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Recruiting success boosts football optimism

LOUISVILLE -- There's always optimism to begin a football season but Mark Stoops and Kentucky's staff seemed extra giddy on Friday at the Greater Louisville UK Alumni Club Wildcat Kickoff Luncheon.
With the season looming -- and UK coming off a historic recruiting week -- Stoops was all smiles when talking to the media before being introduced to the fans at the Galt House Hotel.
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"We've had a nice quiet week," Stoops joked. "We haven't had a lot going on with recruiting."
It was just the opposite as Kentucky landed six commitments this week. The Cats landed one player in 2016 (Kobe Smith), four in 2017 (James Hudson, Mac Jones, Michael Warren, Russ Yeast) and an incredibly skilled 2018 player with major offers (Jermaine Eskridge).
Stoops couldn't talk about recruits specifically per NCAA rules, but he was clearly thrilled to have some players on board for the classes of 2017 and 2018.
"It's important to get in on guys early," Stoops said. "It's important to recruit them the whole way and keep them all the way through, like you know, it's been a good week."
But just because Kentucky has some commits doesn't mean the work is over. Last season UK had some late decommitments that shook up the entire class.
Keeping guys on for a few months is difficult, but a few years is even more challenging.
"You get guys committed and you work hard for a year, a year and a half, two years," Stoops said. "You have them committed for a bit of time and for a month and a half, we're babysitting guys we have committed. We're spending a lot of money; we're going on private planes, going to see them every week for guys we've had committed to us for two years."
A national topic of debate quickly became a talking point for Stoops when he said he would be for an early signing period in college football.
Furthermore he said he would be OK with seniors signing whenever they wanted and bypassing set dates.
"If they want to sign; if you have a commitment both ways, why not give them a piece of paper and let them sign it and get it done?" Stoops said. "Get the contract sealed up. The way it works right now is we have to go hard all the way through the first week in February, the first Wednesday in February."
It may be som etime before Stoops' idea, or a verision of it, comes to fruition, so for now they'll continue to recruit knowing the only day they can take a break is National Signing Day in February.
And though Kentucky has a nearly full class for 2016 and a great start for 2017 and 2018, defensive coorindatorD.J. Eliot won't change his approach in recruiting regardless if a player is committed or not.
He will treat the players that have pledged to attend Kentucky just like he did before the verbal.
"Committed players are guys that have verbally made a commitment, but as you know, nothing is bound until they sign," Eliot said. "So we don't recruit them any differently."
And while recruiting can make for long days and sleepless nights, Eliot embraces it because recruiting is unique.
There are plenty of football coaches at every level, but only college coaches have to recruit.
"That's what I think is unique about the college game," Eliot said. "You coach in high school, you coach in the NFL, you just coach. You coach in college and you become a scout, you become a salesman, and you're a coach. And I like that experience."
It's easier being a salesman when you're on a hot streak like Kentucky is experiencing.
And while Eliot enjoys it, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson likes it at times.
"I will say this: there's parts of recruiting I love and parts of recruiting that I hate," Dawson said. "That's just the honesty of it. There's some people that are great recruiters when it comes to the very tedious stuff of keeping in contact with them via letters, via messages, stuff like that. I'd much rather in person communication with kids."
Dawson doesn't need to do the flashy recruiting campaigns, and doesn't want to, but instead he likes building relationships and being able to sell the recruits on things that matter.
Kentucky's recent recruiting success shows it's working.
"Whether it's good, bad or indifferent, that's the part of recruiting I like," he said. "I like sitting down with coaches, I like sitting down with families. The whole part -- the communication part that fills in the void, I'm probably not great at to be honest with you. I try to do it the best I can."
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