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2016 Missouri football recruiting: Rock Bridge's Bryce Banks is a Tiger

Okay, let's reset. A lot has happened in recruiting this weekend.

By Bill Connelly

Happy Sunday! We woke up to another Mizzou commitment, the third in two days.

Banks received an offer this week and pounced on it. From David Morrison:

Banks is the seventh Missouri commitment for next year's class and its third since Friday, following Atlanta athlete Christian Holmes -- who committed Saturday night -- and Rock Bridge teammate Tre Williams, a defensive end who pledged Friday.

"Tre told him he had to come, too," Bruins defensive coordinator Joe Collier said.

Banks is a two-star recruit according to 247Sports.com and Rivals.com and has not received a star rating from ESPN.com or Scout.com. He picked up a Missouri offer Friday after camping with the Tigers with teammates Williams and defensive end Hayden Johnson.

He also has an offer from Illinois among "Power 5" conference teams, as well as six MAC schools, Tulsa and Wyoming, according to Rivals.

Here are his Hudl highlights:

These clips show a lanky DB with great anticipation and change of speed. If we're looking for downside, for reasons why he's only a two-star at the moment, I guess his tackling is a little loose at times, and his biggest issue might be that he's a 'tweener. In the Morrison piece above, his defensive coordinator said "I think he's a DB in general," meaning he could be strong at either CB or safety but didn't immediately look better at one or the other. It's a stretch to call that a bad thing, but it's something. Most two-star Mizzou commits who get offered this early, end up a three-star down the line, so we won't think too hard about it.

So we should probably reset a bit. About 48 hours ago, Mizzou had four commits; now the Tigers have seven.

As a refresher, here's the current commit list:

RBs
Nate Strong (East St. Louis / Hinds CC)

OL
Trystan Castillo (Webb City)

DL
Tre Williams (Rock Bridge)

WR/DB
Greg Taylor (East St. Louis / Hinds CC)
Christian Holmes (Atlanta)
Ca'Ron Baham (New Orleans)

Mizzou is expected to end up taking between 16 and 20 players this year, so the class is between about 35-43% full at this point.

The surprising part of the class so far is ... compared to other units, Mizzou hasn't really offered that many WRs/DBs (especially WRs), but they've now gotten commits from three. They have offers out to some big-name receivers, and MO players like Harry Ballard III could end up getting an offer during camp season, but it would be a surprise, and a shift in focus, if Mizzou lands more than one additional receiver, I think. Meanwhile, local players like four-star Olathe safety Isaiah Simmons are still on the board in terms of DB recruiting, but I figure Mizzou's about done there, too.

In terms of volume of offers, the focus of this class seems to be mostly on OLs, DLs, and LBs. Mizzou has a combined two commits in these areas, so of the nine to 13 remaining commitments for this class, I would expect a good chunk of them to play those positions. Mizzou has a metric ton of OL offers out at the moment and only one commitment; expect a few more.

Some other thoughts:

  • I'm not sure Mizzou's taking a QB in this class. Fort Osage quarterback Skylar Thompson was recently upgraded to a four-star designation via Rivals but still doesn't have a Mizzou offer. He has committed to KSU, so it might be too late even if Mizzou does decide to throw one out there, but their hesitance, along with the fact that they've still only offered two QBs, suggests that it's simply not part of their plans. That's surprising only from the "they tend to take one every year" perspective, but if nothing else it might suggest that they feel good about young QBs Eddie Printz, Marvin Zanders and Drew Lock, both in terms of their talent and their unlikely transfer threats.

  • Mizzou's in-state offers are pretty hilarious this year. The Tigers have offered six MO kids according to Rivals: RB Tre Bryant, TE Brendan Scales, OL Trystan Castillo, DE Tre Williams, DB Bryce Banks, and ATH A.J. Taylor. According to 247's latest MO rankings, only Taylor (No. 1), Williams (No. 5), Bryant (No. 8), and Scales (No. 9) rank in the in-state top 16. Castillo (No. 17) and Banks (No. 19) have offers; five of the top seven do not. That could change, but ... "we do what we do" has never been more evident.

Happy Sunday. And welcome, Bryce.

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