With the University of Kentucky on the brink of completing one of its best football recruiting classes just two days prior to national signing day, the Wildcats spared no expense to get the message out Sunday during the Super Bowl.
According to courier-journal.com, the ad aired during the Super Bowl in the Lexington, Ky., market. Kentucky went winless in SEC play at 0-8 in coach Mark Stoops' first year at UK last season. In fact, it's Stoops' voice in the commercial, which features several incoming recruits who already have enrolled at the school.
"Why Kentucky? Why not?" Stoops said in the ad.
According to rivals.com, Kentucky is on track to sign the 13th-ranked class in the country on Wednesday, ahead of such traditional recruiting powers as Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan. The trick for Stoops, which Kentucky coaches who have preceded him have consistently failed to do, is attract multiple highly regarded classes consecutively. That's what it will take to pull the Wildcats out of the SEC East cellar for any extended period of time.
Largely bereft of talent at the quarterback position, Stoops' rebuilding effort may eventually claim quarterback Drew Barker, featured in the advertisement, as a cornerstone. Barker is a four-star recruit from Burlington, Ky., who spurned offers from Louisville, Miami, and other more successful programs to play for his home-state school.
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