Towards the end of his son's visit at Missouri, Kevin Kasper had one more message for Eli Drinkwitz.

"You did one hell of a job putting together a great, motivated, young, awesome staff," Kasper told the Tigers' head coach. "That's how I look at them. They're good people, they're good family people."

Kasper, a former NFL wide receiver, made the trip to Columbia for his second oldest son, Braylon Kasper, a Class of 2027 three-star wideout. Braylon received an offer from the Tigers in December, and he traveled to campus for an Elite Camp on Thursday.

"I personally didn't have many expectations, because I've never been to Missouri, and I don't know much about Missouri, haven't met any of the coaches," Kevin said. "And it was truly awesome. ... They made us feel like family. Really took care of Bray, my wife, Lisa, and I."

Missouri knew of Braylon's football abilities, but the premise of hosting the wideout was to learn more about his off-the-field nature. A long list of staffers got involved in that, especially wide receivers coach Jacob Peeler.

"I don't think he even gets as much recognition as he should with many of the guys that he has coached in the past," Kevin said. "He was really, really good with Braylon, talking to him about not just football, but outside of football and family and school."

Braylon, of course, spent the majority of the camp with Peeler, being a sponge around the detailed approach of the staffer. Braylon, the No. 10 recruit in Arizona, won all of his 1-on-1 competitions.

"I think just from starts and stances," Kevin said. "We watched Coach Peeler do that, and in practice, it's day one, very rudimentary, but it's just starts and stances. You do that in third grade, and you do that in the National Football League. ... He is going home better and more knowledgeable than he did when he came here, and that's what we asked for."

Passion drove the positives in Kevin's assessment of the staff. A former Iowa standout, Kevin has overlapped with a lot of the same coaches as Missouri staffers, and he found Drinkwitz, Peeler and offensive coordinator Kirby Moore all proving they care for the players.

"It's funny how as big of a world as it is, it's just a small coaching world," Kevin said. "I love the direction that Missouri is going, and Coach Drink talked about that and how he's been here. For this day and age, he's a long tendered coach, which is going on year six, which is awesome, something that we're definitely looking for in a program is stability."

Within those ties, Kevin and Braylon have a strong one to pass game specialist Andrew Belluomini, who offered Braylon in December. While the wide receivers coach at Illinois State, Belluomini coached Braylon's cousin, Eddie Kasper, who got the two in contact.

"It's almost like I'm saying the same things over and over, but this isn't everywhere I've gone, you can really tell that Andy cared about us," Kevin said. "All the coaches kept everything light hearted and fun, but they also showed the serious side of 'We want to get your son better. We want to get the best out of them.' ... They're going to pull the best out of them, not just the best football players, but the best young men, when football is done."

When Missouri offered Braylon in December, his father was coincidentally researching the Tigers ahead of the Music City Bowl against his alma mater. So when the two got to campus this past week, Kevin wasn't allowed to forget the outcome.

"They'd look at me and smile," Kevin said. "The special teams coach (Erik Link), he was awesome to talk to. ... He's definitely a Hawkeye, and the cool thing is, he's wearing the same colors. So he's black and gold. I talked to him and about Iowa, and one thing I do always hear is how much people have respect of Kirk Ferentz and what he's done to the program."

The connections were endless at Missouri, with assistant linebackers coach Christopher Ball, the former Northern Arizona head coach, also having ties to the Kasper family, but through all those conversations, Braylon recognized Missouri as a program atop his list moving forward.

"Braylon, most importantly, but even my wife and I, we know about Missouri," Kevin said. "That's definitely one of the schools that Braylon is very interested in and looking forward to just continuing to build a relationship from here on out."

Stay up to date on all the Mizzou news with your premium subscription.

Talk about this story in the story thread and discuss so much more in The Tiger Walk.

Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines.