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It's about to be a busy couple of weeks here in the world of Mizzou recruiting. There are two official visit weekends remaining before the early signing period. Combine that with the fact that the coaches have been hitting the road this week making their first in-home visits in two years and there's been news every day.
Before we get too far into this, it is worth noting that Casey Woods is leaving to be the offensive coordinator at SMU as reported yesterday. Woods is headed to Dallas today so he is officially done at Missouri. He was not only the tight ends coach, but the recruiting coordinator. We need to clear up something about that. Yes, his title is recruiting coordinator, but don't get that confused with "completely in charge of recruiting." It's not like he decides who Missouri will offer on his own or was the lead recruiter on every prospect. Recruiting coordinator means he's in charge of keeping track of everything, helping to make arrangements and plans for visits, helping to plan out where the coaches will go on visits, etc. It's not an insignificant job, but we see way too many people saying "Oh, no, how will Missouri recruit without a recruiting coordinator?" There are actually quite a few people with that title. Woods was the staff recruiting coordinator. Brett Whiteside is the Chief Recruiting Officer and he's in charge of most of the logistics of lining up travel and administrative things. Tori Washburn is the Director of On-Campus Recruiting and has a lot to do with planning out the campus visits and hosting prospects. She is assisted by Evin Norman. So it's not like Missouri's recruiting efforts were all Woods' responsibility.
We've been doing our best to keep you up to date on what's happened as it has happened so some of this will be a little bit of a recap if you've been on here every day. But we've got some other news as well. Let's start with the freshest stuff.
THIS WEEKEND'S OFFICIAL VISITS
Missouri is hitting the transfer portal hard on the first of the two visit weekends. And the Tigers are doing it exclusively in the secondary by mining former blue-chip prospects who are looking for a fresh start.
Marcus Banks, Alabama transfer cornerback
Banks played sparingly at Alabama over three seasons, but wasn't able to really crack the regular rotation. He will have two seasons left. He has plenty of Power Five interest. Missouri had an in-home visit with him earlier this week and is getting him on campus this weekend so that's an excellent sign. He hasn't talked publicly since transferring so we can't say for sure what other visits he will take or where Missouri stands, but the Tigers are definitely in strong contention because he is visiting this weekend. We talked to someone we know in Alabama who said that Banks would be an excellent pickup for the Tigers. He just couldn't crack the rotation on one of the country's two most talented rosters.
Joseph Charleston, Clemson transfer safety
Charleston was third on Clemson's team with 55 tackles in 2020 but fell out of the rotation this year and missed the last two games with a hamstring injury. Like Banks, there's expected to be quite a bit of competition. But again, getting the first visit can only be viewed as a positive and a sign that Missouri is in contention here. Charleston has two years left to play.
Ladarius Tennison, Auburn transfer safety
Tennison signed as an Athlete with Auburn in the 2020 class. He played in every game in 2020 and made 21 tackles this season as a sophomore. He technically has three years left to play since 2020 didn't count. He entered the portal just three days ago and Missouri has already secured a visit.
We checked with a colleague who covers Auburn and were told "Tough kid, good tackler...He’s a great looking kid. And he’s smart. But he can't keep with slots, so he’s limited to box safety."
These are the only three visitors this weekend and Missouri appears to be bringing in most of its commitments and some other high school targets next weekend.
