Mizzou football presser notes: National Signing Day

Dec 4, 2024 | Uncategorized

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NCAA Football: Arkansas at Missouri
Denny Medley-Imagn Images

What head coach Eli Drinkwitz told reporters after the Tigers earned pledges from 17 high school players on Wednesday.

As the twilight of National Signing Day hits, Mizzou ended in promising territory.

The Tigers currently sport the No. 19-ranked recruiting class in the country, per 247 Sports. Out of their 17 commits, 10 were four-star recruits, and seven were three-stars. The group included quarterback Matt Zollers, a borderline five-star recruit, and offensive lineman Jack Lange, the top-ranked player in Missouri. Mizzou also flipped four players who were originally committed to other schools.

Here’s what head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the big wave of National Signing Day concluded:

On Matt Zollers: “We evaluate quarterbacks on toughness, preparation, decision making, accuracy and leadership. Those are the traits that we feel like make up elite quarterbacks. And so then you just go through the list, you look at Matt’s ability, toughness, both physical and mental, obviously dealing with an injury right now, and has dealt with injuries before to be able to come back, preparation, the amount of time he puts in knowing offense, learning offense, and studying offense, decision-making with the ball in his hands. Constantly makes good decisions. He’s got the ability to extend plays with his feet and with his arm, and that was a really good asset that we felt like he had. Is an accurate thrower of the football, and he’s a leader. When we went out there last year the Pittsburgh area, Kirby (Moore) and I got to see his leadership traits, not only in football but also on basketball court.”

On the hectic nature leading up to signing day: “Obviously, this year’s change was quite a bit different. Normally, we spend two weeks going in homes and kind of finishing out the class and making sure everything’s right. Now, if you didn’t have a home game the last game, you didn’t get a chance to see your recruits, and obviously with NIL and revenue sharing, there was a lot of last-minute changes of heart and different things like that. So definitely different. And I’m not saying it’s good or bad. It’s just hard to tell.”

On if roster construction changes with revenue sharing entering the picture: “I think things change every day in college football. You have best laid plans of mice and men, and you got to have the most important thing is adaptability, the ability to adapt to whatever the new structure and changes are. We think revenue share is a real deal, but we don’t really know. Nothing’s finalized ‘til April 1. I was having a conversation with another head coach about how are they dealing with NIL versus revenue share and creating numbers? And he reminded me that NIL, or revenue sharing, was a concept that won’t be finalized until the future and how much it changed in the last four months. So are we really sure that that’s going to be in place? I don’t know.”

On how he navigates a new era of recruiting: “You got to build trust and respect. That’s what our we tried to do with these relationships is build a foundation of trust and respect. You look back on what we’ve done and our ability to keep our word here and visit with our players and families and make sure that what we say and what we do align. And you know, have that moving forward, because there’s still a lot to have to navigate moving forward.”

On Marquise Davis and Brendan Haygood: “Well, Marquise, we’ve actually been involved with for a while, and we actually had him on campus early in his recruiting process. (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. We had a strong relationship with Marquise. We always knew we were taking a second running back in this class, and so we had a relationship with Brendon, and actually sent (running backs) coach (Curtis) Luper to watch him play, and we’re going to bring him on. They just happened to both come the same weekend, and both had a great time and let us know that they were coming, which was an awesome thing, and we were willing to take all three if we needed to. But, you know, sometimes things just work out.”

“The thing I think I like the most is their complementary nature. Both of them are dynamic runners. Brendon has a tremendous amount of statistics and put up a lot of numbers. He’s got dynamic speed. Marquise has got really good speed. Downhill runner … They’ll be a good Batman and Robin or thunder and lightning from a tag team standpoint. Both of them have elite skill sets.”

On the last-minute nature of recruiting Javion Hilson: “It’s like speed dating. We had a relationship there, too, just because of some previous players and had been there to watch him and evaluate him. But it really became real because of some connections that Coach Brian (Early) had to some of the mentors. When he got on campus, I think Coach Early did an excellent job of showing the depth chart, the opportunity to play the combination of him, Williams (Nwaneri), Jaylen (Brown), Zion (Young), Jahkai (Lang), I think got everybody really excited about what we can do. That’s a position that has proven in the SEC that you come in and play early, and especially with what some other people have done as freshmen in this conference, I think he saw an opportunity to lead his mark on one of the best conferences college football.”

