Folks, Kentucky football is back. No, I’m not mistaken. There are still 92 days until it’s football time in the Bluegrass at Kroger Field. The preparation begins now.
After a month away from Lexington, coaches, administrators, players, and prospects are all going back to work at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. Let’s highlight what lies ahead.
Kentucky Football Freshmen Move In
About half of the 2024 Kentucky football recruiting class arrived in time for spring practice. The rest of the crew is spending this weekend getting comfortable in their new home away from home. Brad White was on South Campus to help Devin Smith, Caleb Redd, and Cam Dooley move into their new dorm rooms. Dooley sounds like a ball player.
Summer Workouts
What folks don’t realize is that summer workouts in the month of June aren’t what they used to be. The coaches aren’t just kicking their asses and making them run in the heat twice a day. Yes, the freshmen will be waking up early for 6 am strength and conditioning sessions starting Monday, June 3, but that’s just a piece of the puzzle.
Coaches now get two hours a week to actually coach their players in the months of June and July. Mark Stoops refers to them as OTAs and typically splits them into a pair of one-hour sessions.
The OTA designation makes sense because it’s not like an actual practice. There are limitations on physical contact, which is why the focus for the Wildcats is mental. How well do they know the playbook? Can they quickly get in and out of the huddle? These sessions will help the Kentucky offense in particular start training camp ahead of schedule.
Camps and Kentucky Football Recruiting
If you’re waist-deep into college football recruiting, you’re probably seeing prospects making trips this weekend across the country for official visits. Adam Luckett highlighted where some of Kentucky’s top targets are this weekend for KSR+. Rather than competing directly with the Georgias of the recruiting world, Kentucky is waiting to kick things off until this Sunday’s Showcase Camp. KSR will be there when the recruiting floodgates open with prospects competing at Kroger Field.
There are a couple of weekends that are shaping up to be big ones for official visitors (June 14 and 21), but don’t expect any sorry of “Big Blue BBQ” as some branded recruiting bash. That’s because for some prospects, Kentucky prefers to provide more individual attention with official visits in the middle of the week. You also might hear of a player who performed well at a one-day camp who earns an offer and quickly returns for a visit.
A brief summary: it’s difficult to put Kentucky’s June recruiting efforts into a tidy box. Things move quickly and oftentimes quietly. The good news is that Kentucky is ahead of its traditional schedule, with six commits already on board, including three four-star talents. That number may double after announcements roll in around the Fourth of July.
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