WKU Recruiting: National Signing Day Live Blog
Today is the day! It’s the beginning of the early signing period, which begins at 7 a.m. local time (so it’s 7 a.m. Georgia time, 7 a.m…
Today is the day! It’s the beginning of the early signing period, which begins at 7 a.m. local time (so it’s 7 a.m. Georgia time, 7 a.m. Bowling Green time, 7 a.m. California time, etc.) and it runs until 11:59 p.m. on Friday local time.
Throughout the signing period, we’ll update this story with tweets, thoughts, notes and anything else pertinent to the Tops.
Here is a full list of guys who have given their verbal commitments to WKU. The list has been compiled using Rivals. The link in their name is a link-back to either a story we have written on them or to their Rivals recruiting page.
Terez Traynor — Athlete (Louisville, Ky)
Kawan Williams — Athlete (Garden City, Ga)
Roderic Forts — DE (Ellenwood, Ga)
Que Reid — DB (Concord, NC)
Deporess Schletty — DT (Alpharetta, Ga)
Nazir Sy — DT (Norcross, Ga)
Adam Krause — K (Illinois)
Tre Leslie — LB (Tucker, Ga)
Troy Ingle — OL (Plantation, Fla)
Sam Stovall — OL (Chattanooga, Tenn)
Lee Graham — WR (Glen St. Mary, Fla)
As players sign, we’ll update the list by removing their name, and putting them underneath the jump, as to not clog the story.
If you see a player has signed and we haven’t included them in our story, hit us up on Twitter.
UPDATE: 3:45 p.m. ET
Add one more official signee to the Tops’ list.
— Arthur Brathwaite — DB (Pembroke Pines, Fla) — Brathwaite continues the tradition of talented Sunshine State kids to come to the Hill.
WKUInsider’s Michael McCammon has noted Brathwaite is the final signee today. He also says the coaching staff will “have the task of keeping the remaining commits in the fold,” in hopes of adding more names to the signed list as the week goes on.
I was hoping the Tops would get NLI’s from Sam Stoval and Lee Graham today, but the signing period is still young, so there’s still hope.
At the end of the first day of the early period, the Tops land at 69th (nice) overall in 247Sports’ rankings and are tied for 61st with Western Michigan in Rivals’ rankings. In both rankings, the Tops have the #1 C-USA recruiting class, beating out La Tech, FIU and UTSA for the top spot.
UPDATE: 3:24 p.m. ET
WKU finishes the early signing period with 15 signees and one gray-shirt signee from the 2017 class (three-star Tampa DE Paul Taylor)
12 of the signees have been fully announced by WKU football’s Twitter account. There is a lag between three players that they are waiting on signing ceremonies that weren’t officially announced but have signed (thinking Shannon Bishop, Terez Traynor and possibly another). WKU must hold on for the other committed players listed up top between now and February 7 signing day.
Here’s Mike Sanford’s presser with local media talking about the early signing class.
UPDATE: 2:19 p.m. ET
WKU got their potential future QB locked up
— Kevaris Thomas- QB (Lakeland, FL) — The big 6'4", 250 pound quarterback has a strong arm and can run when he needs to. If he can pick up the system quickly he’ll factor in WKU’s 2018 quarterback race. Picked WKU over USF, FAU and Colorado State.
UPDATE: 1:11 p.m. ET
So a couple of big names have signed for the Tops and I couldn’t be more excited
— Malik Occiur — DB (Oakland Park, Fla) — Occiur is a great get for the Tops, and he’s officially a Chrome Dome.
— Devin Bell — DE (Goshen, Al) — This is one of three or four guys in the class I’ve highlighted as the biggest gets in the class. Bell had Louisville and Purdue looking at him, so this is, at this moment, the biggest win of the day for The Pursuit.
UPDATE: 10:51 a.m. ET
The Tops have landed
— Russell Brown — WR (Lehigh Acres, Fla) — Who chose the Tops over some P5 schools. Can’t wait to watch him in action.
UPDATE: 10:39 a.m. ET
Sorry folks, was doing some chores.
ANYWAY, I have a correction to make about a previous tweet,
That third name from the top, Maurquel Dillard, decommitted from the Tops last week and signed with FIU today. Good luck to him with the Panthers.
The Tops have received another commit.
— Gunner Britton — OL (Conway, SC) — Gunner is now a Topper.
And, WE HAVE SINGING TWEETS! Enjoy.
If you see any other tweets of recruits signing, let us know.
UPDATE: 9:55 a.m. ET
The in-house scouting reports are coming out, as the WKU football Twitter account has a couple of videos up from position coaches about some of the new signees.
Coach Crum talks about Mario Wright
And Coach White drops some knowledge about Jayden Patterson.
UPDATE: 9:39 a.m. ET
— Lichon Terrell — DE (Hogansville, Ga) — Terrell has been excited all morning to get a chance to sign, and he’s officially a Hilltopper.
UPDATE: 9:30 a.m. ET
— Cardavion Myers — DB (Piedmont, Ala) — Myers has put his name on his NLI, according to WKU. Becomes the first official member from Alabama in the 2018 class.
UPDATE: 8:47 a.m. ET
— Jayden Patterson — DB (Lawrenceville, Ga) — According to WKUSports.com, Patterson has officially signed with the Hilltoppers.
— Mario Wright — LB (Flossmoor, Ill) — Also according to the Tops’ official website, Wright has put his name to an NLI to become a Topper.
— Gino Appleberry — RB (Atlanta, Ga) — Same story for Appleberry — WKUSports.com has him as an official signee.
— Spencer Gaddis — WR (Alpharetta, Ga) — The third official member of the Toppers from the Peach State, WKU’s official site has Gaddis as an official Hilltopper.
— Shannon Bishop, Jr — DB (Louisville, Ky) — This update comes via Chad Bishop’s live blog at WBKO.
— Trey Urquhart — RB (Acworth, Ga) — WKU’s official Twitter account has confirmed Urquhart has signed.