In state recruiting success points to a healthy football program culture

These days of summer are usually very quiet around the college sports scene. For most of the programs it’s basically about recruiting. Missouri is no different.

Dontae Manning is an elite 4-star DB from Raytown, MO who was previously committed to Oklahoma decided to open things up.

Is this a good thing for Missouri?

I honestly have NO idea. I have some idea when it comes to basketball recruiting, but I have scant connections to football recruiting, and virtually zero connections on the west side of the state. So for all I know he could be bouncing from OU to commit to Alabama or Clemson.

But what if....

Queue the Mizzou bloodline, Jay Maclin:

Maclin has been a stalwart in the recruiting of the #ShowMe20 class since verbally committing to the Tigers in April. Many of you know the story of Maclin, the cousin of Mizzou legend Jeremy, and elite 3-star wide receiver from Kirkwood, Missouri. The last name would lead many to assume Maclin was destined to don the black and gold, and maybe he was destined. But his place in the class has been as lead wrangler, imploring his future teammates not to wait and instead hop on board now.

The results have been good, as Barry Odom and his staff have put together some excellent early returns.

The biggest get to date is Antonio Doyle, the 4-star Linebacker from Lutheran North. For a period of time it looked like Doyle was headed to either Texas A&M or Oklahoma, but a trip to Columbia convinced him otherwise. And he’s since taken the mantle along with Maclin to lead the charge down I-70 towards Columbia.

Of the top 20 recruits in the state of Missouri — a class widely considered to be pretty deep — Odom already has pledges from six of them. They’re deep in the mix on four more:

• #13 Jalen Logan-Redding
• #11 Jalen St. John
• #10 Noah Arinze
• #6 Joe Moore

And now a fifth would be: #3 Dontae Manning. I don’t know if you can expect Missouri to go five for five, but it’s safe to say landing any more to this class is a very good sign for things to come for the program.

Austyn Carta-Samuels has been another vocal spokesperson, but this time more on the state of the program and where it’s headed. He likes it, if you’re wonder.

The in-state recruiting success isn’t something new to Missouri. Gary Pinkel was able to break through and gain some in-state consistency. After all he landed Maclin’s older cousin during a pretty solid stretch run which included elite recruits like Sheldon Richardson, Dorial Green-Beckham, Blaine Gabbert, and Maclin.

But Mizzou landed five of the top 20 in state recruits in 2019, three in 2018 (the famed Tiger 10 class), one in 2017 (not a strong class in Mizzou’s defense), five in 2016. You have to go back to the 2015 class to reach seven commitments in the state top 20. The 2015 class was a good one for Missouri and was led by Drew Lock, who turned out to be pretty good.

In-state recruiting success is seemingly tied to the health of the program. When the program is healthy the in-state recruits don’t feel to need to stray far to find success. When the program is unhealthy you’re selling something based upon faith. So the good news is recruits aren’t finding a reason to look elsewhere and that bodes well for the immediate future. And maybe that includes Dontae Manning.

Max Scherzer is on a helluva tear

I’m no baseball expert but I think a sub 1.00 ERA is considered good.