Recruiting Reset: Aidan Glover has some Brady Cook to his game

It’s been less than a month since 3-star quarterback Daniel Kaelin announced he was planning to decommit from Missouri and would instead be committing to play for his home state Nebraska Cornhuskers.

It didn’t take long for the Tigers to bounce back.

Aidan Glover, a 3-star prospect out of the Memphis area, announced on Thursday that after spending the previous weekend in Columbia, he was ready to commit to the Tigers. Rivals considers Glover a be top 15 player in the state of Tennessee, and the 10th best dual-threat quarterback in the country.

The 3-star prospect committed to Mizzou over reported offers from Boston College, Houston, Indiana, Memphis, Northwestern and Stanford. It’s worth noting Glover also claimed offers from Dartmouth and Yale. We’re talking about a remarkably bright kid. He claims on his Twitter profile that he currently boasts a 4.25 GPA and a 29 on the ACT. Not too shabby.

That’s on top of completing 65 percent oof his passes for 1,421 yards and 21 touchdowns while serving as his team’s leading rusher last season with 418 yards and three rushing touchdowns.

The kid that has it all, though, lost a dear friend earlier in the week. As he tells it, the passing of his former teammate is part of the reason why he ended up committing to Mizzou.

Glover to On3: “When I was making my decision this week, my brother (friend and former teammate), Dion Stutts, unfortunately passed away in an ATV accident. He was committed to Arkansas. His dream was for us to play in a rivalry SEC game. After he passed, I knew that Mizzou was my forever home and I had to make him proud.”

Glover and Stutts played together at Memphis University School before Glover transferred to Collierville ahead of the 2022 high school football season. Glover says the two hoped to one day play against one another in the Battle Line Rivalry. If you would like to read more about how Stutts’ passing impacted Glover, this is a good story on the accident.

Where he fits: Glover is a true dual-threat quarterback. Please don’t immediately close out of this tab upon reading this, but... He reminds me a bit of Brady Cook. I know, I know. Let’s be fair — that’s not the worst thing in the world. Much like Cook, Glover has a good but not great arm, and his value comes from his ability to buy time with his legs in order to either run or find the open man down the field.

That’s not to suggest he can’t become more than what Cook has been at the college level. Glover’s most recent film is from his junior year in high school. There’s still a whole lot of development to be done, both on and off the field. He’s going to get bigger. His arm very well could get stronger. He’s already got speed for days. He fits seamlessly into what the Tigers did last year with Cook at the helm. The hope is that when Glover is ready to start, he potentially does so at an even higher level.

When he’ll play: Trying to project this quarterback depth chart for 2023, much less 2025, is a nightmare. I still believe Cook will be the starter this year. That could prove to be wrong. It might be Jake Garcia. Maybe it’s Sam Horn. It’s impossible to know. I’m not sure Missouri’s coaching staff even knows at this point. I think we know this much: One of Cook, Garcia or Horn will be the starter, and the other two are likely to transfer at the end of the season. That’s not me pushing them out. That’s just how it works with quarterbacks.

The two transfers would leave (whoever becomes) this year’s starter, Gabarri Johnson and Glover as the remaining quarterbacks on the roster in 2024. I would be shocked if Glover starts right away upon his arrival. Instead, his job will be to push Johnson for a potential backup role. We’re at least two or three years from Glover pushing for any kind of starting opportunity. That said, Glover is a prospect who does possess the necessary potential to start at the next level. That is not always the case, but it is for him.

What it all means: Missouri was able to do a good job in rebounding from Kaelin’s decommitment. Glover is a legitimate prospect with the potential to start at the next level. He’s not on the same level as Horn or Johnson were. He’s closer to what Cook was as a high school prospect. There’s nothing wrong with that. Cook developed into a mid-tier SEC starter. If the same is true for Glover, that’s a “win” in recruiting.

The Tigers are still off to a bit of a slow start on the recruiting trail. Glover is just the third commitment in the 2024 class, and Eli Drinkwitz is still searching for his first “blue chip” commit. It all adds up to the 73rd ranked recruiting class, according to Rivals.

That said, the Tigers are scheduled to host more than a dozen prospects next weekend for Mizzou’s summer official visit weekend. The Tigers have traditionally left such a weekend with roughly half of the visitors eventually committing to play in Columbia. That would go a long way in helping to boost the numbers for the 2024 class.

For now, a quarterback commit will do. A good one, at that.