2009- 2-4 Stars From the JUCO RANKS!

Chris Matthews WR 6-5 210 4 STAR ****
Mark Crawford DT 6-1 305 3 STAR ***
DeQuin Evans DE 6-2 275 4 STAR ****

 
Chris Matthews is the highest rated juco signed by UK this year and perhaps ever. He has a measured skill set that exceeds anything we’ve seen in the Juco Ranks for some time. I don’t think it will take a long time for him to develop, since unlike Stevie Johnson, he is not coming into a great receiving corps to start the season.

Has great hands, and just outruns people catching the football. He is going to make the UK QB job much easier. Caught 80 balls last year and is the second rated Juco WR by Rivals, behind Halo Carpenter…., AND, from a raw athletic standpoint…, How many 6’5 210lb receivers will UK have this year who run 4.4 forties?

My hunch is that Matthews locks down one wide spot, and will be very good in short order. Randall Cobb will play the slot, and the other WR spot goes to Lanxter.

We received an interesting quote  from Los Angeles Harbor College Coach Brett Peabody about Chris, “Chris is probably the best junior-college wide receiver in the country,” Peabody said. “He lives up to the saying that ‘big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.’ He can beat you short, he can beat you deep, he can beat you across the middle.”

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Mark Crawford was one of the nation’s top 100 junior college prospects at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College after making 41 tackles and getting 6.5 quarterback sacks last year. He only played two years of high school football in Indianapolis, one reason he redshirted his first year at Coffeyville. Certainly UK is not taking this Juco out of desperation like they were a few years ago when they were coming through the probation.

By all accounts Crawford is looking good and making strides at the DT position: “I am adjusting real well. It is a new experience with coach Petri teaching me how to play better and teaching me stuff I never knew in junior high or high school.”

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 DeQuin Evans: Defensive Ends are sorely needed, a known fact, and “DE”, as I’ll be calling Dequin Evans, needs to hit the ground running. Watch him on film and you see what amounts to a man among boys. Now granted that wasn’t SEC competition, but the film says a lot about what type of player we are getting. Simply stated, I don’t think we have seen a Defensive Juco player who looked any better than DE did on film.

Making up the loss of a Jeremy Jarmon may be a daunting task,  therefore this makes it even more important that someone from our stable of players at the Defensive End position step up and make a big splash there. DE  has all the tools. Evans (6-2, 275) is rated the No. 15 junior college prospect in the nation by Rivals.com, as well as one of our 4 Star athletes. He was a teammate of Chris Matthews. Did I mention he ran a 4.6 forty according to Scout…That is truly smoking for a man his size! GBB!!!

The complete list of finalists:

DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh (Soph., Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Sherron Collins, Kansas (Jr., Chicago, Ill.)
Dante Cunningham, Villanova (Sr., Silver Spring, Md.)
Stephen Curry, Davidson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.)
Tyreke Evans, Memphis (Fr., Chester, Pa.)
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma (Soph., Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina (Sr., Poplar Bluff, Mo.)
Luke Harangody, Notre Dame (Jr., Schererville, Ind.)
James Harden, Arizona state (Soph., Los Angeles, Calif.)
Ty Lawson, North Carolina (Jr., Clinton, Md.)
Jerel McNeal, Marquette (Sr., Chicago, Ill.)
Jodie Meeks, Kentucky (Jr., Norcross, Ga.)
Hasheem Thabeet, Connecticut (Jr., Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania)
Jeff Teague, Wake Forest (Soph., Indianapolis, Ind.)
Evan Turner, Ohio State (Soph., Chicago, Ill.)