With productive work on the recruiting trails largely in Ohio and, lately, in Kentucky, Vince Marrow has more than earned his reputation as UK football’s ace recruiter.
But even a “Big Dog” needs help.
Since Mark Stoops brought Jon Sumrall back to his college alma mater as Kentucky’s inside linebackers coach in 2019, the former UK player has produced consistent recruiting success in an area, the Deep South, that has long confounded Wildcats recruiters.
Working often in an “under the radar” manner, the former Kentucky linebacker has brought at least eight players combined from the states of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi to Lexington in the prior two recruiting cycles.
According to the Rivals.com recruiting database, seven of those eight players picked UK over other SEC offers.
“Sometimes in the Deep South, you try to keep some of the guys quiet that you are in on because there are so many guys under the radar down there who have high talent,” Sumrall says. “And I just don’t like to publicize what we are doing. I think, sometimes, (other) schools ‘copycat recruit.’”
If you have followed “the scuttlebutt” emanating from Kentucky’s mostly closed practices this preseason, many of the young players receiving positive buzz are prospects Sumrall lured north from Dixie:
▪ A 6-foot-3, 305-pound nose guard from Horn Lake, Miss., Josaih Hayes was one of the big national surprises on signing day for the class of 2020 when he picked Kentucky over a litany of traditional SEC powers.
Sumrall, a former Mississippi assistant, won out in an intense recruiting battle with Ole Miss for the four-star defensive lineman. Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and LSU had also offered Hayes.
Reviews on Hayes’ play coming from Kentucky’s camp this month have grown increasingly bullish.
▪ From the class of 2021, Chauncey Magwood, a 6-foot, 190-pound wideout from Albany, Ga., seems to have a viable chance to crack Kentucky’s receiving rotation as a true freshman.
Sumrall beat out Arkansas, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, Michigan, Mississippi and Mississippi State for Magwood.
▪ Wide receiver Chris Lewis turned down Arkansas, Louisville, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee, UCLA and West Virginia to choose Kentucky.
The 6-4, 190-pound product of Pleasant Grove, Ala., may need time to build strength; in time, he could give UK the kind of big, athletic outside receiver the Wildcats play against in the SEC.
▪ Kahlil Saunders, a 6-5, 270-pound defensive lineman out of Sumrall’s alma mater, Grissom High School in Huntsville, Ala., was an “off the beaten path” recruit — his only other Power Five offers came from Kansas and Virginia Tech.
Nevertheless, there has been a consistent, positive buzz about Saunders coming out of UK practices.
▪ A 6-2, 212-pound product of Rochelle, Ga., linebacker Martez Thrower picked Kentucky over Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Tennessee and Wisconsin, among others.
With injuries creating opportunity, Thrower might play meaningful snaps this fall.
▪ If the recruiting geeks are correct, Trevin Wallace, a 6-2, 220-pound product of Jesup, Ga., is the jewel of Sumrall’s efforts so far in the Deep South.
With Ole Miss transfer Jacquez Jones (another Sumrall recruit) battling injury, Wallace was running with the first team during a recent UK practice open to the media.
An injury that ended Wallace’s junior season in high school after only four games and an early commitment to Boston College froze his recruitment.
Sumrall, Wallace reports, never relented in recruiting him even after he committed to Boston College.
“He never left the game. He still kept recruiting me,” Wallace says.
After Wallace de-committed from BC, he says he probably would have chosen Auburn, except the Tigers changed coaching staffs.
“Getting to know a new coaching staff in a short amount of time, that was going to be difficult,” Wallace says. “So my mind switched to Kentucky. I knew Coach Sumrall. He’s the type you want on your side. He gives off good energy.”
Besides growing up in Alabama, Sumrall has coached at Ole Miss, Tulane and Troy.
“I’m fortunate, in the Deep South, I know the lay of the land pretty well,” he says. “I know a lot of the high school coaches really well.”
When defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale departed UK for a job at Michigan this offseason, it was a significant blow to Kentucky recruiting. Clinkscale had opened an effective recruiting pipeline into the state of Michigan for UK. With his absence, it seems unlikely Kentucky can sustain that.
That raises the value to UK of Sumrall’s ability to get quality recruits from the heart of SEC country.
Yet when things go the way the former Kentucky linebacker likes it, you won’t know about his efforts until a player signs.
“The publicity part of recruiting is great,” Sumrall says. “But what really is my job is to find the best fit for the University of Kentucky. And a lot of times, that’s done best under the radar, just laying low.”
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