The Missouri football roster in 2022 will look drastically different than a season ago. Eli Drinkwitz and his staff have added a whopping 34 scholarship newcomers to the team since last season ended, thus turning over more than one-third of the roster. Nineteen of those newcomers arrived on campus earlier this month to begin summer conditioning.
As we continue to count down the days to fall camp, PowerMizzou is going to profile each of those 20 newcomers who have arrived since the end of spring practices in order to help fans get to know all the new faces on the roster. Today, we profile incoming freshman offensive lineman Valen Erickson.
Position: OL
Height: 6-6
Weight: 300
Year: Freshman
Last School: St. Rita (Ill.) HS
Last summer, one of the top offensive line prospects for the Missouri staff seemingly went off the market when Erickson committed to Nebraska. But a little more than a month later, on Sept. 6, Erickson flipped his commitment to the Tigers.
Erickson’s stock only seemed to grow across a strong senior season, but he remained solidly committed to Missouri. Erickson helped lead his St. Rita high school squad to the Illinois Class 7A state title game and earned all-conference honors in the process.
The 6-foot-6, 315-pound Erickson played left tackle for St. Rita, and it’s believed Missouri intends to keep him on the edge of the offensive line. He’s one of four offensive line prospects that Missouri signed out of the high school ranks in the class of 2022.
Erickson arrived on campus earlier this month. Barring injury, we would expect him to redshirt this season. Missouri does have a potential opening at right tackle due to an injury to Hyrin White that is expected to keep him out for at least part of the season, but the Tigers have several more experienced options there, and it’s rare that a player can jump straight from the high school ranks to the SEC without at least a year in a college weight room.
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