7/9/2022 football Edit

Newcomer Profile: Xavier Simmons

Mitchell Forde • PowerMizzou

Staff

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 in June 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 take a look at incoming freshman linebacker Xavier Simmons.

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Position: LB

Height: 6-2

Weight: 248

Year: Freshman

Last School: Northwest Guilford (NC) high school

North Carolina linebacker Xavier Simmons flipped his commitment from Virginia Tech to Missouri last summer. (Rivals.com)

Most Missouri fans likely forgot about Simmons after he committed to Virginia Tech last July. But about a month later, Simmons abruptly flipped his commitment to Missouri.

Talking about Simmons on National Signing Day last fall, Missouri defensive tackles coach Al Davis said the lack of fanfare leading up to the flip was typical of Simmons. He’s not a loud talker, but his play makes him stand out.

“This will be our field general,” Davis said. “Big, long kid, he’s rangy, runs extremely well. He’s extremely physical, but he’s one of those guys, he don’t really say much. So that quiet assassin.”

Simmons started for three seasons at Northwest Guilford high school in North Carolina. During that time, he racked up a ridiculous 231 tackles, including seven sacks. He also saw some action on the other side of the ball, rushing 76 times for 522 yards and eight touchdowns as a running back during his senior season.

Simmons will join a position group that features quite a few players with more college experience than him. But it’s not out of the question that he could make an immediate impact. While Chad Bailey and Ty’Ron Hopper look to be the odds-on favorites to start at linebacker, the competition for playing time behind them should be wide open. Plus, Simmons could see some early action on special teams.