By: Josh Edwards

Paintsville (Ky.) inside linebacker Kash Daniel is all in with Mark Stoops and Kentucky.

Daniel (6-1.5, 235) announced his commitment to the Wildcats Saturday, giving the Wildcats three 4-star in-state commitments and the No. 15 class nationally according to the 247Sports Composite.

Daniel, who is ranked as the No. 96 overall prospect in the Top247, No. 2 inside linebacker nationally by 247Sports and a U.S. Army All-American, committed to Kentucky over Louisville and South Carolina during a ceremony at his school Saturday.

He told CatsPause.com he arrived at his decision after returning from a visit to South Carolina.

"When I got back from [South] Carolina [is when I knew]. This whole recruiting process, everybody asked me 'what are you looking for when choosing a college' and the first thing that I always said was that I'm looking for a place that I can call home; where I can walk in the doors and feel like I'm at home," Daniel told CatsPause.

"I got that feeling with coach [Mark] Stoops and that coaching staff. There are only big things to come at Kentucky with our great class coming in and more classes to come. It's going to be a championship caliber team and I'm just excited to be a part of it with these great players and great coaches. I'm just really blessed to have this opportunity."

Daniel, who is a three-sport star for the Tigers, burst onto the national recruiting scene this spring with a strong showing on the spring camp circuit.

As a junior last season, he did a little bit of everything for the Tigers, making 111 tackles, intercepting four passes (returning two for touchdowns) while passing and rushing for over 1,000 yards and accounting for 23 total touchdowns in leading Paintsville to a 10-3 record.

In his conversations with Daniel, Stoops put an emphasis on winning. When it came time to inform the coaches of his decision, he was all in.

"Coach Stoops is big on winning. Every meeting that I have with him, he says 'I want to win.' He says 'for me to win, I need great players.' So that is why he is so good at recruiting. That is why him and his staff recruit the best players in the nation. That's why they get most of them to come to Kentucky. He always tells me that we are going to work hard and we will have fun doing it," he continued.

"College football is a business. Winning is a business. You have to have time to have some fun with it. Coach Stoops definitely has his head set on straight and so does the rest of the coaching staff. I think the players have bought in to his program. I know they are all serious when it comes to football. When I told him that I was going to be committing to them, I told him that I was all in. There is no going back."

While the coaching staff did a great job of making the Paintsville product feel wanted, another person should shoulder some of the credit - offensive line commitment Drake Jackson.

"The thing that sold me was mainly Drake, not only the coaching staff. Drake is the main guy that made me say 'okay, this is why I want to come to Kentucky.' When you come to college, I know most of these guys going in. That's a good thing to know most of these guys that are going to be on your team. You don't have to start fresh because you already know half of them. That's a great thing for me."

"Coach [DJ] Eliot and coach [John] Schlarman, they were on me every day. 'We want you to run our defense. We want you to do this, we want you to do that.' The coaches job is to recruit but I believe in what coach Eliot tells me. When I was on my visit and we were sitting there watching film on their spring practice and their spring scrimmages, he was telling me 'okay, when you get here, this is what I want you to do.' He was already assuming that I was going to come to Kentucky. We were just sitting down watching film. The way that he breaks down film and the way that he gets things done, that's the coach that I want to play for. That's a coach that is going to get his defense to the top of college football."

Daniel moved his announcement date up so he could turn his focus to his team and his senior season, which was not always the plan.

"It's been pretty hectic. My plan was, I was going to sit here and have fun with this. I was going to have fun with it until I had to commit. Then, I realized that I'm not a selfish person and not committing would be straight up selfish because I wouldn't have the main focus on my team and winning the state championship. I'm doing this for them and my coaches," explained Daniel.

"I don't want any distractions going in to fall camp. I just want to play football. That's it. That's all I've got to worry about is playing football. I don't have to worry about taking a snap and worrying about which school is recruiting me hard. Now I can sit back there on 3rd and 10 when we are up 44-0 against Raceland. I can think 'okay, I can visit UK tomorrow after I score this touchdown.'"

Kentucky will be well-represented at the U.S. Army All-American game in January. Three commitments have been invited and accepted those invitations to the game. Daniel is one of those three players. It won't be his first time at the game, however.

"It's truly an honor and a blessing to me. I was talking to Drake about this last night. When me and Drake played on the all-star team together, we were there watching that game together. We both said we are going to be in that game one day. Everybody laughed at me when I came back home and told them. I'm sure they did the same thing with Drake. Being able to get that call, okay, you are a US Army All-American. Everything that you've ever worked for, the hours that you've spent in the weight room, the extra hours that you spent after practice, the film you've watched, the pain that you played through; you can sit back and say you made it, you did it. It's also a great feeling to be playing with two of your future teammates. This will be your first game together before you step on Commonwealth together. People get a little sneak preview, I guess."

On Twitter, the linebacker proudly proclaims being an American. Setting his commitment date for the 4th of July was not coincidental. His patriotism is why he made the decision to choose that commitment date as well as play in front of thousands of soldiers at the U.S. Army All-American game.

"It kind of does [have something to do with why I'm playing in the game]. For the men and women that fought for this country, it would be a real honor to celebrate this country as a whole. My great grandfather, I was talking to him the other night, he is a World War II veteran. He wanted to tell me that he was really proud of me for setting that decision date. It meant a lot to him and that was just a great feeling."

"A lot of other veterans on Twitter thanked me for that decision date because of America's birthday. They appreciated me appreciating them for what they've done for this country. People don't give them enough credibility. For example, if I am working over at the car wash and I see a license plate that says veteran on it, the first thing that I'm doing is telling them to roll down their window so I can shake their hand. The amount of love and respect that I have for those people is unreal. It's always going to be like that. That's why July 4th was a special date for me," he finished.

Daniel has another reason to celebrate this great day. He won't do it with the same flare that accompanies most commitment ceremonies these days. He will celebrate it the only way he knows how, playing video games with some friends or possibly some local bass fishing. It's a fitting way to end what has been a 'hectic' two months for the top-100 prospect.

In total, Daniel received 11 scholarship offers and chose the Wildcats over South Carolina and Louisville.