Over the past couple of years, the state of Alabama has transformed into a premiere football powerhouse.
This year, Auburn won the National Championship; the year before, the trophy went to Alabama.
According to some, the top recruit in the Class of 2012 hails from Oxford, Ala. in Kwon Alexander.
So it’s safe to say that these two in-state rivals will be fighting against each other even more throughout the next decade – on and off the field.
However, Alabama and Auburn missed out on offering one of the top recruits from Alabama in the Class of 2013.
Dee Liner (Class of 2013, Muscle Shoals, Ala.) recently received his first offer from the Wildcats, with many other schools taking a look at him.
“It feels good to get that first offer,” Liner explained. “It feels even better as a sophomore. I’ve been putting in my time and hard work and it’s paying off for me.”
The youngster is also showing a lot of interest in the ‘Cats right now. After all, they are the one and only team to offer him as of right now.
“I’m really interested in Kentucky. I like the campus and I feel like they can give me a good education.
However, the in-state schools are dominating his mind right now, and rightfully so.
Who would turn down Auburn or Alabama recruiting them, especially if they were from the state of Alabama?
Not this guy, that’s for sure.
When asked if he had a list yet, he responded with this:
“If I had to put teams in order right now, I would have Alabama, Auburn, and Kentucky in that order.”
Not a surprise at all. Given, Liner has been an Alabama fan for his whole life.
But he will not stop considering what Kentucky has to offer.
The ‘Cats will have to step up their recruiting game, though.
Liner describes Kentucky’s recruitment as “in the middle” right now compared to other teams.
“I would say Alabama is recruiting me the hardest right now,” he said.
Liner has had an opportunity to see everything that Lexington has to present, despite being young and new to the recruiting process.
“I’ve made it up to Kentucky before. I enjoyed myself,” he complimented. “I also am planning to go down to Auburn during the spring to make a visit, too.”
While Liner still has plenty of time to add new teams and get into more stuff, it seems evident that Alabama and Auburn, along with Kentucky, will be the big schools running for him.
It will be interesting to see this young man develop and improve over the course of a year.
Reeling him in from the Alabama schools will definitely be a tough duty for Joker Phillips and Co. to do, but you never know with recruiting.
Maybe the first offer will help out a little.
Follow Garrett Tucker on Twitter [URL=”https://twitter.com/GTuckersports”]@GTuckersports[/URL] for more info on Kentucky recruiting.
