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The biggest weekend of the year, admittedly, isn’t looking quite as big as we had originally thought it would. The Tigers will still have double digit visitors on campus this weekend, but for a variety of reasons, a lot of those will be players that are already committed to Mizzou. Let’s just run through the list we’ve got as of this morning (as we always say, it’s what we’ve been able to put together, it’s possible it’s not comprehensive and if we find anything else out over the course of the weekend we’ll pass it on):
Luther Burden
Mekhi Miller
Jamarion Wayne
Max Whisner
Armand Membou
Tristan Wilson
Isaac Thompson
Zion Young
As we reported last night, Demetrius “Pancake” Hunter arrived for his official on Thursday.
Jalen Marshall told us he’s coming to Columbia unofficially to hang out with the other prospects this weekend.
So, why is the group a little bit smaller than had been anticipated?
Valen Erickson has an illness in the family that caused him to push his official visit back to January. He’s still expected to sign in December, he just won’t take his official until after that.
Robert Spears-Jennings and Gentry Williams appear to be sticking with their commitments to Oklahoma. There was some hope Missouri could get one or both on campus, but the hiring of Brent Venables has locked them in with the Sooners.
Jaden Harris is not making the trip, though at this point we aren’t 100% sure the reason on that one.
D.J. Wesolak is visiting LSU this weekend instead of Missouri. As we talked about earlier this week, there is still a belief that he’s going to choose the Tigers. We understand that seems weird. We understand some won’t believe us. But the feeling still is that he ends up signing with the in-state school after the visit. He’s planning to announce on Wednesday and we’re planning to be there. The hats on the table will likely be Alabama, Georgia, Mizzou, LSU and USC. This one’s been filled with more drama and twists and turns than most, but it still appears there’s a good chance it ends well for the Tigers. We’ll know for sure in five days…we think.
One of the biggest visitors of the week was already in. Junior college defensive tackle Jeffrey M’Ba took his official visit from Monday through Wednesday and then had an in-home with Al Davis on Thursday. Missouri is in the mix, but the competition is stiff. M’Ba took official visits to Auburn, Tennessee and Miami. Auburn also had an in-home visit with him on Thursday. At Miami, he visited back in October and now the Canes have had a coaching change, but the new coach is Mario Cristobal who was recruiting M’Ba heavily at Oregon, so it will be interesting to see if that keeps them in the mix. Missouri felt this visit went well, but it remains to be seen if it was enough.
Ladarius Tennison, a transfer safety from Auburn who visited last week, is at Ole Miss this weekend. It looks like Tennison will be staying in the SEC. It’s just a matter of whether it’s in Oxford or Columbia. We haven’t been able to figure out where last weekend’s other visitor, Clemson transfer Joseph Charleston, is visiting this weekend, if anywhere. These transfers are a lot tougher to track because most of them don’t have any real interest in being recruiting or publicizing the process. They just want to find a place to play football. Again, if we can get anything we certainly will, but some of these guys, it’s basically running into a brick wall.
Speaking of the transfers, this is a tough weekend on that front because a lot of guys are running into finals week at their current school. To be able to transfer they’ve got to finish out the semester well and part of that obviously means doing well on finals. So from what we’ve been able to figure out, some of the transfers Missouri (and other schools) might be looking at just couldn’t really do visits this weekend. Those visits could be pushed back into January, but if the kid wants to enroll for second semester what is more likely is virtual visits. This is something that every staff got used to during COVID and is still utilizing if a kid maybe can’t make the trip. So we’d expect the Tigers’ staff to have a few of those in the next few weeks before the second semester starts.
In last week’s Chamber we talked a little bit about Oklahoma tight end transfer Austin Stogner and quarterback Spencer Rattler. The two would like to play together and Missouri has a connection with Stogner and had met with him. But from what we’re hearing Stanford, South Carolina, Ohio State and maybe Iowa State have separated themselves here. Missouri doesn’t really look like a player for Stogner and from what we’re hearing they’re not a player for Rattler at this point either. We aren’t going to say we definitively know they won’t take a transfer quarterback, but it’s looking less likely to us than it was a week ago. But there’s still a lot to happen and you have to remember that transfers aren’t under the same time constraints as high school kids. You’ll probably see another wave of portal entries after bowl games and some more in spring football.
Detroit lineman Deone Walker, who visited Missouri officially in October, is looking like he will be very, very difficult to get. Walker is supposed to visit Kentucky this weekend, but now in-state Michigan has re-upped its efforts after a playoff run and seems to be making a late push. At this point in time, it looks like Walker will end up in either Lexington or Ann Arbor.
So an ideal finish here, right now, looks like this:
Zion Young
Jeffrey M’Ba
Joseph Charleston
Ladarius Tennison
DJ Wesolak
James Pearce
Demetrius Hunter
That would get Mizzou to 22 and leave three to six spots for the late signing period/spring transfers. We’re not saying the above seven are all likely between now and Wednesday, just that this is what the perfect landing would look like. As of now we’d probably put the best chances with Hunter and Wesolak, with Young TBD after this weekend’s visit. Michigan State is in hot pursuit of Young as well.
We’ll have updates as things happen between now and Wednesday. Stay tuned as the 2022 class goes into the final days…
