With Super Bowl Sunday only a few days away, most teams across the NFL are turning their attention to finalizing draft boards for this year's incoming NFL Draft class.
The biggest opportunity for scouts to get a chance to see these players test will come in the next few weeks at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, as the NFL Scouting Combine is scheduled to kick off on March 1st.
For the Kentucky Wildcats, they will be well represented at this years combine, as seven players received invitations to this year's event.
Players attending will be Luke Fortner, Darian Kinnard, Yusuf Corker, Marquan McCall, Josh Paschal, Wan’Dale Robinson, and Dare Rosenthal.
With the seven participants, Kentucky is tied for the fifth-most players of any school and even tied with the likes of Ohio State and Notre Dame.
Most players invited to NFL Scouting Combine:
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) February 9, 2022
Georgia 14
Alabama, Oklahoma 11
LSU, Texas A&M 9
Arizona St, Cincinnati, Michigan, Ole Miss, Penn St 8
Baylor, Kentucky, Ohio St 7
Iowa St, Oregon, San Diego St, Virginia Tech 6
Arkansas, UNC, Notre Dame, UCLA, USC 5
With these numbers, the Kentucky coaching staff has strengthened their recruiting pitch. They have proven they can be effective in developing players they recruit from the high school ranks, as well as recruit players from the portal and turn them into draft picks in their short time on campus.
Mark Stoops is trying to build a program that can compete for an SEC East title each season. Recruiting and developing pros is a big step in the right direction to reach that goal.
Alongside the success from this past season, the national media is also showing some early love to the 2022-2023 Wildcats.
In the first preseason ESPN SP+ rankings, the Kentucky football team comes in at No. 21 overall. They finished this past season at No. 22 after the Citrus Bowl win over Iowa.
Kentucky is scheduled to face five teams that ranked inside the top 25 of this ranking, including Florida (18), Ole Miss (22), Mississippi State (12), Tennessee (9), and Georgia (2).
With a ton of returning production on both sides of the ball, as well as the best recruiting class in school history, it’s no secret that expectations will be high for the program coming into this next season.
Expect to see the Cats featured in several other preseason rankings as spring practice approaches, which will get Big Blue Nation riled up for opening day at Kroger Field.
You can find the ESPN SP+ rankings here. You can also find what the metrics take into account here.