[LeeCoUKFan]

ASSESSING THE CLASS: The biggest strength of UK's 2017 class

The month of December has brought a flurry of commitments for UK's football program.

Cats Illustrated steps back, just more than a month away from National Signing Day, and takes a big picture look at Kentucky's 2017 recruiting class.

How strong is it? Where might it finish in the national rankings? How does it compare with classes at other SEC schools? What position groups has UK recruited the best, and where might the Cats still need to improve before February 1st?

These are some of the questions tackled below.

The biggest strength of Kentucky's 2017 class

While schools sometimes take players at every position, almost every recruiting class is stronger in some areas than others. That's true of this Kentucky class as well, at least on paper. While any assessment of the class or even individual players in it is going to be subjective, there are months of interviews, an abundance of scouting reports and plenty of film to help inform an opinion.

Where is this Kentucky class strongest?

This first installment of Cats Illustrated's series assessing the overall quality of UK's 2017 class will deal with that. The answer? The defensive line.

From revolving door of JUCO's to a move towards long-term quality depth

It's not a stretch to say this is the best defensive line haul in the modern recruiting era (or Rivals.com era) for Kentucky's football program. While Kentucky has just one Rivals.com four-star defensive lineman, several others had offer lists that would make a few four-star players elsewhere blush. The defensive line is the biggest strength of Kentucky's class and it's tough to overstate the importance of that.

That said, it's still a bold statement. Stoops' first class, the 2013 signing crew, included four-stars Za'Darius Smith and Jason Hatcher, plus players like Melvin Lewis and Regie Meant, who developed into quality contributors before exiting game action before their eligibility was exhausted, for different reasons. The difference in the 2017 class, which is still just verbally committed, and the 2013 class, is twofold: Hindsight tells a story. Lewis, Meant and Hatcher contributed well at one point, but didn't finish ideally. Jacob Hyde hasn't blossomed into a starter or second-string player and Alvonte Bell detoured to the JUCO level, which burned meaningful eligibility. Other than hindsight, that class also relied on two JUCO players and another (see: Bell) who went JUCO after Signing Day. The eligibility of the 2017 class in the trenches will be revealed in time, but just one of the players has JUCO eligibility.

Mark Stoops has obviously shattered long-existing expectations and an artificially low 'ceiling' that pundits and many fans alike assumed was there, at least in recruiting. But going into the 2017 recruiting cycle the one thing Stoops had never put together was a deep, athletic, versatile and highly sought-after group of defensive linemen.

That's not to say Stoops didn't recruit quality linemen before. Four-star JUCOs Za'Darius Smith and C.J. Johnson (not to mention much-less heralded JUCO Melvin Lewis), touted three-star and Alabama target Matt Elam, in-state prospects like Adrian Middleton and former Cat Lloyd Tubman, one-time Rivals250 (turned high-three star) Denzil Ware and others bear witness to Stoops' success recruiting some respected defensive line prospects.

But before this class there were a couple of problems. For starters, Kentucky needed to rely on an influx of JUCO defensive line talent upon Stoops' arrival. This was a necessity because of the lack of SEC-caliber talent in the trenches coupled with the "win now" mentality that makes a coach's window of opportunity so small in the 21st century. Recruiting JUCO's begets more JUCO recruiting; a revolving door of players with two or three years of eligibility, rather than high schoolers who stick around for four or five years. That makes it very difficult to build long-term depth, to maximize a roster's experience (your seniors are often second-year SEC players, rather than fourth or fifth-year SEC players). Considering that, it's actually impressive that Kentucky has produced a good number of quality defensive line contributors. But the JUCO success plan is tough to sustain because it hinders a program's pursuit of high school players (who see older players as roadblocks to early playing time, and who have fewer scholarship spots to fill).

