Brian Robinson, second from left, visited UK Saturday and committed to the Cats today. (UK Athletics Photo)
Once again patience and the Youngstown, Ohio, connections have paid off for Kentucky football. For weeks it has seemed 6-4, 260-pound edge rusher Brian Robinson — the No. 77 prospect overall and No. 5 player at his positions in the Rivals.com rankings — would commit to Kentucky over Michigan, Penn State, Georgia, Notre Dame, USC, Auburn, Texas A&M and Tennessee.
But there was also speculation that he might be waiting for an offer from Ohio State which seemed logical since ESPN has him as the nation’s 79th best recruit and he’s a consensus top 200 player in all the recruiting services.
He was on campus again Saturday when Kentucky beat Florida along with UK commits Jerod and Jacob Smith, Cutter Boley, Elijah Groves, Willie Rodriguez, and Elijah Groves and that seemed to seal the deal and put UK in position to have another top 25 recruiting class.
Robinson is from Youngstown, Ohio, just like UK coach Mark Stoops and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow are. Marrow and Robinson’s father are friends which had to help the recruiting process and enable Stoops to land just the third top 150 defensive prospect in his time at UK.
“What made Kentucky the right school for me was the consistency. It never changed from day one,” Robinson told On3’s Chad Simmons after making his commitment public on X and Kentucky Sports Radio. “Kentucky was always one of my favorite schools. Kentucky never treated me differently. They never wavered in their consistency. They were the first Power 5 school to offer me.
“Coach Marrow offered me and he told me in the beginning, ‘After this offer they’re all going to come. Be patient, do your due diligence, take your time. I’ll be here when you’re ready.’ And he kept that.
“He never pressured me, he never told me — you know I’ve had schools tell me, ‘You need to hurry up and commit before we fill the board up.’ Kentucky never told me that. They told me from day one ‘you have a home here, you will always have a home here no matter what.'”
