Missouri Tigers football to lose star freshman defensive tackle in transfer portal
The Missouri Tigers football team is losing a major piece of its defense.
Defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo intends to enter the transfer portal and leave the Missouri Tigers football program, he confirmed to The Star on Thursday.
Wingo was chosen to the All-SEC Freshman Team after playing in all but one game this season. He had 27 tackles, two tackles for losses of eight yards, including a sack against Central Michigan, and returned an interception for a touchdown against North Texas. The news of Wingo’s impending transfer was first reported by Power Mizzou.
Wingo played 460 snaps on defense this season, the most of any defensive tackle for the Tigers, and had the fourth-best grade of any defensive player, per Pro Football Focus.
A St. Louis native out of De Smet, Wingo had proven to be an early impact player from the 2021 recruiting class, whose future excited head coach Eliah Drinkwitz and others around the Missouri program.
Wingo will be the eighth Mizzou player to enter the portal since the end of the season, following in the footsteps of quarterback Connor Bazelak, defensive end Jatorian Hansford, tight ends Daniel Parker Jr. (Oklahoma) and Messiah Swinson (Arizona State) and defensive backs Shawn Robinson, Ish Burdine (TCU) and Chris Shearin. However, Wingo will become the first member of the Tigers’ 2021 recruiting class to transfer.
More defensive line news
Another Tigers defensive lineman, Akial Byers, declared for the 2022 NFL Draft on Thursday afternoon.
A graduate student in 2021, Byers had already spent five seasons at Mizzou.
Byers played 435 snaps as a defensive tackle this past season, the second most of any Tiger, behind Wingo, according to Pro Football Focus. He had the fifth best grade of any defensive player as well. He had 23 tackles and 3.5 tackles for losses of 26 yards, including 1.5 sacks.
With Wingo and Byers both gone, Missouri will be without its two primary options at defensive tackle next year. Drinkwitz does add an experienced player at the position, though. Oklahoma State transfer Jayden Jernigan, who played in all 14 games for the Cowboys this past season, committed to the program last Sunday.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 10:04 AM.
