{"id":734113,"date":"2026-02-06T19:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734113\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:42:21","slug":"kentucky-is-finalist-for-blue-chip-linebacker-jalaythan-mayfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734113\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky is finalist for blue-chip linebacker Jalaythan Mayfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>January was a very important month for roster-building in college football. Programs have to build a transfer portal class and hit the road to recruit high school prospects. To say the new Kentucky staff was busy would be an understatement. This program casted a wide net before another dead period arrived in February. A prominent defensive target came on the radar early. Lincolnton (N.C.) High linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/jalaythan-mayfield-249115\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jalaythan Mayfield<\/a> became a priority target for Kentucky defensive coordinator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/jay-bateman-135500\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jay Bateman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A first cut has arrived. The Cats are in the mix for this four-star prospect.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/sites\/kentucky-wildcats\/news\/lucketts-recruiting-spreadsheet-kentucky-football-class-of-2027\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luckett\u2019s Recruiting Spreadsheet: First look at Kentucky\u2019s 2027 board<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jalaythan Mayfield is the No. 208 overall recruit in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/rankings\/industry-player\/football\/2027\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2027 Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a>. The linebacker is the No. 10 player in North Carolina. Georgia, Indiana, Miami, and Oregon are other finalist for this blue-chip prospect. Mayfield was at Kentucky\u2019s first junior day for this new coaching staff on Jan. 17. UK then hit the road to visit Mayfield on Jan. 23. Now the goal will be to get the prospect on campus in March or April for an unofficial visit before locking in an official visit in June.<\/p>\n<p>The Wildcats have some recruiting momentum in February. Top interior offensive line target <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/brady-hull-162843\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brady Hull<\/a> committed to the program and a priority defensive target included UK in his top-five on the same day. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/will-stein-177513\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will Stein<\/a>\u2018s program will now look to take advantage of this momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Recruiting never stops.<\/p>\n<p>Want more coverage of the Cats? Join KSR+<\/p>\n<p>KSR has been delivering UK Sports news in the most ridiculous manner for almost two decades. Now, you can get even more coverage of the Cats with KSR+. In the middle of a pressure-packed Kentucky basketball season for Mark Pope, now is the perfect time to join our online community. Subscribe now for premium articles, in-depth scouting reports, inside intel, bonus recruiting coverage, and access to KSBoard, our message board featuring thousands of Kentucky fans around the globe. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/sites\/kentucky-wildcats\/join\/?utm_source=writer&amp;utm_campaign=Adam%20Luckett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JOIN HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"January was a very important month for roster-building in college football. Programs have to build a transfer portal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,93354,49,48],"class_list":["post-734113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-jalaythan-mayfield-27-lincolnton","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116025396018249432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}