While JUCO defensive lineman Phil Hoskins will have limited eligibility at Kentucky (even more limited because he will not be enrolling early, as he hoped to for a good while), the rest of Stoops' 2017 line commits will have five years to complete four seasons of eligibility. They're high schoolers. That means they aren't as likely to be SEC-ready contributors, that the learning curve will be steeper, and that fans would be wise to be extra patient, even in the case of a big-time talent like Joshua Paschal. Those fans wondering why it took C.J. Johnson or Lewis a year to hit their stride might be wise to double their patience and assume most of these players will need a redshirt year and redshirt freshman year to develop their strength, technique, conditioning and approach to the game.

But the longer learning curve is generally necessary to build the kind of defensive line that can change games in the SEC. Not many college football programs consistently rely on a revolving door of two or three-year JUCO's to hold up against Power Five offensive lines, particularly those in the SEC. Generally you're taking a player in such a situation and expecting an up-and-down first year followed by, best case scenario, good contributions as a senior. Then rinse, repeat.

Kentucky returns a significant number of contributors on the defensive line in 2017. That does not guarantee the coaching staff that the line will be among the SEC's better units. It doesn't even guarantee the line will improve significantly, although an added year of strength, conditioning and seasoning (not to mention the extra bowl prep) for most of a unit's players will often pay off at least in a moderate way.

Naquez Pringle, Adrian Middleton, Alvonte Bell, Matt Elam, Kengera Daniel, Tymere Dubose, T.J. Carter and Kordell Looney all return as players who should be a part of the rotation in Kentucky's three- or four-man fronts. That makes it tough to predict that any of Kentucky's current defensive line commits will play right away, but that's a good issue to have. Worst case scenario, Kentucky should only have to replace Courtney Miggins, who entered the season as the program's most highly-regarded lineman but who may have been outperformed by a couple of players.

It's certainly possible that one, two or even more of Kentucky's 2017 signees-in-waiting on the line could play next year. After all, several of them are more highly-ranked than Carter and even Looney (who was sought-after), and those two players made pushes to get on the field at various times in 2016. Without discounting the possibility that Hoskins could play early, that Paschal could set a tone right away or that Bohanna could made the interior more sturdy from Day One, the good assumption should be that those players, those very talented recruits, will be playing catch-up through summer workouts, fall camp and most or all of 2017. If they don't play early, that could be a good sign, too. Generally true freshman playing on the defensive line in the SEC is a sign of good recruiting, but also a sign of need, which isn't such good news.

Nonetheless, the sheer number of defensive linemen Kentucky is signing makes it statistically more likely that one or two of those players could surprise, even in a big way, early upon arrival. Some are more physically developed, as high school players, than the other preps in the trenches Stoops has had. Paschal is a sturdy strongside defensive end with enough athleticism to stay there, Bohanna is well over 300 pounds with a big upper body, Whittaker is filling out and has a good reach, Hoskins carries good weight body between his long wing span and Jordan Wright has gotten significantly bigger over the past year alone, with no sign of slowing in that physical maturation process.

Versatility and balance characterize UK defensive line class

The number of defensive linemen in this class, the quality of them and the looming youth movement, towards the potential for long-term depth, are legitimate reasons to conclude the Cats' current commitments comprise the best defensive line class in the program's history during the Rivals.com era.

But there's another reason to make the claim and back it up without hesitation: Versatility. This class has it.

Hoskins is more defensive end than tackle in Kentucky's scheme but he's been listed as a tackle for good reason. He's 6-foot-4, 280 pounds and has played different spots on the line in the past.

Bohanna is capable of manning the tackle spot or the nose. As will be mentioned at greater length, there's never been a consensus among college coaches as to which position Whittaker is best suited to grow into, and that's not because he's a 'tweener. It's because of his versatility.

There had been talk about whether Wright was more of a 'Jack' or more of a defensive end, and there's no telling whether he'll always be a longer, leaner player, or whether he might fill out in a big way, until he's a massive strongside end with rare athleticism. Then, of course, there's King, recruited to fill the all-important Jack spot.

https://kentucky.rivals.com/news/assessi...2017-class