Mac Jones, James Hudson now 4-star prospects

The Kentucky Wildcats just wrapped up a great 2016 recruiting class, and they're already off to a hot start in 2017.

Back in July, UK landed commitments from 2017 quarterback Mac Jones and 2017 defensive end James Hudson. At the time, they were three-star prospects in most recruiting services, but they've since risen to four-star status.

Rivals.com has Hudson comes in at 211th in the newly-released Rivals 250.  He's a four-star prospect on their, as well as 247 Sports where he comes in as their 212th-ranked prospect.

As for Jones, he just earned a four-star ranking from Rivals.com on Tuesday after a great weekend at the Elite 11 Regional in Orlando. He's still a three-star prospect everywhere else, but that may soon change if he continues to do well in camps and draw more scholarship offers. Arizona State, Washington State, Illinois and Southern Miss are the most recent schools to offer him.

And yes, Shannon Dawson was the guy who got Jones to commit to UK last year, and he's now recruiting the Florida signal-caller at his new job with the Golden Eagles. Even with that connection, it's hard to see Jones passing on BCS offers to play in Conference USA, especially if bigger programs continue to come after him.

As for Hudson, who hails from Toledo, Ohio, you can expect some major offers to come his way between now and National Signing Day 2017. He's already got offers from West Virginia, Cal, Penn State, Iowa and Pitt among others.

Still, it's great to see UK already has two blue-chippers in the fold for next year. Hopefully Mark Stoops and co. can hold on to them like he did with this past class.