Five days after returning home from his official visit to Mizzou, 2015 Ladue (Mo.) Horton Watkins defensive end Nate Howard announced on KSDK that he has flipped his commitment from Wisconsin to Missouri.

"It's the opportunities that I saw with Mizzou that were right in front of me," said Howard of why he choose Missouri over Wisconsin and Syracuse. "I just want to make the most of them and take advantage of them while I can."

He committed to the Badgers the summer before his senior season. Before Mizzou had extended an offer. Up until a mid-September unofficial visit, the interest between Howard and the Tigers had been pretty low.

A few days after the unofficial visit to Mizzou, though, Howard received an offer from the Tigers.

Despite the increased interest from Missouri and other schools, he remained publicly committed to Wisconsin until today.

"I came to the decision, I want to say, two days ago. I did a lot of thinking after the visit," he explained. "I spent a lot of time just thinking to myself and talking with my parents. I just came to the decision that Mizzou was the best fit for me."

"I told Mizzou yesterday when they visited me," Howard continued. "They were excited. Coach [Gary] Pinkel and coach [Cornell] Ford both jumped up and were really happy. I definitely made their day by committing. It was kind of hard for them to keep it a secret, but they were able to do it for 24 hours."

In the end, the 6-foot-5, 220 pound prospect decided staying close to home to play football at the University of Missouri was the best option for him.

Howard is commitment number 22 for Mizzou. He is the third defensive lineman joining Marcell Frazier and Tyrell Jacobs. He is also the fourth St. Louis area prospect joining Cam Hilton, Ronnell Perkins and Natereace Strong.

As a senior, Howard made 65 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and 9 sacks. He also caught eight passes for 71 yards and two touchdowns.

Now Howard will begin preparing himself for reporting to Mizzou in early June.

"I'm about to hit the weight room pretty hard. A lot of training," he said. "Also going to be finishing off high school strong trying to get the best GPA I can. I'm getting ready to go in and put myself in a position to get a fast start."

Could that fast start include contributing as a true freshman?

"No doubt," Howard answered.