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Kentucky football currently has a chance to have its highest rated recruiting class.
Linebacker D’Eryk Jackson is expected to be one of UK’s defensive stars this season but at SEC Media Days last week he was asked what Kentucky coach Mark Stoops and his staff were using to sell the program to recruits.
“For me I tell a person Coach Stoops is very real and authentic. He keeps it real to everything he said,” Jackson said. “He is not going to sugar-coat nothing with you. He’s going to tell it like it is. He’s a cool guy, and the program that he has built, he put people in place to help us.
“I think every year we always do something, like in the summer we do, like, this thing called ‘Four for 40.’ It’s really based on these four years you got now for your next 40 years of your life, and it just builds on life. Not even football, but just your life skills and goals.”
Stoops is also the SEC’s longest tenured coach now with 12 years at Kentucky after Alabama’s Nick Saban retired. Jackson knows that helps UK.
“I think it’s beneficial to have a guy that’s there because I think it helps the program in general just knowing you’ve got a coach that’s been there for a long time, knowing he is going to be there next year,” Jackson said. “I think it helps the recruiting for teams too if you have a head coach that has been there for a minute.”
