Kentucky Football Climbs Into the Top 20 of the Recruiting Rankings

There is a saying that Will Stein likes to use in recruiting. “You wake ’em up, and put ’em to bed.” He’s referring to the demanding nature of recruiting. There is constant communication between the head coach, his assistants, and top players from around the country.

Over the first few months of his tenure at Kentucky, Stein has generated plenty of buzz on the recruiting trail. He hired young, hungry, aggressive recruiters to fill out his coaching staff. Throughout spring practice, they’ve brought some of the nation’s top players to Lexington for unofficial visits. It kept folks like Steve Wiltfong busy, but could that buzz turn into results? Over the last week, Stein has proved the answer is unequivocally, “Yes.”

Kentucky has locked up three commits in seven days. It all started with a head-to-head recruiting win over Auburn for Elijah Brown, a four-star defensive lineman from Alabama. Today, the Cats flipped an Auburn commit, tight end Tank Proctor. The crown jewel of the class was sandwiched in between.

When Jake Nawrot announced his commitment to the Cats, picking Kentucky over Oregon and Iowa, Rivals ranked him as the No. 2 quarterback in the country. ESPN had yet to update its rankings this spring. Today, they rolled them out and Nawrot debuted as the seventh-ranked QB and No. 121 overall prospect. That gave him a significant bump in the Rivals Industry Ranking, which compiles the rankings from all three primary recruiting services.

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The ESPN rankings update shuffled the deck all across the country. Brady Hull, the first addition to the 2027 recruiting class, received a significant bump, climbing more than 200 spots. Following this afternoon’s addition of Proctor, Kentucky now has nine commitments, which ranks No. 17 nationally and seventh in the SEC.

It’s been a long time since Kentucky’s recruiting rankings have climbed this high. It’s obviously still early in the process. Many of college football’s brand names will add high-profile players and jump the Cats, but some of those talented uncommitted players will choose to play for Will Stein. Kentucky is riding a wave of recruiting momentum, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Kentucky 2027 Recruiting Class

Player	Position	High School	Ranking
Jake Nawrot	QB (6-3, 200)	Prospect Heights (Ill.) John Hersey	4-star (No. 60 overall)
Elijah Brown	iDL (6-1, 290)	Prattville (Ala.) High	4-star (No. 263 overall)
Larron Westmoreland	S (6-3, 185)	Jeffersontown (Ky.) High	High 3-star (No. 424 overall)
Tank Proctor	TE (6-5, 220)	Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage	High 3-star (No. 515 overall)
Ty Ashley	LB (6-2, 200)	Owensboro (Ky.) High	3-star (No. 517 overall)
Brady Hull	iOL (6-1, 285)	Somerset (Ky.) Pulaski County	3-star (No. 530 overall)
Bryian Duncan Jr.	ATH (5-9, 160)	Cairo (Ga.) High	3-star (No. 761 overall)
Miguel Wilson	CB (5-10, 170)	Mobile (Ala.) Vigor	3-star (No. 902 overall)
Matthias Burrell	iOL (6-4, 320)	Gahanna (Ohio) Lincoln	3-star (No. 844 overall)

Want to learn more about the game of Kentucky’s new commitments? Adam Luckett broke down the tape and opened up his Scouting Notebook on KSR+. We also spent more than 30 minutes discussing the Wildcats’ recruiting efforts in a new edition of 11 Personnel.