The Recruiting Wire: Your home for UK football recruiting news

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Published Sep 13, 2017

The Recruiting Wire: Your home for UK football recruiting news

Justin Rowland • CatsIllustrated

Publisher

@RowlandRIVALS

Looking for one spot where you can get all the information you need on Kentucky's Class of 2018 commitments?

Your search ends right here.

Cats Illustrated leads the way in coverage of Kentucky's football recruiting efforts and here we're making it easier than ever to stay up to date on what's happening as it happens.

THE RECRUITING WIRE

The Wire will be regularly updated with recruiting updates that are relevant to commitments or prospects. Some of the information posted may be premium while some might not be behind the paywall. As always, you can subscribe to Cats Illustrated and now you can use this offer to get free months attached.

10/20 - Kentucky offers St. Louis (Mo.) Lutheran athlete D'Vion Harris. Florida was the first school to offer Harris.

10/20 - Kentucky offers St. Louis (Mo.) Lutheran North offensive tackle Jack Buford. He also has offers from Florida, Illinois, Iowa State and Missouri.

10/19 - Kentucky offers Class of 2019 St. Louis (Mo.) Trinity Catholic wide receiver Bryce Childress. He also has offers from Alabama State, Kansas State and Syracuse.

10/12 - Four-star prospect Leonard Taylor tells Rivals.com's Josh Helmholdt that he will officially visit Kentucky in November. He also spoke about his experience at the UK-Florida game.

10/11 - Cats Illustrated sources are saying they believe near four-star Ohio receiver Meechi Harris is closing in on a decision. Read what we're hearing.

10/11 - Kentucky assistant coach Darin Hinshaw will travel to Fort Myers (Fla.) Dunbar to watch Jacques-Louis' game on Friday.

10/11 - Mark Stoops and Vince Marrow will travel to Central Gwinnett on Friday to visit Williams. Click here to read the latest at the House of Blue.

10/11 - DeAndre Square announced he has been selected to play in the Offense/Defense All-American Bowl. Square last unofficially visited Kentucky the weekend of the Eastern Michigan game.

10/10 - Alex Reigelsperger announced that he is reopening his recruitment. A source told Cats Illustrated that the parting was mutual.

10/7 - Marquan McCall, a Kentucky offensive guard commitment, visited Michigan for the Wolverines' game against Michigan State.

10/7 - South Florida tight end commitment Kamari Morales received a graphic from Kentucky's football staff and tells Cats Illustrated he's been hearing from Lamar Thomas recently.

10/5 - Four-star cornerback Woodi Washington landed an offer from Kentucky. The Rivals250 prospect

10/1 - A source tells Cats Illustrated that Joseph Wilkins, Jr., is down to a top six: Kentucky, NC State, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Michigan State and USF.

10/1 - Offensive tackle Nick Lewis commits to Washington State. He had visited Kentucky over the summer and the Cats were one of his top ten schools. Lewis did say, in committing to Washington State, that all of his options are still open and he plans to take all of his official visits.

2018 COMMITMENTS

In the chart below you will find all of Kentucky's 2018 commitments. Names are linked to each player's Rivals.com profile, where you can find video, pictures and past stories associated with the prospect.

