
The blue-chip running back ensures Mizzou’s focal point of attack will be secure for the next several years.
You want to hear a controversial opinion? Here goes: It’s good to take recruits from conference opponents. Be it through NIL offers, playing time promises or simply being that much better than the other team, swiping a commitment from a conference rival is extremely cool and fun. I honestly think Mizzou should do it more often!
Mizzou needed to shore up their running back room this class with the upcoming departures of Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll. And with long-time commt Jamarion Morrow flipping to Texas A&M — hmmm, I actually don’t like it when that happens to us — the staff needed a quick pivot. Luckily, the Wildcats in Lexington stunk up the joint this year, making their star RB recruit extra susceptible to having his mind changed.
“Well, Marquise, we’ve actually been involved with for a while, and we actually had him on campus early in his recruiting process,” Eli Drinkwitz said in his National Signing Day press conference. “(Offensive assistant) Brendan Boylan has done an excellent job in the state of Ohio recruiting and really laid the foundation for us there over 18 months ago.”
That foundation, coupled with another successful on-field season for the Tigers, allowed them to swoop in and land the No. 1 RB recruit in Ohio with just a few days left in the recruiting cycle.
See how fun that all sounds?
Where He Fits: The tandem of Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll was the first instance of Eli Drinkwitz showing a willingness to ride more than one back per season, and the duo’s effectiveness suggests its a strategy Drinkwitz might come back to in the coming years. Add the blocking prowess of Jamal Roberts to the mix, and there’s room for more than one halfback in the Tigers’ offensive plans.
In terms of Davis’s style fitting into the overall scheme, it’s not hard to see why the staff sought him out. Davis is a decisive runner who focuses on hitting top speed as soon as possible. Once he does, his combination of long strides and upper body strength make him extremely difficult to bring down. Think Cody Schrader with a bit more top-end speed. The thing that he’ll need to learn (and this is par for the course with young backs) is the patience required to play in Mizzou’s zone scheme. Once he adds that, though? Watch out.
When He’ll Play: While we generally have an idea of this question before we write the post — the answer is almost always “in two years, at the earliest” — it’s harder to say when young running backs will be given their shot these days. With Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll exiting the program, there’s going to be a wide open competition for reps in the backfield. We know Jamal Roberts has the upper hand, and Kewan Lacy has earned the staff’s trust. But an Eli Drinkwitz running game is like a Major League Baseball team’s pitching staff — you can never have too many guys. Should Davis hit the ground running (pun intended), he could be in line for some snaps as early as 2025.
What It All Means: Curtis Luper and Drinkwitz have crafted Missouri’s hyper-specific running game into one of the nation’s best. At its best, it’s an unstoppable juggernaut capable of creating Heisman candidates out of walk-ons. At its worst… I don’t know, has the Mizzou running game been “worst” under Drinkwitz? The through line of Larry Rountree III to Tyler Badie to Cody Schrader to Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll is pretty unimpeachable. Sufficed to say, Mizzou’s offense only goes as the running game goes. And if you want a good run game, you need good running backs.
Marquise Davis is yet another high-ceiling playmaker for the staff to build around in the backfield. Adding him to a room that already features the likes of Roberts, Lacy, Tavorus Jones, Austin Dendy and Brendon Haygood feels like an embarrassment of riches.
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