Our second part of this series is going to look a lot like the first -- focusing on positions that won't have much of a role in the 2016 class.
Wide Receiver
- 2014 Signees: Nate Brown (So.), Desean Blair (RSFr.), Thomas Richard (RSFr.), Keyon Dilosa (RSFr.), Ray Wingo (RSFr.)
- 2015 Signees: Richaud Floyd (Fr.), Johnathon Johnson (Fr.), Emanuel Hall (Fr.), Justin Smith (Fr.), Ronnell Perkins* (Fr.) (* - could end up at this position or another one)
- Known 2016 Offers: 4-6
Between about eight and 10 2014 and 2015 signees are going to play receiver this year. That's a tricky thing because you don't know for sure that any of them are going to work out, but you pretty much have to trust your judgment and leave the position alone in the next class. And that's what Missouri is doing. Pinkel and staff have sent out some offers to big-time prospects with huge offer lists -- four-star Florida prospects Elijah Stove, Tre Nixon, and Freddie Pinder, Suwanee, Ga., product Josh Imatorbhebhe (the brother of former Mizzou commit Daniel ... and someone who's not going to be considering Mizzou), and another Florida product, the wonderfully named Eddie McDoom.
Mizzou will always cast out some huge offers to players like that, but that rarely results in anything. And if you're looking for confirmation that WR is not going to be much of this class, realize that Harry Ballard III, the No. 4 prospect in Missouri according to Rivals, is a 6'2 receiver who doesn't have an offer.
So yeah, at this point I'm thinking Mizzou gets 0-1 commits here.
Tight End
- 2014 Signees: Kendall Blanton (Fr.)
- 2015 Signees: none
- Known 2016 Offers: 6-8
Eventually Mizzou is going to have to go hard after tight ends. Granted, the Tigers have three right now, and all three are scheduled to return in 2016, but they haven't hit the position hard in a while considering how much the position is becoming a part of a Josh Henson offense. That Mizzou has offered more tight ends than receivers tells you a bit about priorities, but most of the offers have gone to the blue-chip types who aren't likely to consider Mizzou.
There are three slightly more interesting offers out that I want to discuss. The first one is to Wildwood's Brendan Scales, who just committed to Alabama. 'Bama also got Helias' Hale Hentges last year, which is a nice reminder that Missouri's minimal recent TE signees wasn't all because of a lack of priority. Some Mizzou fans were grumbling that the Tigers didn't offer Scales quickly enough, but ... Alabama is Alabama. Mizzou was all over Hale Hentges from birth, basically, and it didn't matter.
Two other prospects, however, intrigue me a little, probably because they're off the radar a bit. Or at least, in the first player's case, he isn't a blue-chipper.
Christian Roberson is a Powder Springs, Ga., product and almost a four-star recruit according to the 247Sports Composite. He lists Florida and Mississippi State as his leaders a while back, with Arkansas, Kentucky, and Louisville still in the race, but I think he only semi-recently got a Mizzou offer. We'll see if the Tigers can creep into this race.
Then, out of nowhere, there's Cody Mitchell from Jasper, Tex. Mitchell is a low-three-star prospect according to the Composite, and he doesn't appear to have a Rivals profile/rating yet.
Mitchell does all the things a tight end is supposed to do and shows some nice open-field speed. When someone is only listing an offer in one recruiting service, and the others have not yet corroborated, you don't quite know if there's a 'real' offer in place, so to speak. But this is a pretty good-looking kid who has flown under the radar. And I have to figure Mizzou takes at least one tight end in this class. That, or they have to take 2-3 in 2017.
(Side note: I just referenced the 2017 recruiting class. 2017! This reminds me that I've been following recruiting for almost 20 years. I don't like being reminded of that.)