[LeeCoUKFan]

Kentucky commit Flannigan talks official visit

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

Ryan Flannigan went into his official visit to Kentucky with high expectations. The trip measured up and exceeded those expectations in every respect.

Flannigan had committed to Kentucky at the start of the summer so the 6-foot-1, 220-pound linebacker from Brenham, Texas, Blinn College has clearly thought highly of the school for a while. Both he and teammate Shyquawn Pullium took their official visits to UK over the weekend.

Both prospects plan to enroll at UK early so the staff wanted them to take their official visits before the end of the season. The weekend of the Florida game worked out because Blinn had a bye on their calendar.

Flannigan arrived at Kentucky at the start of the weekend and his flight didn't leave for Texas until around 5 p.m. late Sunday afternoon. In between he had one of the best weekends he's had in a long time.

"I had a real good time," Flannigan told Cats Illustrated. "It was real good. It's very different than Texas so it was great to see something new. In Houston it's real hot and it's just it's own place. I thought at Kentucky the weather was good, the campus was great and everybody was real nice."

His host for the weekend was Javess Blue, who was a junior college transfer himself coming into this season. Blue shed some light on what the transition to UK from that level has been like.

"I met all the coaches and they're all really good people. I enjoyed meeting a couple of the players, too," Flannigan added.

On the field the Wildcats didn't have the result they hoped for. But the 24-7 loss was still enough to show Flannigan the players are responding to the coaches, and he believes progress is inevitable under this staff.

"They're going to be really good in a couple of years," he said. "They hung in there until the second half with a really good Florida team so I was impressed with how hard they played."

When Flannigan committed the talk was he would be a linebacker for the Cats. More recently there have been some rumblings that Flannigan has the versatility to play at different spots on the field. Defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot explained his plans for Flannigan in a meeting on Sunday morning.

"He wants me to mostly play Will linebacker but when the other team puts someone in the slot I'd be able to cover him. But mostly Will linebacker," he said. "Of course they expect me to play early but every football player knows that nothing is handed to you."

Flannigan said he is 100 percent solid with Kentucky and is looking forward to enrolling in January.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1556156