Concern building over UK football 2010 recruiting class

News broke today that four star safety Isaiah Lewis had chosen Michigan State over Kentucky despite the fact that many believed UK was the team to beat after Lewis visited Lexington earlier this week. Fellow Indianapolis native Morgan Newton showed him around and did his best, but it was not enough to convince Lewis to commit to UK.

Lewis’ decision has brought concern over the progress of UK’s recruiting for the class of 2010 to a head. Let’s take a look at the number of 2010 commitments for each SEC school:

Alabama – 20
Arkansas – 8
Auburn – 14
Florida – 17
Georgia – 18
Kentucky – 2 (K Joe Mansour, DE Justin Henderson)
LSU – 21
Mississippi – 3
Mississippi State – 9
South Carolina – 15
Tennessee – 14
Vanderbilt – 20

Now, it’s important to remember that Rich Brooks and his staff have undertaken an entirely new approach to recruiting for this year. Previously, UK has pursued early commits from mid-level prospects, hopefully finding a few diamonds in the rough.

By the time spring rolls around, the staff has had few scholarships with which to work, and have been unable to go after the upper echelon of prospects late.

This strategy has obviously been a big part of how Coach Brooks has brought UK to the level of the past three seasons. However, Brooks and his staff have made a conscious decision to steer away from that past strategy. They believe that taking the next step in building Kentucky football requires a gamble. The gamble is UK’s strategy for 2010.

UK is not going to pursue as many mid-level prospects as before just to fill its 25 rides per class, instead going after top players (like Isaiah Lewis), looking to put together the best class in Kentucky history.

Based on the above numbers, I think it’s pretty clear why Lewis spurning UK has touched a bit of a nerve for ‘Cats fans. Even if people aren’t saying it out loud, they are definitely quietly wondering whether the gamble that has become the class of 2010 is going to fail.

There is PLENTY of time left to put a quality class together, but I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t getting worried.

The momentum that Brooks and Co. have built over the past few seasons has been a pleasure to be a part of, but we’ve seen football momentum at UK killed by one bad year too many times to not be concerned.

At this point, there are only three 4 star players mentioning UK (Tim Patterson, Dyjuan Lewis, CJ Olaniyan) and really not a ton of high level 3 star types listing UK. Those that follow football recruiting closely will mention that decommits are much more frequent in football than basketball, but the staff has an uphill battle on its hands.