Citing UK’s new offense, Dane Key chooses to stay home

LEXINGTON, Ky. — High school classmates, family, teachers, friends and reporters packed the Frederick Douglass High School cafeteria on Thursday night and watched as four-star wide receiver Dane Key chose to stay home and play for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Key, whose father Donte played for UK in the 1990s, became the highest-ranked player listed at wide receiver to commit to the Wildcats during head coach Mark Stoops’ tenure. His addition would’ve seemed unlikely this time last year as Kentucky was heading toward another year as the worst passing offense in the Southeastern Conference.

“It’s where I felt at home,” Key said. “They did a great job recruiting me.”

One of the biggest reasons Key will stay in Lexington to play college football is because of the offensive coordinator change to Liam Coen. The first-year coordinator has brought in an offense that, so far, has been more effective in featuring wide receivers. Junior Wan’Dale Robinson led the SEC in receiving for much of the first half of the season and should ultimately be drafted in the NFL after this season if he chooses to leave.

“Their new offense is definitely what got me over there,” Key said. “Coach Coen, he’s got something special and we’ve got it going over there.”

Key gives Kentucky its third four-star wide receiver commit in the past two cycles. His high school teammate Dekel Crowdus and Alabama wideout Chris Lewis signed with the Wildcats in the 2021 recruiting class. Kentucky is still heavily pursuing Pearl Cohn (Tenn.) athlete Barion Brown as well, who would be one of the highest-ranked commits to ever play at Kentucky. Add in possible additions from the transfer portal and it’s clear Kentucky is looking to quickly bring in talent to its wide receiver room.

“It’s definitely — we feel the presence of picking up our recruiting at the wide receiver position,” Stoops said on Thursday afternoon. “We have to. Let’s not kid ourselves. I know that. I’ve addressed it. We have to get better at that position. We have to develop the guys we have here. I think we are. Those guys are getting better. I think as Liam and the coaches continue to push this system, that’ll happen automatically. But we also with roster turnover and roster management, recruiting, bringing guys in, that’s part of it. I have to do our part on bringing in guys that are impact players. But I definitely feel like it’s been much more helpful to recruit high school athletes.”

Ranked as the No. 1 player in the state of Kentucky in both the 247Sports.com rankings and the 247Sports composite, Key continued to establish the FDHS pipeline. The aforementioned Crowdus, along with four-star offensive guard Jager Burton, signed with the Wildcats last year. 2023 safety Ty Bryant is already committed to Kentucky.

But perhaps more important is the impact it makes in the 2022 class overall. Kentucky is now 16th nationally in sixth in the SEC in the recruiting rankings. While things could still change before signing day, it seems certain that this class will rank as the best in school history. Kentucky has a five-star commitment in offensive tackle Kiyaunta Goodwin and has six four-stars committed. The Wildcats are likely either the front-runner or at worst in second place for other four-star talents like Aamil Wagner, Deone Walker and Brown. There could also be more high-end talent that comes on the board before the Early Signing Period begins on Dec. 15.

“It excites me with the program they’ve got going on now,” Key said.