We may never know precisely why the University of Kentucky decided to spend more than $75 on U.S. Mail postage charges to send multiple recruiting letters to defensive tackle Matt Elam. What we do know is that in the process, they may have set a bizarre and unique new college football record.
New Kentucky coach Mark Stoops sent 182 letters to Elam all on the same day, with the letters you see above delivered on Monday by a rather weary postal carrier. In fact, according to the Louisville Courier Journal, the crates of letters were so heavy that they forced Elam to take a trip to the curbside postal vehicle driven by mail carrier to pick them up himself.
That's believed to be more than any other single day letter motherlode, with fellow Kentucky target Drew Barker, a quarterback from Burlington (Ky.) Conner High, believed to be the previous record holder with 115 letters in a single day.
“She said, ‘You must be a good basketball player,’ ” Elam told the Courier Journal. “I laughed. I said, ‘No, I’m a football player.’ ”
Elam is more than just any old football player; he’s ranked among the top five prospects in the state of Kentucky and one of the top-25 defensive tackles in the country by Rivals.com. Elam, who plays for Elizabethtown (Ky.) John Hardin High, stands 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds and is being recruited by a host of SEC and Big Ten powers.
Stoops tweeted to Elam that each letter represented a different reason why he should eventually choose the University of Kentucky for his football future. While his decision is still months away -- he intends to announce his college choice at the U.S. Army All-American Game -- Elam said that Stoops’ over-the-top gesture did make an impact.
“I just love that they want me and I’m very high on their list,” Elam told the Courier Journal. “It’s nice to see that you’re wanted so bad by [a Southeastern Conference] school.”
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