[LeeCoUKFan]

Cats hoping to lure 2015 linebacker out of Alabama

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

Linebacker will once again be a priority for Kentucky in the next recruiting class and one of the Cats' top early targets hails from an area Derrick Ansley is very familiar with.

Troy, Ala., rising junior linebacker Richard McBryde picked up his first BCS offer from Kentucky earlier this year and the 6-foot-2, 210-pound prospect visited Lexington for the Wildcats' spring game.

It was his first trip to Kentucky and it went well enough for McBryde to say he's maintaining a steady interest level in the Wildcats.

"I went to the spring game and they toured us around the campus and all that," McBryde said. "It's a nice, big school. They've got nice facilities. The spring game was real big. They had a lot of people there."

Ansley is recruiting McBryde and that's a big plus for UK as far as the junior linebacker is concerned. He feels the UK defensive backs coach can relate to him because of his ties to the area.

"I've known him since I was in the ninth grade. He's a cool dude. He went to college at Troy State," he said.

McBryde also has an offer from Southern Miss and claims interest from Florida State, Alabama, Auburn and Troy.

He classified his interest in Kentucky as "medium" and said he does not have any favorites at the present time. He also said that he is comfortable with the distance from his home to UK and said that would not be a negative that works against the Wildcats.

Every school except Alabama is recruiting McBryde as an outside linebacker. The Tide sees him ultimately as an inside linebacker. McBryde has run the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds and as a sophomore last year he registered 99 tackles, three tackles for loss and three sacks.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1532727