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The Kentucky Wildcats are enjoying their best start of the Mark Stoops era, but has it helped them on the recruiting trail? That may not be the case for Kentucky’s top target in Wandale Robinson.
Robinson, who hails from Frankfort (KY), is a 5-9, 179-pound running back who is currently listed on 247 Sports as the No. 4 all-purpose back in the 2019 class, and Kentucky has remained hopeful of landing the Western Hills star.
But recently, many recruiting experts have been leaning toward the Ohio State Buckeyes as the next home for Robinson.
On Tuesday, Robinson went on Twitter and announced that he will be taking his last official visit to Ohio State next weekend when the Buckeyes take on Indiana. This means that Kentucky will not be one of Robinson’s official visits.
However, Cats Pause’s Derek Terry reports that Robinson will be taking an unofficial visit to Kentucky this weekend for the South Carolina game. While that’s good news, the Buckeyes are still the team getting the most buzz right now.
Right now, 247 Sports’ crystal ball predictions for the No. 7 player in Kentucky have Robinson at a 64% chance of going to Ohio State, an 18% chance of Duke landing him and only a 9% chance of him staying in state and coming to Kentucky.
Two of 247’s top football recruiting gurus — Bill Greene and Steve Wiltfong — just logged predictions for the Buckeyes.
This recruitment is starting to seem like déjà vu to the Damien Harris recruitment, as he was at a lot of Kentucky games during his senior year of high school before ultimately deciding to go to Alabama.
One big difference between then and now is the state of the Kentucky program. Kentucky is on the rise in football after cracking the top 25 for the first time since 2007, and the facilities must be appealing to any recruit that comes through here.
Unfortunately, that is not how the experts feel about this recruiting battle.
After losing out on several in-state prospects that would have made a big impact at Kentucky, Mark Stoops and his staff have made it a priority to keep the best players from Kentucky and get them in a Wildcats uniform.
If they miss out on Robinson, it will have to be a big disappointment not only to the coaching staff, but to the fans who have been big on keeping in-state talent home.