With today being as newsworthy as it’s been after Eli Drinkwitz announced that Tyler Badie wouldn’t play and Brady Cook would be starting, why not put some more news on top of that in the form of a commitment!

Mizzou has been hunting the transfer portal, but has largely struck out on it’s targets so far... but that all changed when Clemson transfer, and former top 200 Safety, Joseph Charleston committed to Drinkwitz and the Tigers via an Instagram post.

Looking to bolster depth in the defensive backfield, Missouri was looking at a few different transfers and Charleston certainly has the recruiting pedigree to get excited about.

Get to know: Joseph Charleston

Hometown: Alpharetta, GA

High School: Milton

Position: Safety

Ht/Wt: 6’0 / 200

Rivals Ranking: 4-star, 5.9 rating, 155th overall

247Composite Ranking: 4-star, 0.9376, 149th overall

At the time of his commitment to Clemson, Charleston chose those Tigers over the likes of Alabama, Florida, Florida State, and Georgia. Last season Charleston was a key cog for the Tigers but fell behind in playing time this past season and opted for the portal. From our Clemson sister site Shakin’ The Southland:

The junior from Milton High School (GA) was a former four-star prospect and considered the 13th best safety in his class (2019). Despite finishing third overall in tackles (55) for the team last season, Charleston has only tallied 6 tackles with 66 snaps through the first 6 games of the 2021 season.

Alex Craft had this to say about Charleston in his season preview for Clemson’s safeties:

Charleston has the most physical upside on the boundary side of the unit, and I would’ve been cautiously optimistic to see him start this year had Turner elected to move on. Charleston will still find plenty of snaps like he did a year ago being the third safety in the dime, and that’s before considering Clemson may choose to rest Turner more than the usual starter since he’s so experienced that the staff may choose to substitute even more liberally early on in games. A third year junior now, this is usually the offseason when we see the “light come on” after a sophomore year full of steady improvement.

In the first two games of the season, Charleston logged 30 and 25 snaps respectively in the absence of Nolan Turner, but aside from 11 more snaps against NC State, he hasn’t seen the field since. Even with the season-ending injury to Lannden Zanders in the first quarter against UGA, Charleston hasn’t seen nearly as much playing time as Alex and perhaps Charleston himself expected, in part due to the stellar performance of freshman Andrew Mukuba.

Charleston joins the 2022 class and was listed as a Junior last year, but with 2022 not counting against eligibility he should have two seasons remaining at Missouri.

What they’re saying: