New UK tight end coach Derek Shay got a verbal commitment from four-star right end Lincoln Watkins. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky got some needed football recruiting momentum Saturday when Port Huron (Mich.) tight end Lincoln Watkins verbally committed to the Cats.
He picked UK over Florida, Indiana and others. On3 has him ranked as the nation’s 31st best tight end in his recruiting class after he made 39 catches for 668 yards and ran 39 times for 245 yards. He scored 17 total touchdowns.
He also played on defense and had 42 tackles.
Watkins is now the eighth player to publicly make a verbal commitment to the Cats who got involved late with him. In early June it appeared Florida and Nebraska were the frontrunners for Walker before he reset his recruitment.
New Kentucky tight ends coach Derek Shay, who took over after Vince Marrow left for Louisville, offered Watkins earlier this month and according to Greg Smith, Rivals.com national recruiting analyst, told him he was the No. 1 tight end on UK’s recruiting board.
Watkins, who has over 20 scholarship offers, visited UK last week and told Rivals.com that he wanted to see if Kentucky was a school that could develop his game.
Watkins obviously had to like what he saw and was impressed with coach Mark Stoops.
“Honestly, to be completely honest with you, what I’m most excited about is just the people here,” Watkins told Smith. “Coach Stoops and everyone made me feel so welcome and that’s the main reason I picked them.”
One Response
Great job Derek Shay. This is a massive get for us to choose Kentucky over Florida Penn State and Indiana who has a little recruiting momentum. This kid already has a SEC tight end frame. If he stays in the weight room and continues to work at his position he can come in and play as a freshman like Rodriguez did last year. I would play him in 4 games 2 weaker opponents then 2 sec games. Rodriguez will carve out his starting role this year. We never know what were going to get out of Kattus who was the worst tight end starter in the sec last year. Hopefully he gets back to his playing like his sophomore year. He was a very good blocker then and looked a little faster then last year. I think he will definitely go out with a bang.