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It's going to be a bit of a shorter Chamber this week simply because the season starts in the next two weeks for pretty much every high school player and every college coach. That's where the focus lies. But it's not always about quantity. Sometimes it's about quality. And while there may not be a ton of news happening, the news that is happening is of very much interest.
***As we mentioned earlier this week we caught up with Marquis Gracial's head coach, Bob Leonard, who made it a point to bring up that Gracial is firmly committed to Missouri despite him taking other visits. Relationships with Missouri's staff, particularly DJ Smith and Jethro Franklin, and the opportunity to play close to home in front of his family are really huge factors for him. Now, his coach said he will probably take a couple of visits to other schools in the fall, but Gracial sees his recruiting process as a once in a lifetime opportunity. So, don't hit the panic button if/when trips to other programs happen.
***Speaking of Gracial, Sean Williams will be in St. Louis this weekend attending a couple of notable jamborees/scrimmages. Tonight, he'll check out Gracial and his St. Charles team at the St. Dominic jamboree.
SLUH will also have a jamboree on Saturday morning, which features DB commit Isaac Thompson, along with underclassmen targets Marvin Burks (Cardinal Ritter - 2023) and Ryan Wingo (SLUH - 2024).
We'll provide updates and observations throughout the weekend.
***What's that? You want to talk about Luther Burden? Okay, we'll talk about Luther Burden.
Before we get into what's gone on with Burden this week and what could go on in the future, there's one point that has been stressed to us over and over this week: Regardless of what Burden does, Missouri absolutely loves its wide receiver class right now. Jamarion Wayne and Mekhi Miller are both high three-stars who could easily be bumped up to four-stars with strong senior seasons and the staff thinks both are very high-level prospects. The way one source put it to us was "Burden is not make or break, but he would be the icing on the cake." That's not to downplay how good Burden is or how big it would be for Missouri to land him. It's simply meant to stress that Missouri really likes the two guys it already has on board in this class and feels good about the class even if Burden were to end up elsewhere.
So is there a chance Burden does end up elsewhere? That depends on who you ask.
Universally, the people we have talked to believe Missouri is the leader. The question is how big that lead is. Some believe it is insurmountable.
We first were told Burden was going to flip to Missouri in mid-March. It wasn't couched as maybe. We (and others) were told it was likely to happen in the next few days back then. This will anger some, but the reason we didn't post it at the time was simple: If it didn't happen, we didn't want to deal with the days, weeks and months of anger. In the end, that was the right move because obviously it didn't happen. But that's when the seed was planted that a decommitment from Oklahoma was not only possible but probably even likely. It took another five months, but it did happen on Tuesday.
Throughout the last four months, the sources we've talked to close to the program have been steadfast in their stance: Missouri has a shot. It feels it has a very good shot. Regardless of what happens, it will be a battle to the end to either land him or keep him. While some people in St. Louis and some on the board who tend to hear some things have been consistent that Burden is all but done to Missouri (and some people even tell us it is done), the word we've consistently gotten from our sources is that they're in it, they will be in it to the end and they are cautiously optimistic, but by no means certain that they can get him. Could that be overly cautious on their part? Maybe a bit of controlling expectations? Absolutely. There's no benefit to those people telling us "Oh, yeah, it's done, it's just a matter of time." Because once we say that, the only possible result from that point is disappointment. So we'll admit that people we talk to could privately feel better about it than they're willing to say to us.
But even most of the people we talk to from St. Louis and others following this recruitment aren't saying this is done. A number of people we've talked to familiar with Burden believe Missouri is strongly in the lead and they feel very good that Missouri will eventually land him. Even people familiar with the Georgia program and recruiting have told us they definitely believe Missouri is the leader. But nobody we trust is telling us it's finished. We messaged with one source this week and said "The feeling seems to be that Missouri is well out in front." The response: "Well out (in front) is a reach."
In other words, Georgia is a factor here. Obviously, the sooner he makes a commitment somewhere, the better for Missouri. Players that have already decommitted once almost never switch their commitment again. Wherever Burden commits next, it's probably about a 99.5% chance that's where he's going to end up signing. We've had some people tell us they believe a decision will be made before East St. Louis opens its season next Friday against CBC. Again, if that's the case, we feel strongly it would be Missouri. And even if he were to take his official visits in the fall (they're currently scheduled for Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia and Alabama), you'd rather have him taking them as a Missouri commitment than an uncommitted prospect. But while there are some people saying they expect a commitment to come soon from Burden, there are others who believe the process will play out, he'll take his visits and he won't announce anything until after those occur.
The bottom line: If we were to make a prediction today we'd predict that Burden signs with Missouri, but we aren't ready to tell you we're officially predicting that.
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