Score one for Mark Stoops: Blue-chip defensive tackle Matt Elam committed to Kentucky over Alabama Thursday, only adding to a pretty nice 2014 recruiting class for the Wildcats.
247 Sports pegs Elam as a five-star recruit, while Rivals gives him three stars. But the 6-foot-7, 372-pound native of Elizabethtown, Ky., was coveted by plenty of powerful programs, fielding offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State and Tennessee as well as Alabama.
While there’s disagreement on just how good a prospect Elam is, for Stoops and his staff to fend off Nick Saban and college football’s most powerful program is a massive victory.Could Elam have seen himself picking UK before Stoops came? “No, sir, not at all.”
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_CJ) January 30, 2014
Rivals rates Kentucky’s 2014 class as the 13th-best nationally, while 247 has them No. 19. That represents a huge gain for a historically downtrodden program, even if eight SEC teams currently have better recruiting classes per 247 Sports.The SEC East may have been “down” last year, even with two very strong teams in Mizzou and South Carolina topping the division. But with Kentucky and Tennessee bringing in strong recruiting classes, Florida and Georgia having plenty of talent and Mizzou and South Carolina both coming off double digit-win seasons, top-to-bottom the SEC East could soon rival the SEC West as college football’s most difficult division.
Elam: “I feel like UK can definitely make it to the top one day. That might not happen next year … but it will happen.”
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_CJ) January 30, 2014