[LeeCoUKFan]

Cats offer 2015 cornerback from Virginia

Justin Rowland
Special to CatsIllustrated.com

Kentucky's coaches are playing catch-up with the current junior class but they are also evaluating some of the top talents in the Class of 2015.

The staff scrambled to piece together their recent Signing Day haul while coaches elsewhere were laying the groundwork for the next class. The Class of 2015 will be the first that the staff is totally "caught up" with their peers elsewhere.

Garrett Taylor, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound cornerback from Richmond (Va.) St. Christopher's, is only a sophomore. But he's now officially an SEC target.

North Carolina was the first school to offer the Virginia native, but he recently picked up offers from Kentucky and Tennessee.

"Just the other day I picked up an offer from Kentucky and (Saturday) during Tennessee's junior day coach (Butch) Jones offered me a scholarship," he said.

Derrick Ansley is the coach that offered Taylor. While Virginia is outside of the geographical footprint in the South that Ansley will stick to for the most part, he had an existing relationship with Taylor.

Because of that relationship Taylor is willing to consider UK.

"It was a surprise because I didn't know where coach Ansley had (taken a job). I did work with him at the Tennessee camp this past summer so he knew who I was and he liked me a lot. He went to Kentucky and told the coaching staff about me and they decided to offer," he said.

"I don't really know that much about their program but I'm supposed to be keeping in touch with coach Ansley. I'm probably going to a camp there over the summer so I'm definitely keping my options open. Once I figure out a little more about them I'll know what I think."

Kentucky will need to make a good impression early because the other two schools that have offered, Tennessee and North Carolina, have his attention.

Taylor grew up a North Carolina basketball fan and he said the Vols have made a strong early impression.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1474109