Mailbag: Kentucky's biggest 2019 recruiting priorities

Soon all of our attention on Kentucky's football recruiting efforts will shift to what the staff is doing with Class of 2019 prospects.

Today's mailbag question comes from a site reader and forum participant who's curious about who the Wildcats will target from the 2019 class.

On the Wildcat Lair football forum Oak_Hill asks, "For the 2019 class will the coaches emphasis be focused more offensively or defensively? Which positions will be of the highest need?"

This is a question that's impossible to answer with precision or too much confidence in terms of specifics because it will hinge on a variety of factors:

- Will Kentucky suffer much more unexpected attrition between now and next February?

- If Kentucky lands any elite-level commitments, will those positions need to be addressed with fewer players than they otherwise might?

- Will the coaching staff's opinion of their need at certain spots be impacted by the development of players this offseason or during the 2018 season?

All of those questions are likely to factor into the answer here in some way, shape or form, but we can still make some general assumptions.

Most football programs like to take a quarterback prospect in almost every recruiting class, because the position is so important in the sport and because there's so much roster turnover with more quarterbacks transferring than ever before. It's common for programs to go through three quarterbacks in a season, thanks to injuries, so you normally probably want to keep five on scholarship with three you feel can win games. So expect Kentucky to take another quarterback.

Kentucky will also have to plan on taking another running back, if not two, in the 2019 class. That's even if they land Kavosiey Smoke or another running back to finish this class, because Sihiem King is gone after the '18 season and Benny Snell could be gone a year early, too. So expect at least one, potentially two running backs from the '19 class.

Expect a big class of wide receivers as the youth wave will continue into next season. It's possible UK could sign four or five in the '19 class.

Tight end will not have to be a huge priority, even with the looming departure of C.J. Conrad after 2018, because Justin Rigg, Keaton Upshaw and Brenden Bates will all have plenty of eligibility remaining. Kentucky could opt to take one.

The Wildcats will not have to have a huge class of offensive linemen because they have a good number of players both on the interior and at tackle who have several years of eligibility remaining. But you almost always see a program take at least two or three players to keep the numbers up there.

Kentucky will need to sign a full class in the secondary. The staff has been bracing itself by bolstering the defensive backfield with numbers because of the looming departure of Mike Edwards, Darius West, Lonnie Johnson, Chris Westry and Derrick Baity after the 2018 season, but don't be surprised to see another big class even with plenty of young guys already on the roster and capable of stepping into bigger roles. Don't be surprised to see the staff take another junior college player for the purposes of playing right away and providing more seniority in '19, with what should otherwise be a very green group.

Kentucky will always take a good number of defensive linemen and because they did not go overboard with numbers at linebacker, they are likely to take a pretty large group there, too.

They won't devote any scholarships to the specialist positions after devoting two to Chance Poore and Max Duffy from the '18 class.

A rough guess at the early numbers for the '19 class:

QB (1), RB (1-2), WR (4-5), TE (1), OL (3), DL (4), LB (4), DB (4).

If you look at Kentucky's roster, it might not appear like they have that many scholarships to give out in 2019. If you count Benny Snell as a departure for after the '18 season it looks like the number of players who will have either left early or exhausted their eligibility will be right around 17. Then again, there's always attrition and that should free up some spots.