Mike Stoops is getting Kentucky recruiting back into Central Florida

At the beginning of the Mark Stoops era, recruiting Central Florida was essential to Kentucky football. The program landed a bunch of high-quality players from the Greater Orlando area to get things started in Lexington.

In the first two signing classes under Stoops, running backs coach Chad Scott went into the Sunshine State to land Jeff Badet, Garrett Johnson, Jojo Kemp, and Blake McClain out of greater Orlando. Scott also went west to Tampa to find Derrick Baity. However, that area dried up after Scott left the staff following the 2015 season to work for North Carolina.

Kentucky dipped into Central Florida to land Kenneth Horsey (Sanford Seminole) in the class of 2018, but for the most…