Technically, JJ Hester was still committed to Missouri. But he didn’t want to go back to Columbia.

Early last December, after Missouri had fired former football coach Barry Odom, Hester tweeted that he would stay committed to the Tigers “until further notice,” but also opened his recruitment to other schools. UCLA quickly jumped into the fray, extending the three-star receiver a scholarship offer, and on the weekend of Dec. 7, less than two weeks before the early signing period, Hester took an official visit to the school. He returned home to Tulsa convinced he would be a Bruin.

Hester’s mother, Chermaine Kemp-Hester, told her son not to commit to UCLA yet. First, he needed to take another visit to Missouri. After being hired on Dec. 8, new Tiger coach Eliah Drinkwitz had reached out to Hester and asked him to return to campus for another official visit, where he could get to know Drinkwitz. Hester had said he would go, and his mother wanted her son to keep his word.

“I said, ‘you’ve already told him that you were going to come out there, so you need to be a man of your word and go out there and at least give this man a chance. You don’t even know anything about him,’” Kemp-Hester said.

By the time Kemp-Hester picked up her son from the airport on Dec. 15, after his trip to Columbia, he had reversed course. Now that Hester had kept his word to Drinkwitz, Kemp-Hester assured him that she would support him if he decided to flip his commitment to UCLA. Hester said that wouldn’t be necessary. He was signing with Missouri.

“He was like, it’s too late, momma, I already made up my mind,” Kemp-Hester said. “I know where I’m going.”

Coaching changes almost always wreak havoc on a recruiting class, especially since the early signing period was implemented in 2017 and the recruiting calendar shifted forward. After firing Odom, Missouri was certainly not immune. Seven of the 18 players committed to Missouri on Odom’s final day as head coach wound up signing elsewhere. But that number could have been higher. Hester represented one of several prospects who wavered in his pledge before ultimately reaffirmed his commitment after visiting campus on the second weekend of December.

Tyler Jones had known since last April that Missouri would always at least be near the top of his list. On April 23, Jones had just received his first Division I offer, from Holy Cross, when Missouri defensive coordinator Ryan Walters surprised him with an offer. Jones visited campus last June and, even though he was up to about 30 offers by then, committed to the Tigers in November.

Running back Elijah Young visited campus on the same June weekend as Jones, but he pulled the trigger and committed just four days later. Young racked up huge numbers in his senior season en route to winning Gatorade Player of the Year honors in the state of Tennessee, which both made him a fan favorite among Missouri commitments and kept other coaching staffs pursuing him. But according to Clark Duncan, Young’s coach at South Doyle high school, after Young committed to Missouri, he never had any interest in visiting elsewhere.

After Odom’s firing, both players had to suddenly change their plans. Less than a month before they were to sign National Letters of Intent, Jones and Young didn’t know if their position coaches would be retained, if they would like the new head coach at Missouri, or if their scholarship offers would even be honored. Young, especially, felt uprooted by the news, as he was set to graduate high school later that month and enroll at Missouri in January.

“He wasn’t sure what would happen with the new staff,” Duncan said of Young. “He told me this is where I still want to go, but I just have to make sure. And we talked about it, we just needed to make sure we had a home for him.”

Young tweeted on Dec. 5 that he had reopened his recruitment. Tennessee, Florida State, Memphis and Mississippi State were among the schools to reach out and try to get him on campus. Jones never publicly de-committed, but he began conversing with other coaching staffs as well, mainly Indiana and Wake Forest. Jones actually agreed to go on a visit to Wake Forest on the weekend of Dec. 14.

When each player got a phone call from Drinkwitz shortly after he accepted the Missouri job, it helped put them at ease. Drinkwitz assured both that they would still have a spot at Missouri, and he asked them to come to campus for another official visit. During a discussion with reporters on Dec. 18, Drinkwitz said his sole focus prior to the early signing period was keeping existing commitments intact, not reaching out to new players.

“It’s nearly impossible to try to add somebody unless you have a previous connection,” Drinkwitz said, “so what we were trying to do was ... rebuild those relationship and make a connection as quickly as possible to make sure that they were committed.”

Drinkwitz only had one weekend between his official hiring and the early signing period to get prospects on campus: the weekend of Dec. 14. Jones told the Wake Forest coaches he wanted to prioritize the school to which he was committed, and he wouldn’t be able to make it to Winston-Salem.

“They were real mad about that, but it is what it is,” Jones said. “Obviously I’m going to go to the school I’m committed to first.”

In addition to a phone call, Young got an in-home visit from Drinkwitz. He agreed to return to Columbia for another visit, but Duncan said the phone call and visit from the new coach were more impactful in assuring Young that Missouri would still be a good fit.

“Once he got that phone call and the home visit, it was a done deal,” Duncan said.

Missouri brought 12 prospects to campus for official visits on the weekend of Dec. 14. The Tiger staff was shorthanded; Drinkwitz had temporarily retained Walters and defensive assistants Brick Haley and David Gibbs, though he hadn’t promised any of them full-time positions yet. The rest of Odom’s staff had been dismissed. The lack of position coaches, especially on the offensive side of the ball, presented a challenge. Prospects generally want to know who will be coaching them every day, and all of Missouri’s commits had formed bonds with the assistants under Odom. Hester credited former wide receivers coach Garrick McGee, a fellow Tulsa native who previously coached at his high school, for introducing him to Missouri. Duncan said Young was enamored by former running backs coach Cornell Ford.

In the absence of most position coaches, Drinkwitz sat down and watched film with each prospect, explaining his scheme and how they might fit into it. Hester called the experience reassuring.

“We went over film and stuff from his past college, and he was just showing me formations and plays and stuff, and how he gets his matchups, how he gets a receiver on a linebacker,” Hester said. “And I was like, okay, I kind of like this. He knows how to work the offense. So if he knows how to work an offense, I should be able to trust him to pick out a good receiver coach.”

Players also said Drinkwitz’s fiery personality shone through. Even though Drinkwitz probably knew about as much about the campus and facilities as the official visitors, he made everyone feel comfortable, according to Hester. Jones said he was impressed by Drinkwitz’s energy.

“One thing I would say with coach Drink, he’s more energetic, I can tell, than coach Odom,” Jones said. “Nothing bad on coach Odom, but I feel like I can relate more to a younger coach.”

Overall, Drinkwitz’s message to the visitors was simple: If you still feel like Missouri is home, we still want you. Like Hester, Jones said he left the visit confident in his commitment to Missouri. He shut down communication with other coaches Same went for his high school teammate Jaylon Carlies, a fellow defensive back, who had heard from Miami and Central Florida after Odom’s dismissal before returning to Missouri’s campus. Young told PowerMizzou the day after returning home from his visit that he would sign with the Tigers.

Missouri ultimately signed 10 players on the first day of the early signing period — not a haul that would make many headlines, but a serviceable foundation for the 2020 class and the Drinkwitz era. Seven more players joined the class in February. Keeping Young and Hester, in particular, on board were viewed as wins for the new staff.

Drinkwitz has Hester’s mother, in part, to thank for one of them.