy.
"I really always wanted to get the Kentucky (offer)," Wood admitted.
Kentucky wasn't the first program to offer. The Cats offered just after Cincinnati. Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw were with the Bearcats when they offered the 6-foot signal-caller from Lafayette, so they're especially familiar with Wood, and they feel like they know what they're getting from years of evaluation.
"I didn't meet Coach Gran at first but I met Coach Hinshaw at the Cincinnati camp in the summer going into my junior year," Wood recalled. "Cincinnati offered me after that. So I had just met Coach Hinshaw. But I ended up committing to Kentucky soon after that so I didn't really create a great relationship with him in that short time. But when he got hired we already knew each other. I met Coach Gran after that. When Cincinnati offered I was just kinda getting into the recruiting process and I was trying to go to camps to get more offers. I wasn't even really thinking about where I wanted to go. I was trying to go out and compete and earn scholarships."
The Rivals Camp Series was a big part of Wood's push for exposure and offers. He attended a Rivals Quarterback Challenge in Cincinnati that same summer before his junior season.
"I did alright at that one," he said. "There were a lot of good guys there. That was actually my first Rivals camp," Wood said. "I went to another one, or me and Jed (Wills) did. I went to St. Louis and I competed in the all-position one there. That was a lot of fun. I think I did alright there. I got a lot of reps in."
That was all just part of Wood's development as a quarterback. It was just a bit of his process as a recruit.
Wood's journey to Kentucky, which will become final on Sunday when his mother, father and likely some cousins help him move into his new home, really began long before he attended a Rivals camp or picked up an offer.
Rewind to Wood's freshman season at Lafayette. He started the season as a wide receiver. Wood was the team's third quarterback option in those early days, with the forecast for playing time mostly grim. A sophomore and a junior stood between Wood and the task of taking snaps behind center.
"They were both pretty good quarterbacks," Wood recalled. "One got hurt and that's when I started practicing (at quarterback), in case the other starter got hurt. I was doing a little Wildcat and stuff like that. We implemented the Wildcat in a game. At the end of the game our starting quarterback got hurt. I ended up finishing the game as a regular QB and not just in the Wildcat. After that I was the starting QB for the rest of the season and I won the job going into my sophomore year."
He hasn't looked back.
Wood has won a lot of games and accounted for a lot of points since taking over as Lafayette's quarterback in the fifth game of his freshman year back in 2013. But even as he put up numbers and piled up wins, Wood had plenty of room to grow.
Cincinnati offered Wood after he attended a summer camp at the school, and Kentucky offered weeks later, about midway through Wood's junior season.
"But I had been in touch with them as much as I could be through the rules," Wood said. "I went to camps. I went to their 7-on-7 passing tournament the summer before my junior year. I really got to know them a little at the end of my sophomore year when they were talking to Landon. They had just offered Jed his sophomore year. I've always had a great relationship with them since the beginning."
Committing to Kentucky early, or at least at a common time for quarterbacks, has allowed Wood to put any distractions associated with recruiting behind him, and that has allowed him to focus on his craft and refining his skills in advance of the next level.
"I think the area I've definitely improved on the most is just seeing the field as a passer," Wood told Cats Illustrated. "It's always come natural for me to take off and run. That came naturally. I do think I have a natural throwing motion. I'm a natural thrower. But just seeing the field and getting to know the game, that's one thing you're always able to improve on. My coach has done a great job with me. Everyone sees the field differently and I've been trying to find my niche and my way of doing it."
Wood is entrusting Darin Hinshaw with his future. The Cats' quarterback coach, who first learned of Wood at Cincinnati and got to know him there, didn't need a second evaluation of the Lafayette quarterback when he took over as Kentucky's quarterbacks coach. He seemed happy to have Wood on board.
That's good, because Wood is anxious to learn under Hinshaw.
On about three or four separate occasions, Wood estimates, he's had the opportunity to sit in on Hinshaw's quarterback meetings at UK. There, along with the likes of Drew Barker, Stephen Johnson, Gunnar Hoak, Davis Mattingly and Luke Wright, Wood has been able to soak up whatever terminology or principles he can process.
"I love how Coach Hinshaw coaches," Wood said. "On the field and in the meeting room. He has command of the guys. Everyone likes him, it seems like. I can't wait to get in there with him. I definitely think he knows what he's talking about when it comes to passing the ball. He did great things when he was a college QB and after his college career. When I get there, I know he'll know what he's talking about. He doesn't beat around the bush. He's straight up and wants to make you better. Another thing I like about him is it doesn't matter if you're the starter, second string or third string. He wants to make you better."
While Hinshaw offered Wood even before he got to Kentucky, it's been offensive line coach John Schlarman who has assumed a lot of the recruiting duties since he committed to the Cats. Schlarman recruits the Commonwealth for Mark Stoops' staff, following in former offensive coordinator Neal Brown's footsteps, and he's made Wood feel like an important part of UK's future ever since he was assigned the task of doing so.
