[LeeCoUKFan]

Family ties helped lead Kelly to Kentucky

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

Playing football at the University of Kentucky is becoming a Kelly family tradition and the thought of following in familiar footsteps was appealing to one of the Cats' recent commitments.

Havana (Fla.) East Gadsden offensive tackle Derrick Kelly committed to the Wildcats in June after showing up at camp and checking in at 6-foot-5 and 285-pounds. He's not the Wildcats' highest-ranked commitment but he is the recruit that put Kentucky at No. 1 in the national rankings with his pledge.

For Kelly the decision to commit to Kentucky was easy.

"I feel like Kentucky is going to have a major turnaround," he said. "With (Mark) Stoops being the head coach and all the players they have coming in, I think it's going to be a major turnaround and I wanted to be a part of it."

Two of Kelly's family members of the same last name, Eric and Champ, played college football for the Wildcats. Kelly said he's close with the former and trusts what he has told him about UK.

"He's told me it's a good college," he said of Eric. "He told me there are good coaches and people there that he's played with before. He liked everything about it."

While at the Wildcats' camp Kelly was able to talk to the coaches, tour the schools and see what the facilities are like, as well as the plans for the facilities. Kelly was an imposing figure around the football offices but he wasn't there to participate. The staff had already evaluated his film and assistant coach Bradley Dale Peveto stopped by his school to see him in person during the spring.

South Carolina's coaches wanted Kelly to camp but he didn't go through with that. The only other school Kelly camped at this summer was Alabama and that was at the beginning of June.

"Pretty much all the schools backed off," Kelly said, referring to the period of time after his commitment.

Kelly added that he was able to meet and get to know Mikel Horton and Thaddeus Snodgrass while he was at UK's camp.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1523682