Talent assessment

[Old School]

When Marrow was in charge of recruiting, Kentucky brought in a lot of players who didn’t pan out, including several four stars.

Players like Isiah Cummings, Gavin Wimsatt and Zach Calzada seemed to get playing time ahead of better players.

Meanwhile, there wasn’t much playing time for M.J. Devonshire, who transferred to Pitt, was All-ACC two years, and went on to the NFL, or Bryce Oliver, who transferred to Youngstown State and is still playing in the NFL. Jeff Badet transferred away before playing in the NFL also.

The staff also turned some unheralded two and three star players into solid contributors. But recruiting results seemed very hit and miss.

I hope the new staff has a sharper and more accurate ability to assess talent and develop incoming players consistently.

[Jaxcat]

Agreed. For several years, it appeared that Marrow's recruits were receiving a bit of extra TLC and given a bit more rope. You mentioned a few that UK had on the roster that left and went on to be really good college players, while some that stayed never panned out. Some of that can be attributed to our position coaches perhaps not being very good and some perhaps to a scheme mismatch for some of these players. You said Devonshire, but maybe meant Valentine? Either way, maybe they were much better suited to M2M schemes than the zone-heavy scheme we played. Badet never really had a decent throwing QB while here. A lot of possible excuses, but, to your point, our talent evaluation slipped drastically the final few years of Stoops' era and the product on the field reflected that slippage.

Hopefully, with Stein and new staff members, the limited ability to accurately assess talent will be a bad memory.

[westerncat]

When do you think Stein will announce who will be on his staff ?

[bthaunert]

I'm sure if you look at any school, there are just as many hits and misses and guys that move on and succeed. It becomes a little more glaring at a program like Kentucky, because we have less room for error when we get a highly rated recruit.

The biggest disappointment, by far, was our inability to recruit and develop a high school quarterback under Stoops. I know with the portal, it's not as important now, but if we can develop guys in house, that's still my first choice. Take a look at the high school QB recruits from the Stoops era with their FBS stats from UK and anywhere they transferred:

Reese Phillips - 0TD 1INT
Drew Barker - 5TD 7INT
Gunner Hoak - 3TD 1INT
Danny Clark - 0TD 0INT
Walker Wood - 0TD 0INT
Amani Gilmore - 0TD 0INT
Nik Scalzo - 0TD 0INT
Beau Allen - 0TD 0INT
Kaiya Sheron - 2TD 1INT
Cutter Boley - 17TD 16INT
Stone Saunders - 0TD 0INT
Brennan Ward - 0TD 0INT

That is as pathetic as it gets when it comes to HS QB recruiting. I think/hope Will Stein changes that.

[bthaunert]

When do you think Stein will announce who will be on his staff ?

He already has:

OC - Justin Burke
DL - Anwar Stewart
WR - L'Damian Washington
TE = Derek Shay

[westerncat]

He already has:

OC - Justin Burke
DL - Anwar Stewart
WR - L'Damian Washington
TE = Derek Shay

Thanks I had not see that.

[bthaunert]

Thanks I had not see that.

Yeah, I don't know if any of it has been official yet, but those are the 4 so far. Plus the GM role is filled.

[Catsrock]

Yeah, I don't know if any of it has been official yet, but those are the 4 so far. Plus the GM role is filled.

Crap. I guess that means I didn’t get it. Back to work.

[Jaxcat]

He already has:

OC - Justin Burke
DL - Anwar Stewart
WR - L'Damian Washington
TE = Derek Shay

I didn't know that Stewart and Washington were staying. I think that's a good thing as I believe both did a good job of developing/improving their charges. From what has been reported previously, Washington seemed like he was a pretty strong recruiter, also. Give Stewart a more aggressive scheme and I think his DL will be pretty good. On paper, we have some pretty highly ranked players in that groups.

[Helix]

Recruited wide receivers look to be a decent bunch… did they all sign yesterday? If so, Washington staying might explain why.

[bthaunert]

I didn't know that Stewart and Washington were staying. I think that's a good thing as I believe both did a good job of developing/improving their charges. From what has been reported previously, Washington seemed like he was a pretty strong recruiter, also. Give Stewart a more aggressive scheme and I think his DL will be pretty good. On paper, we have some pretty highly ranked players in that groups.

Washington was tweeting as the WR recruits were signing yesterday. I've seen it reported in a couple of places about these 3. Going purely off of that.

[largebluej]

He already has:

OC - Justin Burke
DL - Anwar Stewart
WR - L'Damian Washington
TE = Derek Shay

Now being reported LSU OC Joe Sloan will be OC for Stein.

[bthaunert]

Now being reported LSU OC Joe Sloan will be OC for Stein.

I see that now. I wonder what the role of Justin Burke will be then?

[Trueblujr]

When do you think Stein will announce who will be on his staff ?

There's some stupid State law that says the jobs have to be posted for a certain period of time, 7-10 days or something like that before anything can become official.