Kentucky Football Recruiting: Damien Harris, Rashaun Smith, George Brown, Nick Connor, Others To Visit

Earlier this week I attempted to parse out the cryptic tweet sent by Rivals recruiting analyst Justin Rowland. At the time, he seemed to be suggesting that Damien Harris, George Brown, Andrew Dowell, David Dowell, and Kengera Daniel would all be attending the Kentucky-South Carolina game. It makes sense that the coaches would be pushing prospects to attend this game, since it will be the best home atmosphere in many seasons along with a decent chance to witness a 4-1 start to the season.

Since that post more news has filtered out. Other prospects now either reported, or confirmed, to be attending by the Herald-Leader, Eleven Warriors, KSR, Scout's Patrick Loney, Rival's Justin Rowland and Mike Farrel, and Land Grant Holy Land's Charles Doss include, but are not limited to (list excludes current UK commits):

[UPDATE 1: Herald-Leader reporting Tavin Richardson 3* receiver and Drake Jackson 4* 2016 center are visiting]

[UPDATE 2: The Courier-Journal reporting 2016 running back Quinton Baker is visiting. Same story reports George Brown may not be attending now]

[UPDATE 3: Eleven Warriors writer Jeremy Birmingham (in the comments section) states Nick Connor isn't visiting this weekend as of late Thursday night].

[Update 4 (3pm Saturday): Herald-Leader reports 2016 4*  Jordan Griffin is visiting (via Wild Weasel)].

Damien Harris 5* Running back (second visit in last two weeks)

George Brown Jr 3* Offensive lineman (Florida commit)

David Dowell 4* Defensive back

Andrew Dowell 3* Athlete

Nick Connor 4* Linebacker (Ohio State commit)

Kengera Daniel 3* Defensive lineman

Javon Provit 3* Defensive linemen

Ahmad Wagner Athlete (Iowa basketball commit)

CJ Amill unranked Running back

Rashaun Smith 4* 2016 Linebacker

Messiah Deweaver 4* 2016 Quarterback (Michigan commit)

Jonathan Cooper 4* 2016 Linebacker

Jeffery Pooler 2016 Defensive lineman

Joe Bachie 2016 Linebacker

Roland Walder 2016 Linebacker

Russ Yeast 2017 Athlete (son of Craig Yeast)

Presumably there will also be a large contingent of in-state recruits in the 2016 and 2017 classes that UK is actively evaluating.

"@vincemarrow: Great group coming this week BBN maybe a big surprise,time to roll some dice."

— Patrick Loney (@PatrickLoney) October 1, 2014

According to Rivals, the Dowell twins are expected to commit "by the weekend." Impressive for UK fans is not only the attendees rankings (several four star recruits and Harris), or the fact Stoops and his staff has turned recruiting around so quickly, but several of these recruits are currently committed to blue-blood programs (Ahmad Wagner is a bit of a surprise. Will Calipari let him walk-on to sweeten the offer?). Unlike DeWeaver, getting Connor to visit is pretty impressive since Urban Meyer is in no danger of being fired at any moment.

UK's 2015 class of commits as it stands currently:

QB: zero

RB: zero

WR: Alex Stump and Jabari Greenwood (average 4*s)

TE: CJ Conrad (4*)

O-linemen: George Asafo-Adjei, Mason Wolfe, Levon Livingston, Larry Wells, and Logan Stenberg (average 3*s)

D-linemen: Jason Strowbridge (3*)

Linebackers: Jordan Jones and Eli Brown (average 3*s)

Secondary: Kei Beckham, Jeremiah Dinson, and Marcus Walker (average 3*s)

UK still has some positions to fill, and some of these prospects probably will fill the gaps. Remaining spots definitely go to running back, defensive line, and receiver positions. I suspect another linebacker will fill out the class, and at least one more in the secondary. I doubt UK takes a quarterback this class with Towles, Barker, and Phillips all still being underclassmen. Furthermore, Messiah DeWeaver's attendance suggests he's a major quarterback target for 2016. UK probably takes 24-25 total in this class so roughly 10 spots remain.

I'll update this post if any significant updates occur. Until then keep in mind it's a long way until NSD, etc.