{"id":282686,"date":"2026-05-24T10:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/282686\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:54:10","slug":"jacksonville-head-coach-reggie-swinton-believes-kentucky-is-getting-a-dominant-player-with-mason-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/282686\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville head coach Reggie Swinton believes Kentucky is getting a \u201cdominant player\u201d with Mason Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky Football<\/a> added another major piece to its 2027 recruiting class on Saturday with the commitment of 3-star running back Mason Ball.<\/p>\n

And according to Jacksonville High School head coach Reggie Swinton, the Wildcats are getting much more than just a talented football player.<\/p>\n

Ball, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound running back from Jacksonville, Arkansas, committed to Kentucky over Arkansas, North Carolina, and Vanderbilt. According to the 247 Sports Composite rankings, <\/a>Ball is ranked No. 737 nationally, the No. 57 running back in the country, and the No. 3 overall player in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Swinton knows Ball better than almost anyone. The former NFL return specialist, who played for the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, and Arizona Cardinals, has coached Ball since he was five years old through his Arkansas Lions youth football program.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work ethic,\u201d Swinton tells A Sea of Blue on what stands out most about Ball. \u201cHe has an uncanny work ethic. He works as hard as anybody that I have been around for a high school kid. He does things that many kids don\u2019t do, many kids that are successful don\u2019t do. So, as long as he stays healthy, he will be perfectly fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinton said Ball originally joined his youth football program in 2015 as a five-year-old center before eventually growing into one of the state\u2019s top skill players.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a six-year-old during practice, he got the ball, and he took off running, and he has never stopped running since,\u201d Swinton said.<\/p>\n

Ball rushed for 1,401 yards and 27 touchdowns during his junior season while averaging 7.61 yards per carry, while also adding 17 receptions for 131 yards.<\/p>\n

Swinton believes Ball\u2019s football IQ and versatility are what separate him from other running backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, mentally, just teaching him the game, teaching him blocking schemes that he is going to need to know at the next level,\u201d Swinton said. \u201cHe has gained a lot of knowledge, but also Mason has been playing with me since he was five years old, when I coached youth football, and Mason was part of my football program, and then this last year and now this current year. He has been with me and been in my system a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what Kentucky fans will love most about Ball\u2019s game, Swinton pointed to more than just his speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis speed and how smart he is,\u201d Swinton said. \u201cThe kid is very intelligent. He has been on the 3.2+ honor roll since he was in the 9th grade, but the kid is a very smart kid. The kid can run, he can also double and be a receiver, or even be a safety and be very physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinton also credited Kentucky running backs coach Kolby Smith for making Ball a priority throughout the recruiting process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him a long time ago, where does he want to play, because most kids grow up wanting to be Razorbacks,\u201d Swinton said. \u201cI mean, that is what I did, I grew up wanting to be a Razorback, and he told me that the logo on the side of the helmet didn\u2019t matter, it was the relationship that he wants with the coaching staff, and that he wants a relationship with the staff that he has with me, and we\u2019ve been close for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinton continued praising Smith\u2019s recruiting approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Smith, when he was at Arkansas, he was actually Mason\u2019s first Power Four offer, and Coach Smith did a great job of recruiting,\u201d Swinton said. \u201cWhen he got to Kentucky, he made Mason the number one target, and he recruited that kid like no other. I mean, Coach Smith, the running backs coach, did an awesome job of recruiting not only Mason, but his mom and me, Mason\u2019s stepdad, and Mason\u2019s brother. He treated all of us as if he was recruiting us to come play at Kentucky, and that is what stood out to Mason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinton shared a recent moment that perfectly represented Ball\u2019s character off the field. During a ninth-grade parent meeting at Jacksonville High School, Ball voluntarily came to speak with incoming freshmen after touring the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is great with people, and there is not much you can say about this kid as far as negativity-wise,\u201d Swinton said. \u201cI mean, he does everything right. He is that kind of person that when you meet him, you love him, and Kentucky is getting a great human.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinton admitted it is ironic how much his opinion on Kentucky has changed over the years. While playing football at Murray State in the 1990s during the peak of the Kentucky-Arkansas basketball rivalry, he openly disliked the Wildcats. But after visiting Lexington during his induction into the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022, he fell in love with it. Swinton calls it a full-circle moment with Ball now committed to Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Swinton also added that Big Blue Nation may soon have some Arkansas fans cheering alongside them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a few Arkansas fans now,\u201d Swinton said, laughing. \u201cWe are excited about Mason coming up there, and we can\u2019t wait to see what he does up there in Big Blue Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky Football added another major piece to its 2027 recruiting class on Saturday with the commitment of 3-star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,17667,34267],"class_list":["post-282686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-kentucky-wildcats-football","tag-kentucky-wildcats-football-recruiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}