Wan'Dale Robinson's play could have an impact on Dane Key when he makes his college choice Oct. 28. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky knew Wan’Dale Robinson was a special player. That’s why the Wildcats were so excited when the record-setting playmaker at Western Hills High School in Frankfort verbally committed to UK before flipping to Nebraska at the last minute.
After two years at Nebraska, Robinson transferred to Kentucky and after four games leads the Southeastern Conference with 402 receiving yards on 25 catches. He also has two touchdowns.
Credit Kentucky coach Mark Stoops for admitting Robinson is even better than he thought.
“I knew he was a good player coming out of high school and you can watch the film from Nebraska and know he was a very good player. I don’t want to use the word ‘surprised.’ I am extremely pleased with him and love his attitude,” Stoops said.
“I love his competitive nature. He is very unselfish. He works very hard. He is all about the team and I love that part of it and yes, by the way, he is very talented. But I love his work ethic and also his instincts.
“You’ve heard us talk about Lynn (Bowden), about that a lot, and just his football IQ and they are different people, but both of them are intelligent on the field.”
Stoops also readily admitted it was “important” in recruiting to have an in-state standout like Robinson playing so well.
“Not only from this state but just at that position ( receiver) and we all understand that. For all the people that used to use that against us in recruiting, I understand that,” Stoops said.
“We going to use a lot of different (information), anything that we can as well. But I think now there’s no stopping us from recruiting talented wide receivers and getting that speed. And even if you may say other people have higher numbers, you can look at what we do and what we want to do and as we get better wide receivers, as we get greater skill and speed, we will open things up even more and more.
“That comfort level of what we are doing is getting better and better. So, anybody out there that can run 10.3 (seconds in the 100-meter dash), we need you.”
I am not sure what Frederick Douglass four-star receiver Dane Key runs but I know he’s big enough and fast enough to play a lot of places, including Kentucky. It also just so happens that he has decided to make his college choice Oct. 28.
So maybe Stoops’ message was a coincidence, or maybe the Robinson praise was a nice shout-out to Key.
