COLUMBIA, Mo. — Call it an early morning hike or an early bird out in search of some worms. Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz is off to a hot, quick start on the recruiting trail for the class of 2025.
Recruits in that class still are some seven months from being able to sign their national letters of intent that lock in their commitments, but college football’s constant quest for incoming talent is well underway.
The Tigers have six verbal commitments already secured for 2025, an amount that puts Drinkwitz’s current recruiting efforts ahead of the pace of his past two classes. And while it’s still early in that group’s recruiting cycle, he’s established a solid foundation to build upon in the coming months.
A year ago at this time, Mizzou had only two verbal commitments, coming from two in-state prospects. Its third commitment in a class that wound up with 21 recruits and a No. 22 national ranking from didn’t arrive until June.
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A similar story played out with the 2023 recruiting class: two in-state prospects declared their interest in playing for MU early, then others began to follow suit once the summer rolled around. The Tigers didn’t get their third commitment until May of that cycle.
The most commitments that Drinkwitz has had at the end of April is seven, which came from the class of 2022. That group wound up being ranked 13th in the country by , boosted by the addition of star East ºüÀêÊÓƵ wideout Luther Burden III, who committed in the fall.
The tally of six commitments and counting, for now, suggests Missouri is on pace for a solid class.
There currently are four four-star prospects and two three-star recruits who have verbally committed to Mizzou, covering a variety of positions. While it’s too early in the cycle to substantively or fairly compare different schools’ recruiting classes, has the Tigers ranked No. 30 in the country and 10th in the expanded Southeastern Conference.
That position seems to be mostly indicative of the quantity of verbal commitments, though, and not the quality. MU lands eighth in the SEC in terms of average star rating, which isn’t a perfect metric either — especially because these prospects still have senior seasons to play and ratings, imperfect in their own way, will fluctuate plenty.
Key to Missouri’s incoming class, in both its standing and its assembly, is quarterback Matt Zollers.
The four-star prospect out of Royersford, Pennsylvania, was the first high school player to commit to the Tigers’ 2025 group. Recruiting services are split on where he falls among other quarterback prospects: On3 has him second in the country at that position while has him 24th. Regardless, he could prove to be the centerpiece of the class.
Zollers already has begun to pitch MU in on the recruiting trail himself, celebrating other commitments on X, formerly Twitter, and pitching other prospects on taking their talents to Columbia. That includes four-star wide receiver Jayvan Boggs, who has Missouri in his final seven schools and is expected to visit MU this summer.
Last week proved to be a productive recruiting week for Drinkwitz in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area. Jack Lange, a 6-foot-8, 275-pound offensive lineman from Eureka picked the Tigers, and three-star De Smet linebacker Jason King followed suit a few days later.
Lange is the top in-state recruit, marking the second year in a row that Missouri’s best high school prospect is staying close to home, with defensive end Williams Nwaneri — not just Missouri’s but the country’s highest-ranked defensive prospect by some recruiting services — joining the program this fall.
Jason Dowell, a defensive lineman tabbed a four-star recruit by but a three-star by other services, has also committed. Hailing from Belleville, he stands 6-4. He was a Post-Dispatch first-team All-Metro selection who also won a state wrestling championship in his junior year.
Elsewhere on the defensive line is edge rusher Joshua Lewis, a three-star player out of Gonzales, Louisiana. He’s also a highly regarded shot-put thrower.
Linebacker Dante McLellan is another four-star prospect added to the list. Hailing from Canton, Ohio, he projects as a weak side linebacker. But as a high school junior, he played on both sides of the ball, recording 75 tackles, four sacks and an interception on defense to go with 518 yards and two scores as a wide receiver on offense.
Recruiting momentum will be particularly important with the class of 2025. Drinkwitz and his coaching staff have last season’s top 10 finish and Cotton Bowl victory to tout on the recruiting trail, along with the Tigers’ six NFL draft picks from this past weekend. But injecting talent into the Missouri program will be key for next season, with stars such as quarterback Brady Cook and Burden set to conclude their college careers in 2024.
There probably will be at least a dozen more recruits to join Mizzou’s 2025 class over the next several months, and Drinkwitz will need to make sure that those already committed stay on board. But for now, his recruiting efforts seem to be in a solid position with the summer on the horizon.