Brohm states his case for playing football at WKU

As Jeff Brohm attempts to make an early mark on the state, he's using players from the state to do it.

Brohm, the first-year coach of Western Kentucky University's football team, has made recruiting within the state a major priority, and WKU has gotten nearly all of its high schools commitments since he was hired from Kentucky players.

"Our strategy is take a three-hour radius around Bowling Green, Ky., and recruit it as hard as we can and get to know every single person, every player in that area and make sure that we don't pass up guys that are that close that really want to play and take pride in playing for the state school and playing for Western Kentucky," Brohm told The Courier-Journal. "… We want to build the program around those guys."

WKU's first eight commitments — all rated two stars by Rivals.com — in the 2015 class are in-state players: DeSales outside linebacker Bryant Pirtle, Doss tight end Tyler Jefferson, Lafayette wide receiver Lucky Jackson, Lafayette linebacker DeVon Quincy, Glasgow running back Marquez Trigg, Russell County defensive end Nick Coffey, Madisonville North Hopkins offensive lineman Cullen Reynolds and Graves County defensive end Heath Wiggins.

Brohm's 2014 signing class, his first as a head coach, had 10 Kentuckians, including Mr. Football winner Nacarius Fant from Bowling Green High and Louisville-area players Will Bush of Ballard, Joe Brown of Butler and DeAndre Farris and Masai Whyte of Collins.

"I think the state of Kentucky is pretty underrated, and there are a lot of great players here," said Pirtle, who led the state last season with 22½ sacks. "(Brohm) is really starting to show how good the players are here by recruiting us. … I think he's made it a priority, which I appreciated."

Brohm, whose team has joined Conference USA, said his staff also aggressively recruits in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Ohio, among other states, and the Toppers have pursued multiple junior-college players from around the country.

But WKU's overall recruiting strategy appears as much as any time in recent history to involve finding players from Kentucky high schools. In all, 18 of Brohm's 25 high school commitments have been from the state.

WKU, under former coaches Willie Taggart and Bobby Petrino, signed just four in-state players in each of 2012 and '13. The 2011 class had just one Kentuckian.

And WKU's 18 in-state commitments over the last two classes are 17 more than the University of Louisville has had and 13 more than the University of Kentucky, although none of the future Hilltoppers has had a scholarship offer from the Cardinals or Wildcats.

Jefferson said he appreciates how WKU values players in the state; it motivates him to help the Toppers succeed.

"A lot of Kentucky kids get overlooked because (out-of-state recruiters) don't think of (Kentucky) as a football state," he said. "When people get recruited and get to go to schools like (WKU), it makes us drive harder because we know that somebody knows we can play."

Brohm, who starred at quarterback at Trinity High and U of L, has developed close relationships with high school coaches across the state from his years as an assistant, including most recently as Petrino's offensive coordinator at WKU.

He was the lead recruiter on several members of the 2014 signing class before he was promoted to head coach.

It was only natural that he'd keep trying to take advantage of his longtime Kentucky ties when he became the top Topper.

"My ties to this state and the surrounding areas is a huge plus for us," Brohm said. "We have coaches on our staff who have great ties to the state and the surrounding area as well. That's definitely a great plus when you know a great deal about the coaches, the programs, the schools, the players and have a great relationship with all those people."

WKU assistants Greg Nord and Mike Cassity, both of whom were formerly on the staffs at U of L and UK, are also experts on recruiting in the state and are now two of Brohm's point men in finding the best Kentuckians.

Nord is WKU's primary recruiter in Jefferson County, Lexington and their surrounding areas.

Cassity focuses on recruiting in Western Kentucky. Ricky Brumfield recruits Northern Kentucky. JaMarcus Shephard focuses on Bowling Green and surrounding areas. Don Dunn recruits around Elizabethtown and south. Neil Callaway scouts parts of Central and Eastern Kentucky.

Brohm said the Toppers have had ample opportunities to identify any and all NCAA Division I prospects in the state after hosting more than 1,000 regional players at WKU's summer camps, including satellite events at Collins in Shelbyville, McCracken County High in Paducah and Ryle in Northern Kentucky.

"Sometimes the state may be loaded, sometimes the state may have not so much," Brohm said. "But we want to make sure we see everybody, make sure we get to know them and if we feel like we can get them to play at a high level, we definitely are going to try to get them to play at Western Kentucky and look forward to having them."

Jefferson said several of the current WKU commitments know each other from those camps or others over the years, and he thinks the bond they have built as high school players will make for an easy transition when they all get to college. He and Pirtle played on the same youth team and have been friends for years.

"It's just like playing with family," he said.

Steve Jones can be reached at (502) 582-7176 and followed on Twitter at @SteveJones_CJ.

WKU's 2015 recruiting commitments