"Coach Schlarman was the first coach I met at UK," Wood said. "I met him when he was recruiting Landon Young. He would be around the school and I'd walk by him. He couldn't talk to me but I knew he was there. He's not just a good football coach. He's an authentic guy. He made me like Kentucky. He made it feel like a family atmosphere. He did a great job recruiting me, Landon and whoever else he's recruited. He's really a genuine guy and that's a big thing."
The relationship between Wood and the Kentucky staff was almost guaranteed to be strong because of his proximity to the campus. Wood attended all but one of Kentucky's games during the 2016 season. He only missed one game because he traveled to Western Kentucky one week to watch one of his former receivers play.
Wood has watched as the new facilities have come up. He's also seen all of the ups and downs that 2016 brought to Kentucky football, starting with the program's much-maligned 0-2 start and culminating in just the program's third Florida bowl game in school history.
"I think the way they finished says a lot about the team, the coaches and about Coach Stoops," Wood said. "Everyone hit the panic button. They didn't. They kept rolling and kept it one week at a time. That's how they won. They kept it going by getting ready for their next opponent. That's what they did. They finished strong, which is what it's all about. They got a big win over Louisville and that was good for the program because it was a signature win for Coach Stoops."
Speaking of changes during the 2016 season, the Cats' offense underwent a bit of a overhaul when Drew Barker was sidelined with an injury and Stephen Johnson took over as the starter. More quarterback runs were incorporated. There were more RPO's. The ground game overall became more prominent.
Wood, as a dual-threat quarterback, would seem to fit in better in the kind of offense Kentucky ran for most of the year, as opposed to the one the coaches probably intended to run before the season. Does he agree?
"For sure," Wood said. "I think Coach Gran and Coach Hinshaw, whoever they've got behind center, they're going to call plays to set their quarterback and offense up for success. They're not going to put a guy in there and ask him to do things he can't do. I don't want to be in a situation where I'm not good at this or that and I can't succeed with what a coach wants me to do."
Speaking of Wood's fit in the offense, there's that lingering question, so prominent for so long, of whether he will actually play quarterback at Kentucky or if he might move to another position. Wood doesn't bristle at the question, but he does sound like someone who has heard it, and perhaps one too many times.
"I'm coming in and I'm going to compete at the quarterback position," he said. "I'll be in the quarterback meetings. That's what I plan on doing. Of course I'll do what they want me to do but that's what I'm expecting."
It just might take a little while before Wood is able to do everything Hinshaw and the coaching staff want him to do. He was injured in the state championship game, a 56-21 loss to Trinity.
Just after the two teams came out of the locker room following halftime, with Trinity holding onto a 27-14 lead and the game still competitive, Wood took the snap on a passing play. He rolled to his right with a defender giving chase.
As Wood leaned right to release the ball the defender struck him. Wood's right leg was stuck between the legs of that defensive player, leading to his knee being dislocated. In the process, Wood suffered a chipped bone and also had cartilage damage.
Wood had surgery almost three weeks ago.
"It's gone really well," Wood said. "The surgery went well. I've already been in physical therapy. Once I get moved in I'll get started with UK (on rehabilitation) 100-percent. I'll start moving around and doing a lot of stuff in three months. When I had shoulder surgery a year ago, they say you don't really get 100-percent until almost nine months. But I only had four months to get ready and I obviously played the whole season. I was at that 90-percent for a long time. Really, I could be back for spring ball."
Like Bryant Koback, who is rehabbing from breaks to his fibula and tibia, Wood believes early enrollment will be a bit benefit because of UK's technology and trainers.
"Koback was obviously hurt before me," Wood said. "So him getting in early is definitely a big thing. I planned to enroll early even before I got hurt, but it's still going to help a lot because they've got guys that really know what they're doing."
Wood's quiet consistency as a local recruit who never wavered might be a rarity for UK in the 2017 class, but he's found a roommate who can probably relate on a number of levels. He'll room with Jamin Davis, who is a linebacker, not a quarterback, and from Georgia rather than Kentucky. But they're both regarded as hard workers who avoided the typical drama of recruiting and held fast through thick and thin following early commitments.
Wood and Davis met twice in the summer. Although Wood was close with a number of UK's early commitments, as he mentioned, he's only gotten to know some of the current 2017 pledges briefly. It's been more difficult to meet them since so many of the current commits jumped on board more recently, during or after the football season. But Wood is excited about the Cats' class.
"I think I made the right decision when I committed," Wood said. "When I committed there were only four other guys committed and those guys aren't even committed anymore. There's a totally new group in there and I'm excited about them. The recruiting for Kentucky's looked really good lately. Coach Stoops and the rest of the staff have done a great job keeping all of these high profile players and there will be a really good ending in February when they finish the class."
Of course, Wood knows Landon Young well, as he helped protect him in the trenches during his days at Lafayette.
"I've also met Stephen and the rest of the quarterbacks. I know Jabari (Greenwood), T-Rich (Tavin Richardson) and a lot of the wide receivers and we're all cool," Wood said.
He's about to become much more acquainted with those players and others than ever before. They're future teammates, but only for a few more days. Then Wood becomes a Wildcat, and not just one in waiting. It's the dream he had in earlier years and now he's living it out.
