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[warthog]

Liberty's Lucas Tops Mizzou Recruiting Class

By Mike DeArmond - Posted on 19 December 2009

COLUMBIA - Liberty wide receiver Marcus Lucas on Saturday became the cherry on top of what could be Missouri’s best-ever football recruiting class under Coach Gary Pinkel.

Lucas texted PowerMizzou.com - the Missouri site on the Rival recruiting network - that he had committed to the Tigers for the Class of 2010.

Lucas - 6-5 and 195 pounds - is rated by Rivals as the No. 14 wide receiver recruit in the nation. He is also ranked as the No. 113th best player overall and the No. 2 recruit in the state of Missouri.
Missouri already had commitments from No. 1 - Nick Demien, an offensive lineman out of Wentzville- and No. 3 - defensive end Kony Ealy out of New Madrid.

Rivals already had Missouri’s recruiting class rated No. 17 in the nation prior to the Lucas commitment.

Missouri now has seven four-star recruits, the most in any previous MU football class. Lucas chose Mizzou from a final list that included Arkansas, Oklahoma, Stanford and Tennessee.

Lucas - who gave out the news electronically while cloistered with a group of football recruits at Missouri’s basketball game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Mizzou Arena - was the second wide receiver to commit to the Tigers on Saturday.

Denton (Texas) Ryan’s Bud Sasser also confirmed via text message he had given his commitment to Missouri.

Sasser had taken visits to Arizona and Nebraska, and was also being recruited by Kansas. Sasser is the No. 69 wide receiver in the nation according to Rivals.

Lucas’ action puts into question the status of Curtis Carter, who decomitted from Nebraska and had an offer from Missouri but was waiting to announce his choice until after a visit to TCU this weekend.

Counting safety Kenronte Walker, a junior college safety who has already signed, Missouri has verbal commitments from at least 22 confirmed players with February’s signing day still months away.

Here, according to PowerMizzou.com, is the list of MU commitments so far:

SIGNED LETTER OF INTENT
Kenronte Walker DB 6-1 205 San Francisco, CA

COMMITTED/UNSIGNED
Nick Demien OL 6-6 295 Wentzville, MO
Kony Ealy DE 6-5 230 New Madrid, MO
Daniel Easterly ATH 6-4 178 Detroit
James Franklin QB 6-2 218 Corinth, TX
Tyler Gabbert QB 6-0 190 Ballwin, MO
E.J. Gaines DB 5-10 170 Independence
Anthony Gatti OL 6-6 280 St. Louis
Tristan Holt DB 6-0 185 Gilmer, TX
Jimmie Hunt WR 6-1 195 Cahokia, IL
Henry Josey ATH 5-10 180 Angleton, TX
Marcus Lucas WR 6-5 195 Liberty, MO.
Mitch Morse OL 6-6 282 Austin, TX
Marcus Murphy RB 5-9 170 DeSoto, TX
Jared Parham LB 6-2 220 Coppell, TX
Darvin Ruise ATH 6-2 218 Glen St. Mary, FL
Bud Sasser WR 6-3 200 Denton, TX
Xavier Smith DB 5-11 180 Edmond, OK
Lucas Vincent DT 6-3 267 Olathe, KS
Eric Waters TE 6-4 215 Mansfield, TX
Braylon Webb DB 6-2 180 Gilmer, TX
Greg White ATH 6-2 215 De Queen, AR

http://campuscorner....ty.com/node/589

[AssKickingBoots]

Mizzou's recruiting class has been insane. It looks like something I would do in NCAA 10. They are going to sign virtually everybody they wanted to, save for probably Chase Rome (DT out of Columbia, MO, solid verbal to Nebraska).

Taking another Gabbert away from Nebraska (Tyler, a 4 star QB) is a sign that Missouri can potentially cripple the recruiting efforts of Bo Pelini. Bo hasn't really proven he can recruit yet, and solid out-of-state recruiting is a must for Nebraska to be successful. Heck, missing out on Blaine Gabbert may in fact be the difference in between a Big XII championship for Nebraska and what they are. Everyone talks about what Bo has done with the defense there, but he's done it with players that weren't his and his offense has been bad, and will only get worse if Helu leaves (which I think he will).

Missouri will always have QBs. Since Pinkel has been here, from Brad Smith to Chase Daniel to Blaine Gabbert, it has been a position of strength. Even the backups have been good, such as Chase Patton. Depending upon the scouting service you use, in the past 3 years Mizzou has recruited 5 QBs including the top pro-style QB (Blaine Gabbert, who seems to be more of a dual threat guy), the #4 dual-threat QB (James Franklin, 2010 class), and all the others are in the top 20 nationwide in their respective years.

Granted, they didn't get any 5 star recruits, but Mizzou seems to thrive on taking 3 and 4 star recruits, building them up to their physical peak, and setting them loose. That's because they have an awesome strength and conditioning program. The truth of the matter in college football, and somewhat basketball too, is that most of the highly rated players are pretty much kids that matured physically more quickly than others. There's much more to it than that, but whenever you can get a 6'6" lineman who just hasn't filled in yet, then have him put on a lean, muscular, healthy 30 lbs., the end result is a tougher football player that wants it more than that 5 star recruit that has had everything handed to them. That is the real strength of the Missouri program.

[warthog]

It doesn't hurt that Missouri's style of offense attracts the top quarterbacks and receivers. Now if we could only find a fullback or big back somewhere. That would be a great compliment to our style of play, if we could just implement the short yardage package into the playbook.