While it might not be in the best interest of college football coaches or players, Early Signing Period is a fun time to watch you team lock in their commitments as they start to build the roster for future seasons.

And while we here in the Missouri corner of recruiting are really enjoying the process to unprecedented highs, most of our attention has been focused on those shiny blue-chippers who we know are coming in because they’ve already committed.

But there are other surprises, too! Like commitments on the day of! Such as...

Get to know: D.J. Wesolak

Hometown: Boonville, MO

High School: Boonville

Position: Weakside Defensive End/Edge Rusher

Ht/Wt: 6’5”/225 lbs

Rivals Ranking: 3-star (5.6)

247Composite Ranking: 4-star, (0.9231)

Total announced offers: 49

Offers to note: Basically all of them

Highlights: D.J.’s Hudl is right here

Now, let’s talk about Wesolak’s experience through Fall 2021.

On October 7th, Cooper County prosecutors charged him with first-degree harassment - a felony - and fourth-degree assault - a misdemeanor - stemming from an incident that occurred in March of 2021. This made him ineligible to play football under MSHAA conduct rules and he was banned from all team activities while under investigation. Predictably, his recruiting interested dried up, and for a guy who seemed pretty intent on getting out of the state it seemed that his commitable offers were no longer available to him.

On November 23rd, the prosecutors office deferred prosecution after talking to the victim and taking Wesolak’s age and lack of criminal history into account. You can read the charges filed in court since they’re public information and you can come to your own conclusions about what transpired. The point is, Wesolak missed a good chunk of his senior year and, predictably, fell in recruiting rankings and favor of schools looking to sign an edge rusher.

But, regardless of your opinion on the matter, he is not under investigation and charges were dropped and, seemingly, he shouldn’t be anything but a model citizen and excellent representative of the Missouri football team. If he’s not...well, then he’ll cease to be that representative, right?

Missouri is incredibly deep at defensive end and over half of those guys are some version of freshman. Wesolak will have plenty of time to develop and learn but if he’s good enough to start day one then more power to him.

What they’re saying: