Missouri football recruiting update: Beckner highlights weekend's official visitors

It's the final weekend of recruiting and official visits before 2015's National Signing Day comes next Wednesday. According to PowerMizzou and other sources, Mizzou is expecting to host around eight prospects -- four who have already committed to Mizzou (receivers Johnathon Johnson and Richaud Floyd, safety T.J. Warren, kicker Corey Fatony) and four who have not. Since we'll be talking about the former this coming Wednesday, let's talk about the latter.

TE Josh Moore (6'5, 250, Olathe)

Rivals: *** | 247 Composite: *** | ESPN: ***

Olathe TE Josh Moore, who told us he will visit #Mizzou this wknd RT "@JoshMoore_08: If you didn't know already, I will not be going to Ku."

— Gabe DeArmond (@GabeDeArmond) January 28, 2015

Moore has had an interesting recruitment. He committed to Ohio State over the summer, but it appears that Moore and the Buckeyes agreed to part ways in October. (He has been considered a qualification risk, and there's a chance that Ohio State preferred to go with someone they knew would qualify instead.) He quickly committed to Kansas but later admitted that was partially because his high school coach pushed him in that direction. He is no longer committed to the Jayhawks, and he is once again giving Mizzou a look.

Moore is a strong athlete for his size and is an accomplished basketball player as well. He would be a good get, though there's reason to believe he might end up being a sign-and-place guy, like fellow 2015 recruit Chase Abbington, who signed with Mizzou in 2013 and will do so again on Wednesday.

DT Daquan Hawkins (6'4, 301, Atlanta, Ga.)

Rivals: *** | 247 Composite: ***

Hawkins took an official visit to UGA last weekend, and he’s scheduled to go to Missouri on Friday. Those are his only two recruiting trips, and Hawkins claims offers from both SEC schools.

"Colleges love his size, and his agility – the way he can move for his size," Westlake coach Bryan Love told the AJC. "He plays with good leverage, and has good lateral movement."

-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An Atlanta kid with offers from both UGA and Mizzou, Hawkins did not commit to the Dawgs after his official visit to Athens last week. That's a good sign, though one has to assume he is still a likely UGA lean when all is said and done. With limited spots remaining in the class, it's unclear whether Mizzou would accept a commitment from Hawkins if Nate Howard -- who is scheduled to announce his school of choice tonight -- also chooses the Tigers, but I lean toward yes on that one.

OLB Quarte Sapp (6'1, 200, Alpharetta, Ga.)

Rivals: **** (#226 overall) | 247 Composite: **** (#231 overall) | ESPN: **** (#197 overall)

Ah, recruiting. I've been waiting to hear that Quarte Sapp has canceled his Mizzou visit, being that he announced yesterday on local television that he was committing to Tennessee. But that word has not yet come down, so for all we know, he's coming. If he does still end up visiting, it will be interesting to see how his visit goes; he and Terez Hall, who visited last weekend, seem to be fighting it out for one spot. Depending on who you ask, Mizzou might prefer Hall (which, for all we know, played into Sapp's Tennessee commitment), but who knows? If Sapp's still coming to town, he's still considering Mizzou, and Mizzou's still considering him.

UPDATE: About 10 seconds after I stopped checking for news on him, he officially canceled his trip.

DE/DT Terry Beckner Jr. (6'4, 298, East St. Louis, Ill.)

Rivals: **** (#36 overall) | 247 Composite: ***** (#13 overall) | ESPN: ***** (#2 overall)

And then there's the big fish in the 2015 class. Terry Beckner Jr. has been listing Mizzou as a leader or co-leader for nearly a full calendar year now, even as his stock continued to rise and some of recruiting's big fish began to knock on his door. Earlier this month, both he and his coach said Mizzou is the likely leader.

Beckner has visited Florida State, Auburn, and Ohio State, and as one would expect, he has enjoyed each visit. Mizzou sent the Pinkelcopter out to start the red-carpet process yesterday, and I'm sure he will enjoy this weekend's visit, too. We'll see if it's enough.

National analysts stil seems to think he will be signing with Mizzou on Wednesday -- he's announcing his commitment mid-morning -- but sentiment has shifted a bit in FSU's favor, it seems ... mostly because they're putting on the full-court press, and they're good at it. We'll see if the 'Noles are good enough, or if Beckner will indeed end up the bellcow of Mizzou's 2015 class.

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