COMMITMENTS

POSITION	PROSPECT	NOTES

QB	Jarren Williams	Williams committed to Kentucky last summer before reopening his recruitment. He recommitted to Kentucky earlier this year. When he picked UK for a second time he turned down offers from Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Florida State and others. He is the only quarterback Kentucky plans to sign in the 2018 class. Williams will enroll early. He was recently invited to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and he and his father have told Cats Illustrated that he will accept that invitation. Williams recently visited Alabama. A source has told Cats Illustrated he is expected to take his official visit to Kentucky in December.
RB	Chris Rodriguez	Rodriguez committed to Kentucky in late July ending a long period of uncertainty regarding how the Cats would fill their running back needs in this class. He may be the only running back Kentucky ultimately signs from the class. Rodriguez visited Kentucky over the summer. His coach told Cats Illustrated he is a solid commit for Kentucky and was impressed with how genuine the coaches in Lexington are.
WR	Akeem Hayes	Early in the recruiting process Hayes was committed to Louisville. He visited both schools over the summer and camped at Kentucky. Shortly after that trip to Lexington he announced that he was flipping his commitment to Kentucky. Hayes has since announced he is shutting down his recruitment and is 100-percent solid with the Cats.
WR	Marvin Alexander	Alexander is yet another wide receiver from Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade Madonna committed to Kentucky. He committed to the Cats at the same time as teammate Davoan Hawkins and has not looked back. He did participate in a camp at Tennessee and his trainer used to be Vols wide receivers coach Kevin Beard but Alexander has consistently maintained he is solid with Kentucky.
TE	Brenden Bates	Bates hails from Archbishop Moeller, a prep program known for producing successful tight end prospects. He has never wavered in his commitment to Kentucky.
TE	Keaton Upshaw	Upshaw was recruited to be a hybrid complement to Bates, with Kentucky's coaches deciding to take two tight ends in the 2018 class. He participated in a light workout at a night camp at Kentucky this summer and has not wavered in his commitment. He visited during a later camp event but did not participate in workouts.
OL	Marquan McCall	McCall committed to Kentucky just before the start of the summer and at the time was ranked the No. 1 player in Michigan, although he had not heard from the Wolverines in quite some time. He is now ranked the No. 2 player in the state. A source close to McCall recently told Cats Illustrated he is solid in his commitment to Kentucky. He visited Kentucky for two camps over the summer and participated in the second of those two events. He could be an offensive guard or a defensive tackle.
OL	Quintin Wilson	Wilson was recruited by Steven Clinkscale out of Cincinnati and committed to Kentucky in mid-May. He was spotted in Lexington multiple times over the summer and worked out at one camp. Before the start of the 2017 school year and football season he transferred to Turpin from Walnut Hills.
OL	Darian Kinnard	Kinnard committed to Kentucky in late April and, to date, is the only offensive tackle pledged to the Cats. He is regarded as one of the Midwest's top tackle prospects. Kinnard participated in a July camp in Lexington and has told Cats Illustrated that he is solid with Kentucky.
DL	Davoan Hawkins	Hawkins committed to Kentucky just after National Signing Day for the last recruiting class and in spite of picking up an offer from Miami after camping in Coral Gables, he has reiterated that he is fully committed to Kentucky. Hawkins made it to Lexington for a camp event over the summer.
DL	Tyler Bentley	Bentley is one of two West Chester (Ohio) Lakota West players committed to Kentucky, along with Xavier Peters, and he recently told Cats Illustrated he is solid with the Wildcats. He picked up a number of impressive verbal offers from programs like Florida and Alabama before deciding on Kentucky, the school he had named as his favorite very early in the recruiting process.
LB	DeAndre Square	Square is ranked as one of the Top 15 players in Michigan by Rivals.com and is one of the top outside linebackers in the Midwest. The long, rangy and athletic prospect has had a very productive start to his senior season at Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech and he starred at one of Kentucky's night camps over the summer. He has told Cats Illustrated there is no other school he would rather be at than Kentucky. He will participate in the Offense/Defense All-American Bowl.
LB	Xavier Peters	Peters attended The Opening out in Beaverton, Oreg., over the summer and, as everyone expected, committed to Kentucky shortly after returning home to Ohio. However, Peters quickly tweeted that he had to think some things over and shortly thereafter removed the initial commitment message. Sources have consistently maintained that Peters remains committed to Kentucky, although he may decide to schedule official visits to Southern Cal, Tennessee, Penn State, Texas and Oregon.
DB	Dom Williams	Williams attends Highlands Community College but is originally from Tennessee. As a high school recruit he was committed to Dean Hood's EKU program. He camped at Kentucky this summer and committed to the Wildcats shortly after that. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound JUCO prospect can play nickel, safety and some corner but may be mostly expected to compete for the spot to be vacated by Kendall Randolph after this season. He expects to be an early enrollee.
DB	Stanley Garner	Garner was bumped to four-stars by Rivals.com earlier this year and his stock in the recruiting world started to rise dramatically due to a strong performance throughout the 7-on-7 circuit in the first part of this year. He visited Kentucky, Alabama, Louisville and other schools this summer before deciding on Kentucky. The 6-foot-3 cornerback camped at Kentucky and was in Lexington for several days so he is very familiar with the school.
DB	Jamari Brown	Brown, another long and rangy cornerback from Florida, committed to Kentucky one day after Garner. His finalists were Kentucky, Auburn and Temple, although the Tigers had not extended a written offer but Pittsburgh had.
K	Chance Poore	Poore has one of the bigger legs of any kicking prospect in the Class of 2018 and has been recruited to compete for playing time right away with Austin MacGinnis' departure looming after the 2017 football season. Poore could also have a chance to push Grant McKinniss for the starting punter position once Matt Panton leaves the program after his graduate year.
WR	Meechi Harris	The high three-star receiver from Xenia (Ohio) committed to Kentucky before one of his football games in October. At 6-foot-2 he has a 40-inch vertical leap. Harris has visited Kentucky multiple times and has a strong relationship with UK assistant coach Vince Marrow.

TOP TARGETS

The following list of top targets is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the players Kentucky's staff is still pursuing from the 2018 class, but does include most of the more high profile names the Cats are known to be involved with.

Kentucky has ground to make up with Oats. He has a top three of Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan State.

Although Taylor is listed as a tight end Kentucky's coaches are recruiting him as an athlete. He could play on the defensive line at the college level. Vince Marrow recently attended a game between Taylor's Springfield team and Keaton Upshaw's Lima squad. Sources say Kentucky and Oklahoma are two of the leading contenders for Taylor.

The JUCO offensive guard visited Kentucky over the summer and has consistently told Cats Illustrated that his plan is to officially visit Lexington sometime during the football season and preferably sooner than later. He will be an early enrollee. Earlier in the recruiting process Lewis was hearing from Ole Miss and Mississippi State frequently. Now, schools like Syracuse, West Virginia and Minnesota seem to be most interested after Kentucky.

Wilkins is a bona fide two-way threat with half of the schools recruiting him liking him at wide receiver and the other half preferring him, as Kentucky does, as a defensive back. He told Cats Illustrated, over the summer and more recently, that he plans to officially visit Kentucky. Some of the other schools most involved with Wilkins include Notre Dame and NC State.

Dominick Watt was thought to favor Florida for much of the recruiting process but their hot and cold approach caused Watt to release a list of favorites that doesn't include the Gators. Louisville, Pitt, South Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, UCF, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Mississippi State and FIU are the programs Watt included on his list not long ago. He told Cats Illustrated he has not scheduled any official visits yet.

Love is committed to Ole Miss and has been since the summer but he has been hearing from Kentucky for many months. Indiana, Louisiana Tech, Memphis and UAB are the other schools that sent Love a written scholarship offer on September 1st.

Wildgoose, a Georgia commitment, has been on Lamar Thomas' radar but it's probably too early to gauge his interest in Kentucky. The staff in Lexington is trying to convince him to officially visit but there is nothing on the calendar yet. He had a strong summer and could be in line for a bump up the rankings at some point.