St. Louis WR Cameron Brown commits to Nebraska: The first of the Tiger 10 goes elsewhere

The goal for Missouri’s 2018 football recruiting cycle has been pretty simple: buy some time.

With 10 in-state prospects with early Mizzou offers getting national attention, and with Mizzou coming off of nine wins in two years, the goal for the Tigers in their pursuit of this massive batch of high-end locals was, in effect, stall. Hope that few of them commit elsewhere before you can get to the fall of 2017 and hopefully win some games.

Quite a few members of this Tiger Top 10 have already declared that they will not be committing anywhere until closer to or on National Signing Day. But the first leak happened on Sunday afternoon, when St. Louis CBC receiver Cameron Brown committed to Not Mizzou.

Mizzou has sent a couple of new offers out to receivers over the last week or so. One in particular is receptive to the Tigers’ advances.

Jones currently has a 247Sports Composite rating similar to Brown’s (they were identical as of Sunday morning, but Brown’s was just upgraded, evidently), so I guess you could say that Mizzou’s potential for 2018 receiver recruiting hasn’t changed much with Brown’s commitment. Still, in terms of symbolism, the effects are obvious.

It’s a long time until signing day, and commitments change, but Mizzou’s best chance with this in-state class was to land the first commitment or two and build momentum before building further momentum on the field. That was not to be.

Still, nothing is binding, and a happy fall in Columbia would still put the Tigers in good shape. If you’re Barry Odom and company, that has to be the focus.