As Drinkwitz sets Mizzou’s recruiting strategy, KC takes on additional importance
When Blue Valley North quarterback Graham Mertz was making his college decision, he had his choice of schools.
While the Missouri Tigers offered a scholarship to the blue-chip prospect ranked as one of the nation’s top QBs, they were never in serious consideration. Mertz committed to Wisconsin instead of the SEC school a couple hours away.
During former Missouri coach Barry Odom’s four years as the Tigers’ top guy, just five Kansas City-area recruits signed to play for Odom from 2016-19.
Across the state, 10 St. Louis-area recruits joined Mizzou in the same time frame. Like Mizzou legend Gary Pinkel, Odom frequently crossed state borders to build his team. He signed 22 Texas recruits in his four years compared to 18 from Missouri.
But as new Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz stakes his claim on the recruiting landscape, he stressed how crucial the state of Missouri stands to be for his program. From Kansas City to St. Louis and everywhere in between. Of the 10 recruits he signed Wednesday, none were from the KC area, though that can be largely attributed to the timing of the coaching change — Drinkwitz retained recruits who committed to Odom.
“You go down the list the last couple years, there were more guys they weren’t looking at than they were looking,” said Jeremy Crabtree, a reporter who has covered KC recruiting for years for ESPN and Rivals. “You can combine about 10 different reasons and a lot of them add up to a little bit of everything.”
For Kansas City, it’s not a talent issue. In recent years, Etinosa Reuben (Park Hill South, ‘19) and Mario Goodrich (Lee’s Summit West, ‘18) committed to Clemson, while Mertz plays for Wisconsin.
While Mizzou signed Daniel Parker (Blue Springs, ‘18), a tight end who made the SEC all-freshman team last year, the Tigers’ number of Kansas City-area recruits leaves a lot to be desired as the lone power conference program in Missouri. Drinkwitz said he plans to visit KC in January as he prepares to sign the rest of his recruiting class in February.
“We spent the better part of the morning reaching out to young men in Kansas City that we know we’re going to actively recruit,” Drinkwitz said Wednesday.
Early in his tenure, Drinkwitz made one major change: positional vs. regional recruiting. The Mizzou coach said he plans to assign an assistant to pursue a region instead of having them divided by position as the Tigers did under Odom.
While new Rockhurst coach Kelly Donohoe said that will help in some regards, Mizzou’s recruiting prowess will come down to who is talking to the players and coaches in KC. Donohoe pointed out how recruiting builds off relationships. Park Hill coach Josh Hood added he’s seeing more of his players yearn for a “family atmosphere.”
“Kids are making moves for the coaches, they’re making decisions based on the coaches a little bit more than the actual campus,” Hood said. “Everybody’s got the nice facilities as the facilities continue to upgrade. These kids want to make the connection with the coaches.”
For Drinkwitz to recruit Kansas City, it starts with being “visible,” Crabtree said: Being seen by the coaches, recruits and parents at high school games goes a long way.
“All we ask for is any school, whether it’s K-State, KU or Missouri is just have a presence, make sure you come by and see us,” said Donohoe, who spent the past 20 seasons at Blue Springs, winning four state championships. “I’m sure they’ll do a great job of that.”
When Drinkwitz recruits the Kansas City area, he’ll do so without a key longtime fixture in Hill, who coached at Mizzou for 23 years. He won’t be retained by Drinkwitz as part of his assistant coaching staff. Through the years, Hill was one of the primary recruiters for Mizzou in Kansas City, sending standouts like Drew Lock to Columbia.
“Andy Hill has always been a rockstar,” Donohoe said. “He’s as good a recruiter as we’ve had for a very long time. If they can match what Andy Hill has done, they will do as good a job as they could possibly do there at our school.”
For Mizzou, Crabtree said an area like Kansas City is perfect, much like St. Louis. Compared to southern states where they’d be third-fiddle to the local program and top SEC schools, the local connection is crucial. But there’s still competition.
Hood said he’s seen Minnesota, Iowa State and Wisconsin leave their mark in the area in recent years. That doesn’t include recruiting battles with Kansas State and Kansas, the nearby Big 12 schools. Hood said KC sits in a triangle where the Mizzou base ties into the SEC, but the Big 12 and Big Ten influence is strong.
“You gotta take the 10 guys a year who are SEC caliber kids in St. Louis and Kansas City and make them a priority,” Crabtree said. “That’s why I’m kind of curious and maybe excited how Mizzou is going to go out there and get some new blood in there and try to build relationships.”
St. Louis still producing
In his first days as Mizzou coach, one of Drinkwitz’s first stops was St. Louis. There were multiple players in the area who committed to Odom, and Drinkwitz was looking to retain those recruits. It was the plan for the early signing period, reaching out to the recruits and ensuring they stay committed with Mizzou.
Of the 10 players Mizzou signed Wednesday, four were from the St. Louis area: Jay Maclin, Brady Cook, Drake Heismeyer and Mitchell Walters.
It’s an area Mizzou hasn’t quite nailed down, though it’s difficult to do so, De Smet coach Robert Steeples said. Many schools recruit the many talented St. Louis products. But it’s also why Steeples said the positional vs. regional recruiting shift should help Mizzou.
“There’s so much talent in the city of St. Louis and also in Kansas City, it’d be best served to put your top dogs in those areas,” Steeples said. “How he plans on doing that, I’m sure we’ll find out soon.”
Steeples pointed out there’s unpredictability when it comes to St. Louis: With so much talent, it’s a “free-for-all” for schools looking for recruits. But that’s also where the in-state school like Mizzou has an edge, he added.
When Drinkwitz visited St. Louis, he went to multiple high schools, including Steeples’ De Smet and Lutheran North, coached by Carl Reed.
“Your actions have to align with our words,” Drinkwitz said. “Our actions that we took for the first three days showed that we were active in this state, and those were the only three days we had.”
But at the end of the day, Reed stressed it comes down to the relationships and playing time. He said recruits look at team depth charts often, calculating their quickest path.
“Those players are making a major impact on college football throughout the country,” Reed said. “I don’t think they owe St. Louis anything. I think they owe it to themselves to try to make an impact to help their own program.”
Looking elsewhere
While Drinkwitz has stressed the importance of in-state recruiting, Mizzou has recruited out-of-state talent often — especially when it comes to under-the-radar players.
Allen Trieu, 247Sports’ Midwest recruiting analyst, said in-state recruiting has some difficulties.
“When you’re the in-state school, everybody wants you to offer everybody,” Trieu said. “You can’t offer everybody. But I do think that having those kids up to campus a lot, getting on them early, having good relationships with the better programs in the state.”
Between scholarship limitations and other problems, it makes it impractical to offer too many recruits. Drinkwitz also deals with four scholarship reductions this year as the NCAA upheld penalties against Mizzou.
There are other options, Trieu added. The western side of Illinois is nearby, including East St. Louis and Belleville. Mizzou’s had Michigan ties in the past, along with Indiana and Ohio.
The Texas connection is crucial for the Tigers, an area Drinkwitz acknowledged at his introductory news conference. But Drinkwitz said he doesn’t care where recruits are located, only if they want to play for him.
“If there’s someone interested in Mizzou, I don’t care if they’re in Alaska, the Samoa Islands, wherever,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re going to find players. We’re going to start in our state, but we’ve extended offers outside of our state.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 5:00 AM.