On shared traits between the 17 commits: “I think they all had a great energy about them and a vibe when they came on campus. They evaluated the opportunity, they understood what Missouri has become and what we’re doing. Their constant ability to come back and want to watch games and be around us I think was something that everybody was excited about. I think the other thing was, this was a strong class. Matt and Jason Dowell and Henry (Fenuku) and Jason King and Keiton (Jones), Jack Lange, they all stayed together through group texts, were constantly recruiting to make this the class that we wanted it to be. We set out with the goal to sign anywhere between 15 and 20 players, and we really didn’t want to sign too big of a class. We’ve kind of found the right formula for us. So for us to settle in this number of 17 right now is really good, and we’re very excited about where we’re at.”

On Jack Lange: “Obviously, top player in the state, a dominant offensive lineman. I was able to go watch Eureka play this year and just watch him as he comes off the ball. Very good pad level, knee bend, hands inside. Is going to have to learn the other side of pass protection, but with (offensive line) Coach (Brandon) Jones, his ability to teach, (we) feel very confident that’ll be good. And I think Jack’s very excited about going against the best. He’s going to get a goal against Will and Javion, and he’s going to get to compete every day and figure out where he’s struggling and how to get better.”

On recruiting outside of Missouri (Mizzou’s 17 commits are from 10 different states): “I think for us, the biggest thing was you got to recruit the best players in this state who can play at this level. And I think over the course of my time, I’ve realized you always want to err on the side of taking the best players of the state, but they got to be able to play. Otherwise, it can create some unnecessary feelings that we don’t want to create here. And so I think we’ve done a really good job of being able to identify the players who can play and contribute at this level, and then work out into that wider net. I think our national exposure over the past two years has helped us. I think there was a stat Dave Matter put out yesterday. There’s only six teams that won 20 games in last two seasons, and that’s an awesome thing for the University of Missouri. And you know, we’re now able to walk into just about anywhere in the country and have national recognition for what we’re doing.”

“Matt, Donovan (Olugbode), Jack and Javion are four players inside the top 100 … three of those are out of state. So again, our brand is is becoming more and more national, just like our enrollment is. And this is a wonderful academic institution, AAU institution. It’s a wonderful school that also has a wonderful reach from an athletic standpoint.”

On the three wide receivers they landed: “Obviously Scary Terry, Shaun Terry, is dynamic with the ball in his hands and elite punt returner. We’re very fortunate to get him. I think he comes in and helps us with a need that we automatically have. Donovan is a strong, physical wide receiver who’s in and out of breaks, got long speed, but also short area quickness. Contested catches are what he does really well. I think “Obviously Scary Terry, Shaun Terry, is dynamic with the ball in his hands and elite punt returner. You know, we’re very fortunate to get him. I think he comes in and helps us with a need that we automatically have. Donovan is a strong, physical wide receiver who’s in and out of breaks, got long speed, but also short-area quickness. Contested catches are what he does really well. I think DaMarion (Fowlkes) is ia good route runner. Ball in his hand, (he) creates explosives. Obviously, we’ll have to figure out where each one of them plays and what Coach Peeler does with them when they get here. But the great thing is, a lot of early enrollees, like we said, we got 10 early enrollees that will be here mid-year, and Shaun and Donovan being here early will really help them get acclimated.”

On the impact of the recruits on what Mizzou does in the transfer portal: “No, they’re not two separate things. I think obviously we’ve proven that we’ll play freshmen, and now with the portal and NIL and salary caps and then what you’re willing to spend, you have to be willing to play with, because everything gets squeezed. There are a few positions that will have the opportunity to grow and develop, but if you’re a skill guy who’s an early enrollee, or if you’re an early enrollee, we’re expecting that you’re coming in to compete for a position and provide us with, or provide an opportunity to contribute. And if you’re not, still doesn’t mean you can’t. It’s just these guys got a little bit of a head start on you, but everybody we’re expected to help contribute to win. Trajen Greco is on the field at the end of the game, and several other freshmen were helping us this year.”

On having a highly rated quarterback come in with a highly rated receiver: “I think that goes hand in hand, right? Great players want to play with great players. And I think when we were able to get Matt, it attracted some of the best of the best to want to come play with us.”

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