Kentucky Football Recruiting: 4-Star RB Mikel Horton Commits to Wildcats

Mark Stoops continued to turn heads in the Bluegrass state and around the SEC on Saturday when he secured a verbal commitment from 4-star running back Mikel Horton for the 2014 recruiting class.

The Cincinnati-area standout is ranked as the 209th best junior in the country by Rivals.com and is the highest rated running back that Kentucky has landed since Rivals began ranking players in 2002 (per Steve Jones, The Courier Journal).

It's also worth noting that Horton chose the Wildcats over a large list of teams that included Vanderbilt, FSU, Louisville, and Cincinnati (per ESPN.com).

The fact that Stoops is charging ahead full steam toward the future of the program while also seeming to do wonders in the present should make any member of the Big Blue Nation incredibly (and strangely) excited for football to start up again next fall.

As far as what Wildcat fans and the coaching staff can expect from their new commitment, you can watch a promo video here of the 6'1", 225-pound power back blowing through opposing defensive lines like they are made of single ply toilet paper.

Kentucky sports writer Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger said that a big part of Horton's decision to commit to UK was how impressed he was at the 50,000 plus fans that showed up for the Blue-White spring game.

He also revealed that Horton plans to graduate this December and enroll at Kentucky in January, which will give him even more time on campus to prepare to batter through SEC defenses in 2014.

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