Kentucky could become option for blue-chip QB Ryder Lyons

Ryder Lyons is a top-50 recruit in the 2026 Rivals Industry Ranking and the No. 5 quarterback in high school football. The Folsom (Calif.) High prospect will have high expectations when he arrives to college but that will take a couple of years.

This blue-chip quarterback is set to go on a LDS mission for a year before enrolling in a college ahead of the 2027 fall semester. That means Ryder Lyons will start his college football journey in 2027. Despite signing with BYU, this recruitment is not over yet.

Rivals’ Steve Wiltfong reports that multiple schools will continue to pursue the highly ranked quarterback. Those pursuits will heat up once Ryder Lyons finishes his mission. Kentucky could be one of the schools who makes a push to flip the talented quarterback. Oregon was heavily involved in the race for Lyons and Will Stein served as the lead recruiter for the Ducks.

The quarterback is a big fan of Kentucky’s new head coach.

“Coach Stein is an incredible coach, I think one of the best in the country. He’s a great recruiter, great leader and he runs a phenomenal offense and is a good quarterback coach,” Lyons told Rivals. “I think in college football it all runs off the quarterback, so if you have successful quarterbacks, you’ll have a successful team. So I think they’ll be very successful.”

Kentucky’s new coaching staff is starting to send out offers for the 2027 class as the program builds a high school recruiting target board. UK will have to figure out what they want to do at quarterback after adding blue-chip recruit Matt Ponatoski to the 2026 class. Ryder Lyons will very likely be on that board and be a player that the Cats will kick the tires on.

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