East St. Louis QB Rey Estes flips commitment from Missouri to Minnesota

When Missouri landed a commitment from East St. Louis quarterback Rey Estes in August, he had to break the bad news to P.J. Fleck first.

Fleck was the head coach at Western Michigan, where Estes had initially committed in February before the Tigers’ offer caused him to reconsider.

After leading the Broncos to an undefeated regular season, including a Mid-American Conference championship, and an appearance in the Cotton Bowl, Fleck moved on to Minnesota last month.

He also didn’t forget about Estes and continued to recruit him, but now Fleck had a Big Ten scholarship dangle.

The sales pitch worked and Estes switched his commitment again Wednesday, announcing on Twitter that he was now committed to the Golden Gophers.

Estes’ decision leaves Mizzou without a committed quarterback in the 2017 recruiting class, which can begin signing binding national letters of intent on Feb. 1.

The Tigers already were thin at the position after redshirt sophomore Marvin Zanders’ decision to transfer.

He plans to graduate from MU, which would make him immediately eligible elsewhere as a graduate-student transfer for his final two seasons of eligibility.

Drew Lock, a Lee’s Summit graduate who will be a junior next season, is entrenched as Mizzou’s starting quarterback.

He’s started 20 games during the last two seasons, and last fall went 237 of 434 for 3,300 yards with 23 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

The only other scholarship quarterbacks on the Tigers’ roster, freshman Micah Wilson and sophomore Jack Lowary, haven’t played a snap at the NCAA Division I level.

Wilson redshirted last season after signing with the Tigers last February from Lincoln Christian High in Tulsa, while Lowary — a Mater Dei graduate from Huntington Beach, Calif. — redshirted last season after playing one season at Long Beach City College.

Losing Zanders and now Estes might ramp up the urgency for Mizzou’s staff to find a quarterback in the next two weeks.

“If everybody stays healthy, you’re OK, but I don’t really want to count on that,” Tigers coach Barry Odom said in December. “We’ve got to do what’s best and, looking another year away, I’d rather have a quarterback in this class if we find the right fit just because of the training that it takes.”

He also cautioned that Mizzou won’t simply take a quarterback for the sake of taking a quarterback.

“I also challenged myself and our staff that we’re not going to take one just to take one,” Odom said. “It’s got to be a guy who can come in and compete and be someone we think eventually can be a starter.”

According to Rivals.com, the Tigers are known to have extended scholarship offers to seven pro-style quarterbacks and one dual-threat quarterback in addition to Estes, but all of those quarterbacks currently are committed to other schools.

This story was originally published January 18, 2017 at 3:05 PM with the headline "East St. Louis QB Rey Estes flips commitment from Missouri to Minnesota."