Drew Barker Chooses Kentucky: Don't Panic, Carolina Fans

After playing it tight-lipped over the last few weeks and going into his announcement with everyone wondering which school he would pick, Drew Barker elected to stay home and play for the Kentucky Wildcats. Personally, I can't blame him, even though I would have loved to have him. There's a relatively high amount of excitement surrounding Kentucky football right now, as Mark Stoops has made some initial inroads with fans and recruits. Stoops apparently convinced Barker that he could be part of the start of something big at Kentucky, and Barker bought into the idea of potentially being a savior for the Bluegrass faithful. It's a noble ambition, one that our coaches have played upon to get top talent to stay home and try to do something new at South Carolina.

In any event, while Barker is an excellent QB and one who could have helped us, Carolina fans shouldn't panic. We really don't need a QB in this class, and I wouldn't be surprised if we end up not taking one. We're pretty much set at QB for the next few years as long as things continue to go according to plan. Dylan Thompson will likely start in 2014, and after that, it will be whoever wins out between Brendan Nosovitch and Connor Mitch, both of whom present tons of upside. Barker was good enough to compete with the two underclassmen, which is why we were recruiting him. You don't pass up on a QB of Barker caliber if you have a chance at him. But he wasn't an essential component of this class, and we might very well use his scholarship to build depth on our defensive front, which a position of greater need for this class.