Feb. 4, 2015
COLUMBIA, Mo. – With back-to-back SEC East Championships and 23 wins over the last two seasons, the Mizzou football program has carried that momentum to the recruiting trail, signing a talented group of student-athletes to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday (Feb. 4). The 2015 class assembled by Head Coach Gary Pinkel and his staff, includes 23 prospects, covering 10 states, with eight from Missouri and 17 in all from states within the Southeastern Conference. Included in Mizzou's talent haul are the top-ranked players in the states of Missouri (QB Drew Lock - Lee's Summit), Illinois (DL Terry Beckner, Jr. - East St. Louis) and Kansas (OL A.J. Harris - Stilwell).
"We are very excited about this newest group of Tigers" said Head Coach Gary Pinkel."This class addresses some very important areas for us on the field, and the group as a whole is made up of a bunch of competitors who are really high-character young men. I'm really proud of my staff for all the work they did to make this happen, and want to say thank-you to everyone who has helped us along the way. We're looking forward to getting all of them in our MizzouMade program and to continuing to build on the success we've had" he said.
As always, a big emphasis in recruiting is keeping the best players in the state home, and Mizzou has done that in 2015, adding eight Missourians to the roster. Additionally, Mizzou has signed student-athletes from Georgia (3), Kansas (3), Tennessee (3), California (1), Florida (1), Illinois (1), Louisiana (1), Mississippi (1), and Oregon (1).
Two of the signees are early enrollees at Mizzou, taking classes and gearing up to participate in spring practices with the team. Joining Mizzou for the spring semester are Malik Cuellar (Fortuna, Calif./City College of San Francisco) and Tanner Owen (Kearney, Mo./Kearney High School). They will be on hand for spring practices as the team prepares for the annual Black & Gold Game on April 18 (4 p.m. central time).
As the Mizzou coaches were on the recruiting trail this year, they certainly had a lot of highlights to tout. Mizzou ranks tied for fifth nationally among teams from power conferences in wins since 2007 with 76 in that span. Additionally, Mizzou is tied for the most SEC wins over the last two seasons as well. Gary Pinkel's team is also one of only three teams from power five conferences to win five conference division championships since 2007.
Sticking with the #MizzouMade brand, Pinkel and his staff have also produced the fifth-most NFL First-Round Draft Picks nationally since 2009 and have led their conference in Academic Progress Rates in each of the last three reports.
Below is a look at all 23 Mizzou signees, arranged alphabetically. For all the latest on Mizzou football, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and GaryPinkel.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouFootball or @mutigersdotcom.