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A lot of folks have been asking questions like, "How many 4-star recruits did we get this year?" The answer, as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
So what we did was take each Kentucky recruit and look up his star rating on each of the four major recruiting evaluation services, Scout, 24/7 Sports, Rivals, and ESPN. Then we averaged the rating by player, and then by service.
Here's what Kentucky's class looks like:
| Name | Pos | Ht | Wt | Scout | Rivals | 24/7 | ESPN | Avg | |
| 1 | Blake McClain | DB | 5'11" | 181 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 2 | Jaleel Hytchye | DB | 5'11" | 165 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.25 |
| 3 | Jeff Badet | WR | 5'11" | 160 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 4 | Justin Day | OL | 6'8" | 285 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.25 |
| 5 | Kyle Meadows | OL | 6'5" | 270 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 6 | Marcus McWilson | DB | 6'0" | 195 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 |
| 7 | Nate Willis | DB | 6'0" | 180 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 8 | Nick Haynes | OL | 6'4" | 294 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| 9 | Ramsey Meyers | OL | 6'3" | 290 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 10 | Reese Phillips | QB | 6'3" | 210 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 |
| 11 | Regie Meant | DT | 6'5" | 271 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| 12 | Ryan Timmons | WR | 5'10" | 186 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.50 |
| 13 | Steven Borden | TE | 6'3" | 250 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.25 |
| 14 | Za'Darius Smith | DE | 6'5" | 252 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.75 |
| 15 | Alvonte Bell | DE | 6'6" | 228 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.25 |
| 16 | Austin MacGinnis | K | 5'11" | 170 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| 17 | Jacob Hyde | DT | 6'2" | 313 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 18 | Javess Blue | WR | 6'1" | 195 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.25 |
| 19 | Alex Montgomery | WR | 6'1" | 180 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 20 | Jojo Kemp | RB | 5'10" | 189 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.25 |
| 21 | Khalid Thomas | ATH | 5'10" | 175 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 22 | Jason Hatcher | DE | 6'2" | 240 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.75 |
| Service Average | 2.91 | 3.05 | 3.05 | 3.23 | 3.06 | ||||
So here, we can draw up the following conclusions:
- Kentucky has 17 out of 22 players rated 3-star or above on average;
- Kentucky has 9 players rated at 4 stars by at least one service;
- Kentucky has only 1 player rated at 4 stars by all 4 services;
- Kentucky has 3 players rated at 4 stars by 2 or more services;
- The entire class rating is 3.06 stars.
Keep in mind that star ratings are just the subjective judgment of scouts. For example, Randall Cobb was rated a 2-star by Scout, a 3-star by Rivals, and a 74, which is a 3-star, by ESPN. Almost none of this class is ranked as low as Cobb was, and he starts for the Green Bay Packers on Sundays.
So the value of these ratings are extremely general and almost never reflect the characteristics that separate great players from ordinary ones -- those tend to be located in the center left of the player's chest, and are invisible to most scouts.
Anyway, I hope this helps you see what all the fuss was about. I don't recall a UK class that was ranked above 3-stars by any recruiting service, although there may in fact be one somewhere in my lifetime.