Quarterback Hayden Wolff talks about his first offer from Kentucky
Kentucky has Jarren Williams on board from the 2018 class so there's no urgency to land another quarterback in the immediate future.
But passers are making decisions earlier than ever so Darin Hinshaw and his quarterback coaching peers across the country are becoming more aggressive in scouting and offering younger quarterbacks than ever before.
Add Hayden Wolff to the list of underclassman quarterbacks with a Kentucky offer. He went in-depth with CatsIllustrated.com on his recent camp at Kentucky, his Wednesday offer from the Cats and recruiting in general.
Kentucky has already offered several 2019 and 2020 quarterbacks, including Lexington Catholic's Beau Allen (2020), Indianapolis (Ind.) Cathedral's Roman Purcell (2020), Archbishop Alter's Connor Bazelak (2019), Alabama native Paul Tyson (2019) and others.
Wolff picked up an offer from Kentucky on Wednesday and this wasn't a decision Darin Hinshaw arrived at lightly. It was Wolff's first offer of the recruiting process in spite of his respectable ranking and reputation in the recruiting world, and so it's likely to be one that he thinks long and hard about.
The 6-foot-6, 205-pound pro-style quarterback from Englewood (Fla.) Lemon Bay was part of an absolutely loaded group of quarterbacks camping at Kentucky on Friday night (also there were Allen, Purcell, Bazelak, Cameron Jones and others). The Cats didn't offer right away, but after going over the film together as a staff, Hinshaw decided to make a move.
Wolff was, as you might expect, very excited by the development.
"Well, I mean I was super excited. Obviously that first offer is a big deal. It's something I've been working for my whole life since I was six years old. So obviously it's big just as an offer. But I'm definitely looking forward to the opportunity it will present and I'm looking forward to building a relationship with Coach Hinshaw."
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Hinshaw was impressed with the work Wolff put in at UK's Friday Night Lights camp. It wasn't Wolff's first time camping at Kentucky, so he knew a little bit about Hinshaw going into this second trip to Lexington.
"He really liked how competitive I was at the camp," Wolff told CatsIllustrated.com. "He had most of his quarterback recruits there and I think the fact that I was competitive with those guys, he was really impressed with that. He likes my arm mechanics and that I'm fundamentally sound. He loved how I threw. I was actually at a camp in June and he saw me throw so I decided to go back and he liked the improvement that he saw. He was really impressed with my footwork, my release and everything."
There's always room for improvement when you're talking about young quarterbacks. Last year Hinshaw gave then-uncommitted target Jarren Williams some pointers on how he could throw the ball better. Williams applied the suggestions and saw improvement.
Hinshaw gave Wolff some pointers, too. Along with all the good that led to the offer, Hinshaw would like to see Wolff not drop the ball down so much when he throws. But that wasn't a consistent problem and is an infrequent occurrence that Wolff is eager to clean up.
The Cats' quarterbacks coach and Wolff have something in common that probably helped to break the ice in conversation, serving as something of a discussion starter.
"He grew up in my hometown, or 30 minutes away from my hometown," Wolff said. "So it's been great knowing him and getting to meet him. I really liked him. He's easily one of the most knowledgeable coaches I've met this summer and probably my favorite coach that I've worked with. There are probably 10 to 12 coaches that I've worked with this summer so I've been around a lot."
For some players the relationship with their would-be position coach is a huge factor in their decision-making process. Others don't put as much stock in that. Wolff leans towards making it a top priority.
"That's huge," Wolff said of the QB-QB coach connection. "That's everything to me. I've been to colleges where the QB coach didn't pay any attention to me or the kids at the camp. I've been to colleges where, like Coach Hinshaw, they were active in trying to make kids at the camp better. You can tell he actually wanted to see kids at the camp succeed."
Sometimes coaches offer players right after the conclusion of a camp event. In Wolff's case, Hinshaw and the UK staff went back over film from the camp and made the decision to offer after the fact. That means it wasn't a spur of the moment type decision and they were deliberate in evaluating him and making sure they were confident in their assessments.
Because the offer didn't come right away, but was a few days after the camp, Wolff was pleasantly surprised.
"It was kind of out of the blue for me," Wolff said. "When I got in touch with him after I found out they had offered he said it was based on the camp film he had watched and all my highlights."
Wolff started 10 games on his varsity team last year so he's got a solid amount of experience heading into his all-important junior season, which determines so much in terms of a player's place in the recruiting landscape. He believes the rapport he built with his receivers and other players on his team, as the leader of the offense, will set him up, and the team up, for some success in 2017. Given that Kentucky has now offered and Wolff is established as a quarterback who could land in the Southeastern Conference, he'll have a much bigger spotlight this year.
He knows that quarterbacks are making decisions earlier than ever in some cases, but Wolff doesn't feel compelled to make a commitment any time soon.
"I haven't thought about that yet," he said. "The team is in camp right now so I'll be talking to my family and making decisions later. I don't feel rushed right now."
Wolff's second trip to Kentucky revolved mostly around the camp. He was in Lexington for less than 24 hours so he did have some time to check out the lay of the land, but he plans to return to Kentucky sometime when he's able to get more of an unofficial visit that broadens his perspective on the school. There's no date set for a return trip, but Wolff said he's "definitely going to make it back up," and looks forward to regular talks with Hinshaw.
This summer Wolff has also been to a range of other schools including North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Old Dominion and Youngstown State, just to name a few.
While Kentucky was his first offer, Wolff said some schools have shown a good amount of interest.
"There have been quite a few schools showing a lot of interest in me," he said. "Besides Kentucky, Ohio State has shown a lot of interest in me. I've kept in touch with their QB coach (Ryan Day) quite a bit. Ball State and Vanderbilt have showed me a lot of love. Those are really the main schools right now, but like I said, I'm not in any rush and I'm just taking my time."
Wolff did drive around and through campus while he was in Lexington and Hinshaw set him up for a bit of a tour around parts of the facilities and area.
