Former Oregon quarterback Terry Wilson commits to Kentucky football 2018 class

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kentucky has found its replacement for star quarterback recruit Jarren Williams.

Three-star junior-college quarterback Terry Wilson, who began his career at Oregon, committed to UK Sunday after a weekend visit to campus. Wilson picked UK over Indiana, Nebraska, Florida and others. He announced the commitment on his personal Twitter account.

Wilson completed 57.6 percent of his passes for 2,133 yards, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while rushing for 518 yards and five touchdowns on 126 carries for Garden City Community College this season to earn the Jayhawk Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year award. He committed to UK amid a late push from new coaching staffs at Florida and Nebraska for his services.

"He’s a dual-threat quarterback that’s very intelligent, dynamic, fast," said Jeff Sims, Wilson's coach at Garden City. "He’s an accurate thrower."

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Wilson was recruited to Oregon by then-offensive coordinator Scott Frost as a member of the high school class of 2016 in Oklahoma but transferred after a redshirt season for the Ducks and a staff change in Oregon. Frost, who was recently hired as the head coach at Nebraska after leading Central Florida to an undefeated season, began recruiting Wilson again in recent weeks. Before signing with Oregon, Wilson had verbally committed to Nebraska in high school.

New Florida coach Dan Mullen offered Wilson a scholarship this week amid conflicting reports about where the quarterback would take his final official visits. Wilson had originally been scheduled to visit Indiana this weekend and Kentucky next weekend, but canceled the trip to Indiana and moved his UK visit up. In the days before the visit though, Wilson signaled he would visit Nebraska instead only to eventually make the UK trip as planned.

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Wilson replaces four-star Georgia prep quarterback Jarren Williams in UK's 2018 class. Williams committed to and later decommitted from UK twice before ultimately pledging to Miami this week.

UK coach Mark Stoops said earlier this week he was not sure if UK would sign a quarterback to replace Williams. The staff had offered scholarships to three quarterbacks since Williams' decommitment but had already lost one, Texas high school senior Matthew Baldwin, to Ohio State.

"I think every year it’s important to get a quarterback in the class," UK co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw said Friday.

Wilson, who will have three years of eligibility remaining at UK, is expected to sign with the Wildcats this month and enroll for the spring semester.

In spring practice, Wilson would then compete with senior Drew Barker, sophomore Gunnar Hoak and redshirt freshmen Danny Clark and Walker Wood for the starting job. Current UK starter Stephen Johnson will play his last game as a Wildcat in the Dec. 29 Music City Bowl.

In an interview with Courier Journal recently, Sims expressed confidence Wilson could be a "big-time college quarterback" after leaving Garden City.

"The truth of the matter is every year we have about 30 guys that get really good scholarships out of here, and we’ve had to help them throughout the process," Sims said. "Terry doesn’t need our help. Terry would have been successful at any school he went to. The only reason Terry Wilson is available is because there was a coaching change at Oregon. He believed in himself, and he said, 'Welp, I’m going to go prove myself.'"

Jon Hale: jahale@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @JonHale_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jonh.