Looking Back At The Top 10 Stories 2008 - #5

How does a player who has never even stepped on campus as a member of the University of Cincinnati become one of the top stories of 2008? Because he changed how football recruits looked at UC and the football program.

One of the things Brian Kelly promised when he took over the Bearcats program was a different approach to recruiting. Not only did Kelly want to keep as many of the top prospects from leaving the Queen City, he also wanted to hit early and often when getting verbal commitments from the recruits he wanted.

Everett Horne gave Kelly both when he gave the Bearcats head coach his commitment on National Signing Day for the Class of 2008.

Horne, a cornerback from North College Hill High School (Cincinnati, OH) received an early offer from the Bearcats and wasted little time in telling Kelly he wanted to be part of the program.

At 5-foot-11, 165-pounds with legit 4.4 speed in the forty, Horne has all the tools to become a special player once he arrives on campus and should be remembered in the years to come as buying into the Bearcats success before they reached a BCS Bowl Game or won a Big East Championship.

But while records are made to be broken Horne’s early commitment won’t be the earliest in the Brian Kelly era as Preston Brown of Northwest High School (Cincinnati, OH) is now on record with his verbal commitment for the Class of 2010.

Brown, a linebacker, gave Kelly his commitment in the June of 2008 prior to his junior year of high school.

These two players could both see their early verbal commitments beaten as Kelly continues to impress players early with the success of his teams.