National Signing Day 2015: Richaud Floyd signs with Missouri

IT's OFFICIAL Richaud Floyd is going to be #MizzouMade pic.twitter.com/yENsxPpQ90

— Nick Otterbacher (@Coach_Otter) February 4, 2015

PHOTO: Gulfport's Richaud Floyd signs with #Mizzou. @SunHerald

A photo posted by Patrick Ochs (@paochs) on Feb 4, 2015 at 6:40am PST

Mizzou was still in on quite a few highly-ranked prospects in July when the Tigers accepted a commitment from Richaud Floyd, nearly a non-entity in the Rivals universe. And once you saw the film, you could see why. From the original Floyd Commits link above:

Floyd is 5'11, 165 pounds and has played multiple positions for Gulfport through the years. One assumes that his size held back his recruiting ranking a bit, but you have to like the big-play ability he hints at on film. (And yes, all "consider the quality of the competition" caveats apply, as always.)

Despite his size, ESPN ended up grading him out as a four-star prospect, and Rivals raised its rating to low-three.

Assuming Pat Ivey is able to slap a bit more weight on him, Floyd could fill the need for an Ace Sanders type at the slot position. And if Floyd is where he needs to be physically by August, he could be a candidate to see the field as early as 2015.

Again, "adjust for the competition" caveats apply, but in his highlight video, Floyd seems to run powerfully for his size, getting through arm tackles without losing speed and never getting caught in the open field. He is something we've seen a lot from Mizzou signees through the years -- a guy who played out of position in high school (usually that means he had to fill in at quarterback because he was his team's best athlete) and therefore threw some potential recruiters off the scent. In a lot of the highlights above, he's playing quarterback; he won't be a QB at Mizzou (barring disaster), but his ability to maneuver in traffic with QB draws and zone reads suggests he could be exciting on screens.