
Losing former five-star recruits hurts, but that’s just life in the fast lane of major college football.
The transfer portal is a fickle mistress. In this new age of college football, the one thing that can be counted on is that nothing will stay the same. That especially goes for rosters from one season to the next. One year’s massive recruiting win can be next year’s massive transfer loss.
Case in point: The announcement that former consensus five-star recruit Williams Nwaneri will be entering the transfer portal and thus (presumably) leaving the Mizzou Tigers.
BREAKING: Missouri True Freshman EDGE Williams Nwaneri plans to enter the Transfer Portal, he tells @on3sports
The 6’6 265 EDGE will have all 4 years of eligibility remaining
Was ranked as a Five-Star Plus+ Recruit in ‘24 (No. 1 EDGE)https://t.co/vZxF8av6oz pic.twitter.com/wjvLHlS9sh
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 10, 2024
The jewel of the Tigers’ 2024 recruiting class, Nwaneri lasted barely a semester in Columbia before seeking greener pastures. On paper, this is a big loss for a Mizzou team that is already losing it’s other five-star talent this off-season to the NFL draft. In reality, however, this move hurts the Tigers way less than it appears.
While Mizzou has had players leave every off-season since the transfer portal came into existence, Nwaneri is really only the third player to leave that Tigers fans have been truly disappointed to see go, with Mekhi Wingo and Dominic Lovett being the other two. If the Tigers continue to recruit at an elite level, these three won’t be the last, and that’s OK.
The name of the game
Eli Drinkwitz has made a name for himself in his first half-decade at Mizzou for being an outstanding recruiter and program builder. In the last five years, he has transitioned the Tigers from a middling recruiting destination to a perennial top 15 recruiting school in the country. In doing so, he has earned many major successes, bringing in highly rated guys like Luther Burden III, Sam Horn, Matt Zollers and Williams Nwaneri on top a couple dozen other four-star players.
Drinkwitz has Mizzou swimming in depths they have never dared dip a toe in before. However, with deep water comes big fish with big mouths (NIL purses). The waters Mizzou is swimming in now are not only deep, but also murky. When you win recruiting battles for big-time talents, your opposition doesn’t simply give up. They keep circling and waiting for another chance. Whether or not any other “big fish” have been in contact with Nwaneri prior to making his decision to enter the portal, they have certainly been waiting to strike.
While this latest loss may or may not have snuck up on the Tiger coaches, the possibility of such a move certainly didn’t catch the Mizzou coaching staff by surprise. They themselves have made moves to grab players on the second try (e.g. Toriano Pride, Jr., Jeremiah Beasley, etc.)
The bottom line: This is a good problem for Mizzou to have. The Tigers want (and need) players that other top programs are vying for. If your roster doesn’t spark interest from other major programs, then that means you are most likely uncompetitive on the field.
Turnabout is fair play
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The challenge for Drinkwitz and his coaches now is to replace Nwaneri with someone equal to or better than him on the field. They started that process a bit early by landing five-star EDGE Javion Hilson as a late addition to the 2025 recruiting class, but they will need to continue that effort in the portal as well.
It’s doubtful that Mizzou will be able to attract someone with Nwaneri’s pedigree in the portal. After all, consensus top 10 players nationally don’t grow on trees. Nwaneri was always going to be a developmental prospect that needed a year or two of training and practice to reach his (very) high ceiling.
While he may very well reach that high ceiling somewhere else, the Tigers aren’t going to miss his production moving into 2025. As a freshman, he only saw the field in four games, making two tackles and one sack in those limited snaps. Just about anyone they bring in to supplement their already fairly full EDGE room will top that production.
Moving on, moving up
As time marches on, major college football teams are starting to be run like professional programs. Stanford just hired Andrew Luck as their general manager, a move that more and more programs (most likely Mizzou as well) will make in the coming months and years. A part of this transition to a more professional set up is treating NIL money, and future revenue sharing, like a salary cap of sorts.
Like all blue chip recruits, Nwaneri was certainly promised, and by all accounts received, a highly lucrative NIL package to attend Mizzou in 2024. Assuming Nwaneri indeed finds a new home for 2025, the money and endorsement deals set aside for him next year and into the future suddenly become freed up to use on attracting other talent to Mizzou.
Rest assured that if it wasn’t already, bringing in another EDGE rusher will be a top priority for the Mizzou coaching staff. With Nwaneri’s substantial NIL package coming off the books, the likelihood of landing at least really good good defensive end has increased quite a bit. Additionally, with big-time NIL earners in Luther Burden, Brady Cook, Theo Wease, Johnny Walker, Jr. and others also coming off the books, Mizzou’s already replete NIL fund looks to be loaded and ready for the incoming portal season.
Ultimately, in the world of deep sea fishing, losing a prize like Williams Nwaneri to the transfer portal can really just be chalked up to the Game. Does it hurt to lose a big-name, promising prospect after such a short time in Columbia? Definitely. But to be honest, Nwaneri already made a big positive impact for Mizzou simply by signing on the dotted line last year.
Nwaneri proved that Luther Burden’s commitment wasn’t a flash in the pan and that Eli Drinkwitz could lock down the highest end talent in the state on a regular basis. Nwaneri was Drinkwitz’s proof of concept and that is something that will last far longer off the field than any on-field contributions Nwaneri might have made in the next two to three years. So thanks for the memories, Williams. We’ll always have… that sack against UMASS.
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