WKU Recruiting: Hot July Continues, 2018 CB from Louisville Commits
Mike Sanford has had a blistering hot month on the recruiting path. On Monday afternoon, that trend continued with his first commitment from the Bluegrass State
Bishop Jr. is a rising senior from Louisville’s Pleasure Ridge Park High School. He is 5’10’’ and recently busted on the scene. Dave Lackford from Rivals penned this write up about Bishop in mid June
2018 Pleasure Ridge Park Athlete Shannon Bishop AKA “Beanie” is a player to watch and he has been burning up stop watches on the camp circuit. At the Rivals 3-Stripe Combine in Columbus the 5-foot-10, 157-pound (Official Temple University measurement, I was there) CB/WR ran a 4.35. He picked up an offer from Eastern Kentucky following that on May, 18th.
Since then, the playmaking WR/CB/PR has hit the camp circuit and put 4.36 and 4.38 at Western Kentucky and Purdue. His performance at the WKU camp earned him his first FBS offer from the Toppers.
“The WKU camp went very well for me. I ran a 4.36 forty-yard-dash and I feel I did tremendous in one on ones as a corner, where I only allowed one pass completion out of twelve reps as a DB. Being offered was great, I’ve been following WKU for a while and they were my first FBS offer so I was excited,” remarked Bishop.
Bishop is very grateful to WKU but his lock down showing at Purdue has put him in a strong position with the Boilermakers. He also recently put a sub 4.4 forty time on the Illinois coaches stop watches and made an impression on the Illini staff. Don’t be surprised if Illinois comes calling for the PRP athlete, making them his first Power-Five offer.
Beanie is a triple threat athlete who can take the top off of defenses with his speed at wide receiver, shut down a teams best receiver on the field side, boundary, or slot as a corner, or take a punt to the house on special teams.
While I believe WKU sits in a strong position to land Bishop based on their early faith in him and the relationship between recruiting coordinator Jamie DeBerry and the Bishop family, I wouldn’t be surprised to see teams like Louisville and Purdue try to jump on Bishop late in the cycle.
That early faith appeared to pay off for DeBerry, Sanford and staff on Monday. Bishop, as of right now, is only a two-star prospect on 247Sports and Rivals but he recently was drawing interest from Purdue and Illinois to go along a handful of FCS offers.
The last two-star talent to come of out PRP was Taywan Taylor, and I think that turned out well. Keeping the Bluegrass pipeline open will be crucial for Sanford to supplement all of the Georgia and Florida talent he is bringing in. Players such as Taylor, Antonio Andrews, Mitchell Henry, Max Halpin, Nacarius Fant, Lucky Jackson, and Joe Brown are just a few under-the-radar Kentucky players that have helped WKU reach new heights over the years. Here is Bishop’s Hudl tape.
WKU moved to #1 class in Conference USA
After the past few weeks torrid recruiting pace, WKU Football has risen to number one in the Conference USA recruiting ratings on 247 Sports
WKU now has already 15 commitments (this chart above isn’t updated) including nine three-star commitments. At the G5 level, three-star recruits are comparable to a P5 team getting a four-star recruit. Here’s a rundown of the other commitments over the past month:
- Illinois Linebacker- Mario Wright II
- Georgia Defensive Tackles- Lichon Terrell & Deporess Schletty
- Florida Defensive Back- Bryand Richer
- Georgia Defensive Tackle- Nazir Sy
- South Carolina Offensive Lineman- Gunner Britton
- Florida Safety- Arthur Brathwaite
- Florida Linebacker- Malik Occiur
We haven’t seen the results on the field yet, but it looks like WKU’s program is in safe hands on the recruiting path with Mike Sanford at the helm. It will be interesting to see how many of these guys sign during the new December signing period and how many will be picked off (or tried at least) by P5 programs.
What do you think of Bishop’s commitment? Are you glad that Sanford is keeping the Kentucky pipeline open? Let us know in a comment below, via Twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.
