Stone Saunders was all smiles after committing to UK Friday. (ABC 27 Sports Photo)
Kentucky has had great success finding quarterbacks via the transfer portal but that’s a trend offensive coordinator Liam Coen hopes to change by developing highly rated high school signees.
The Cats got a 2024 commitment from Lexington Christian Academy quarterback Cutter Boley, the state’s top-rated player, in the spring. Now they already have a highly-touted quarterback commitment in the 2025 recruiting class after Pennsylvania’s Stone Saunders picked the Cats over Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska and Miami on Friday.
He’s a top 25 quarterback in his recruiting class and top 350 player overall.
The 6-3, 200-pound Saunders made several unofficial visits to Kentucky, including one last weekend with his family.
Saunders played in 14 games for Bishop McDevitt High School in 2022 when he threw for 3,583 yards and 54 touchdowns with just five interceptions while completing 69 percent of his passes. Even though he was only a sophomore, he was named the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year and already has thrown 101 touchdown passes.
He told me he was “done with all the recruiting things “ and wanted to make his decision because he knew where he wanted to go.
Saunders likes the pro-style offense that Coen runs and the way UK recruited him.
“I was their number one quarterback prospect and a major priority for them and that was a very big part of it as well. They made it clear I was important to them,” Saunders said. “They treated me like family and did the same for my family.”
His father, Steve, trained Coen when he came out of college and was preparing for the NFL draft and that relationship certainly helped UK’s chances.
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Saunders will join myself, Anthony White and Jack Pilgrim on Sunday Morning Sports Talk (630 AM WLAP and https://wlap.iheart.com/) at 10:05 a.m. Sunday. A podcast of the entire three-hour show that runs from 9-noon will be posted Sunday afternoon.
One Response
Good news indeed.