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FOOTBALL RECRUITING
We'll cover the "other news" before getting to the headline of the day. Build up the suspense so to speak. There are no official visitors expected in town this weekend. Mizzou will have at least one local underclassman on campus for an unofficial visit in 6-foot-7, 330-pound Francis Howell Central OL Karson Webster
Missouri kicked off the week by hosting a couple of priority 2024 targets from the Kansas City area in Andrew Sprague and Jaden Reddell.
For Reddell, this was at least the third time he's been on Missouri's campus since the summer when he picked up his offer. That definitely bodes well for the Tigers as the 6-foot-4, 220-pound prospect has picked up numerous power five offers throughout the fall and into the 2023 calendar year. UCLA, Texas A&M, Miami, Auburn, Florida, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska are some his latest offers. Reddell is coming off a junior season where he hauled in 49 catches for 1,002 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Sprague has also been a frequent visitor to Missouri since picking up his offer from the Tigers back in the spring. He's also seen his recruiting process pickup quite a bit since the spring as programs like Michigan, Nebraska, Auburn, Kentucky, Baylor, LSU, Colorado, and others have also jumped in the mix. Michigan is another school Sprague has made multiple trips to since being offered by the Wolverines and may be Mizzou's main competition. Sprague is coming off a season where he earned First-Team, All-State honors at offensive tackle.
It seems things will be relatively quiet in terms of visits this weekend as the Tigers will ramp up for a big Jr. Day on the 28th. Here are a few targets that have already confirmed they will be in Columbia for that event. We'll continue to update throughout the weekend and into next week.
Ryan Jostes, OL, Washington (Mo.) - Just picked up a Missouri offer last night. He is visiting Vanderbilt this weekend. Also holds notable offers from Iowa State, Illinois, Louisville, and others.
Keelan Smith, ATH, Liberty North (Mo.) - Smith will return to Missouri after visiting for the Vandy game during the season and visiting in December to watch the Tigers' practice for their bowl game. He's already established a good connection with WR coach Jacob Peeler. Smith said he also plans to visit Iowa, Nebraska, K-State, and Kentucky during the spring as well.
Brian Huff, OLB, Valley View (Ark.) - Huff attended a Missouri game back in September and the interest appears to be very mutual with a return visit planned. Huff will visit Arkansas this weekend for their Jr. Day. LSU and Oklahoma State also extended offers during the fall.
LeonTre Bradford, S, East St. Louis (Ill.) - Bradford was another summer offer for the Tigers and has been to a game this season. Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue, and Louisville are his latest offers.
Tionne Gray, DL, Hazelwood Central (Mo.) - Gray has already been to Missouri a lot since picking up an offer during the summer. He just added offers from K-State and Washington as well.
Okay, so now let's talk quarterback. Late Thursday night, Pete Thamel reported that Jake Garcia would transfer from Miami to Mizzou. We certainly expect that to happen. Through sources, we can tell you that Garcia has begun the admissions process with Missouri, but he is not officially finished with it. That could happen as soon as today or it could take until Monday. But it is important because with transfers, nothing is official until they are on campus and in school. In other words, Garcia could apply to 12 different schools and then pick one.
We need to be clear, we have no reason to believe that's what is happening. We fully expect Garcia to end up at Missouri. But the reason it's quiet on Mizzou's side, the reason there wasn't a bat signal or anything like that is that those things aren't going to happen until this is actually done. We've told you all along that Mizzou has kept the QB stuff really, really quiet this year. The reason is simple: They didn't keep it quiet last year at all and they got burned by that. So until everything is buttoned up and they know that Garcia is locked in, there's not going to be any sort of indication this is happening from the Mizzou side. But again, we fully expect it to.
So what does this mean for Missouri once it does come to fruition?
All along we've said we expected the Tigers to add a piece to the quarterback room. Garcia is not a no-doubt day one starter, but he is also not a guy who's coming to Missouri content to spend a couple years on a college campus backing up Brady Cook and/or Sam Horn. Make no mistake, he's coming to compete for the starting quarterback job. Just like last year, I am sure he has not been promised the starting quarterback job. That doesn't happen. But he's absolutely been made aware that Missouri offers him the chance to go win a Power Five job.
Cook is out for spring football. Horn and Garcia will get the starting reps and will battle it out. Again, we would not expect Eli Drinkwitz to name a starter coming out of spring ball. That competition is going to go into fall camp and Cook is going to get the opportunity to be a part of it.
As for Garcia specifically, what kind of player is Missouri getting? I checked with someone who covers Miami:
"He’s a decent quarterback who hasn’t had the chance to truly develop in game situations. He makes very questionable throws last season. Very genuine kid. Many thought he would be the qb of the future once he committed. He’s a limited runner. Has a gunslinger mentality."
We aren't going to give you a scouting report based on high school film. First, that's not really what we do here and second, two-year-old film probably doesn't much matter for a kid who's entering his third year on a college campus. But Garcia was more highly rated in 2021 than Horn was in 2022. If you're excited by the potential of Horn based on rankings, you should also be excited by the potential of Garcia. Neither one of them has done much in games so far in college, but neither has been the guy before either. Both are going to get that shot here. But they're also going to have to contend with Cook who actually HAS started games at this level and for this coach.
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