Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz spoke to the media Wednesday as the Tigers finalized their high school recruiting class on signing day.
Here is a rundown of the players who will join the Tigers in Columbia and Drinkwitz's quotes about them.
"We evaluate quarterbacks on toughness, preparation, decision making, accuracy and leadership," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "Those are the traits that we feel like make up elite quarterbacks. And so then you just go through the list. You look at Matt's ability, toughness, both physical and mental, obviously dealing with the injury right now and has had to deal with injury before and been able to come back. Preparation, the amount of time he puts in knowing offense, learning offense and studying offense. Decision making with the ball in his hands, constantly making good decisions. And you know, he's got the ability to extend plays with his feet and with his arm, that was a really good asset we felt like he had. He's an accurate thrower of the football and he's a leader."
"We had a strong relationship with Marquise and we always knew we were taking a second running back in this class. So we had a relationship with Brendon and actually sent coach Luper to watch him play," Drinkwitz said. "... they just happened to both come the same weekend and both had a great time and let us know that they were coming. ... Both are dynamic runners. Obviously Brendon has a tremendous amount of statistics and put up a. lot of numbers. Again, dynamic speed. Marquise has got really good speed, downhill runner ... They'll be a good Batman and Robin for us or Thunder and Lightning."
"Obviously Scary Terry, Shaun Terry, is very dynamic with the ball in his hands," Drinkwitz said. "Elite punt returner, you know, we're very fortunate to get him, I think he comes in and helps us with a need that we automatically have. Donovan is a strong, physical wide receiver who's in and out of breaks, got long speed, but also short-area quickness. Contested catches are what he does really well."
"Obviously (Lange) is the top player in the state, a dominant offensive lineman," Drinkwitz said. "I was able to go watch Eureka play this year and just watch him as he comes off the ball. Very good pad level, knee bend, hands inside, you know, he's going to have to learn the other side of pass protection, but with Coach (Brandon) Jones' ability to teach, you know, we feel very confident that'll be good. And I think Jack's very excited about going against the best."
"Well it's like speed dating," Drinkwitz said of getting Hilson's commitment on the final day. "You know, we had a relationship there, too, just because of some previous players that had been there watching and evaluating. But it really became real because of some connections Coach (Brian) Early had to some of the mentors. And when he got on campus, I think Coach Early did an excellent job of showing the depth chart, the opportunity to play, the combination of him, Williams (Nwaneri), Jalen (Marshall), Zion (Young), Jahkai (Lang) . I think guys are really excited about what we can do. And you know that's a position that has proven in the SEC you can come in and play early and especially with what some other people have done as freshmen in this conference, I think he saw an opportunity to leave his mark on one of the best conferences in college football."
"I think they all had a great energy about them and a vibe when they came on campus," Drinkwitz said. "They evaluated the opportunity, they understood what Missouri has become and what we're doing. ... I think the other thing was, this was a strong class. Matt and Jason Dowell and Henry and Jason King, Keith, Jack Lange, they all stay together group text, were constantly recruiting to make this the class that we wanted it to be. We set out with the goal to sign anywhere between 15 and 20 players and we really didn't want to sign too big of a class. We kind of found the right formula for us. So for us to settle in this number of 17 right now is really good and we're very excited about where we're at."
Where Mizzou is at after signing day is No. 21 in Rivals' recruiting rankings with one five-star, eight four stars and eight three stars.
Now the coaching staff will turn its attention to the transfer portal opening Monday.
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