[LeeCoUKFan]

LexCath's Ryan gives UK another 2015 QB target

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

Think Kentucky is just recruiting two quarterbacks from the 2015 class? Think again.

While Jarrett Stidham and Elijah Sindelar are already household names to those that follow Kentucky football recruiting they aren't the only 2015 quarterbacks on the Wildcats' recruiting radar.

The Cats are also taking a close look at someone in their own backyard.

Reese Ryan is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound quarterback from Lexington Catholic and he was an unknown as a prospect until midway through the season last year when the school's starter, Kyle Bolin, went down with an injury.

Ryan made the most of the brief opportunity and passed for 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns while rushing for seven scores on the ground. Numbers like that in half a season tend to attract attention and now he's set to enter his junior season as yet another Kentucky quarterback with BCS offers.

In fact, Ryan has more BCS offers than Sindelar. While the latter has an offer from UK, Ryan has offers from Louisville and Illinois.

This summer Ryan camped at schools all over the country. He made stops at in-state schools UK and Louisville but also traveled to Florida, Clemson, Illinois, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

"I probably had my best days at Louisville and Illinois, when I got my first two offers," Ryan said. "I thought I did really well at Florida. They liked me down there. At Kentucky's camp I had a great day too."

Ryan said he "wasn't really a fan" of Kentucky growing up but he wasn't a hater either. He would attend a lot of games at UK since the proximity made it convenient, so at the very least the familiarity helps.

"I've always liked my home state," he added.

He was at Kentucky's camp on July 19, the same camp that Stidham, Sindelar and Drew Barker were at. It was perhaps the most impressive quartet of prep quarterbacks ever assembled on UK's campus.

"I talked to coach (Neal) Brown and he asked me to come up an hour early before camp. I went up to his office and we were watching film. He was showing me how they run their offense," Ryan said. "I think it's wonderful. It's exactly the same offense we run at Catholic. I like how they take what the defense gives them. He leaves a lot up to the quarterback. The quarterback makes a lot of reads in that offense."

Ryan said to date Brown is the only coach that has been in contact with him but that's not surprising. UK's offensive coordinator handles the recruitment of quarterbacks.

Brown and the rest of the staff have caught Ryan's attention because of what they've done before even coaching a game.

"They've come in and they've done a great job with recruiting. I think it's going to take them a couple of years to get going but once they do I think they'll be one of the best teams in the SEC. They know exactly what they're doing and coach Brown is doig a great job with the offense," he said.

Ryan isn't limiting his focus to Kentucky and he said he doesn't have any favorites. He enjoyed his trips to Louisville and Illinois especially in hindsight now that they have offered.

"Louisville was an awesome day. Coach (Shawn) Watson stayed with me the whole time. I really like their offense," he said. "Illinois was a great camp too. My arm was feeling good. I threw my first ball and the offensive coordinator was following me around the whole time."

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1534308