No. 78 Mark Stoops.JPG
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has a staff with major Alabama ties. (Mark Almond/malmond@al.com)
This is the fifth in a series of stories about out-of-state schools that recruit successfully in Alabama.
Kentucky is willing to go the extra mile for Alabama recruits. Literally.
In January, Kentucky offensive coordinator Neal Brown and offensive line coach John Schlarman got caught in Birmingham's "Snowpocalypse" while on the way to see Spain Park offensive lineman Jervontius "Bunchy" Stallings. They travelled seven hours and covered just 20 miles on treacherous, icy roads before deciding to abandon their rental car on the side of the road and walk the final mile or so to Spain Park High School for their visit with Stallings.
"When you are in the middle of it, you don't know what to do next," Schlarman says. "Our options were kind of limited; it was either be stuck in the car pretty much all night or get out and try to walk to the school.
"Looking back it was really crazy, but at the time we didn't know what to do."
The extra effort paid off. After the coaches spent the night at Spain Park, Stallings picked Kentucky over Mississippi State. The 6-foot-3, 330-pound lineman, who grew up in Mississippi, told AL.com the Kentucky coaches' effort was a deciding factor in his recruitment. "That was a big part of my decision," Stallings said in January. "I just felt real comfortable with them after they did something like that."
Kentucky has three assistants with Alabama ties and has been active recruiting the Yellowhammer State under second-year coach Mark Stoops. Schlarman and Brown both coached at Troy, while defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley is a Tallassee, Alabama native.
Schlarman has a good relationship with Spain Park coach Shawn Raney, which helped the Wildcats get in front of Stallings. He was also the primary recruiter for James Clemens offensive lineman Logan Stenberg, who committed to the Wildcats in April.
Ansley, who also played college football at Troy, has been very aggressive recruiting Alabama. Multiple recruits told AL.com that Ansley was the college coach recruiting them the hardest. He utilizes a lifetime of coaching contacts and relationships to recruit the state. "My ties run deep in Alabama and that's home for me," Ansley says. "It's a natural, easy fit for me to sell Kentucky because I have those close relationships with guys that I've formed for 15-20 years."
Ansley is recruiting Smiths Station linebacker Amonte Caban (No. 12 on AL.com's A-List) and Florence defensive back Darius "Dee" Smith, among other in-state recruits. Both prospects own multiple SEC scholarship offers, but neither has one from Alabama or Auburn.
That's good news for Ansley, who knows just how difficult it is to get an Alabama kid out of the state. "You have to find the right kid who is willing to: a) leave the state and b) leave home, go play college football and branch off from the normal Alabama or Auburn tradition," he says. "You have some kids you know that if Alabama or Auburn offers, they are probably going to go there. That's just the way it is."
The Kentucky coaches evaluate prospects by their sophomore year, particularly identifying players who are willing to leave their home state. Kentucky, like its in-state rival Louisville, gets the bulk of its roster outside of its home state. That means going into neighboring states and beating out fellow SEC schools for top talent.
The school has historically been known more for basketball than football, but was successful on the recruiting trail in 2014. Last year, Kentucky signed the nation's 22nd best recruiting class, according to 247Composite, by signing the top in-state talent (including quarterback Drew Barker and defensive lineman Matt Elam) and plucking players out of Georgia (running back Stanley Williams), Florida (defensive end Denzil Ware) and South Carolina (wide receiver Blake Bone).
Stallings was Kentucky's only Alabama signee Alabama last year, but it was still a big victory for the Wildcats. "Any time you go into a team's home state you are going to have a serious battle on your hands, if everything's even," Schlarman says. "It's going to be an uphill battle at times. [Under Stoops], we aren't going to back down from anyone in recruiting."
Check out in a map below where Kentucky has landed Alabama talent in the last four recruiting cycles: