Missouri football finding players talented enough to play right away

Missouri receiver Dominic Gicinto is tackled by Florida safety Donovan Stiner after catching a pass during a game earlier this month in Gainesville, Fla.
Missouri receiver Dominic Gicinto is tackled by Florida safety Donovan Stiner after catching a pass during a game earlier this month in Gainesville, Fla.

COLUMBIA - The Missouri football program has never had the luxury of consistently attracting 5-star football talent.

The two most recent exceptions to that rule have been defensive lineman Terry Beckner Jr. and receiver Dorial Green-Beckham. The Tigers have, pretty much since the inception of recruiting rankings that made the process a sport within a sport, relied on attracting, developing and retaining the talent other blue-blood programs pass over.

Where Missouri's coaching staff has shone brightest is in getting its talent to play up a star level or two. Most of the current defensive line talent in the NFL the program is so famous for came to Columbia as 2- or 3-star kids that needed to add or lose a little weight, get a little stronger or faster, or just needed someone to give them a chance.

Its next trick might be finding non-5-star freshmen that can not just contribute meaningfully on an SEC team, but do so right away, at least on offense.

Missouri has hit on three straight running backs, and Damarea Crockett, Larry Rountree and Tyler Badie have been almost interchangeable this season before Badie missed most of the Florida game and all of the Vanderbilt game with an injury. Missouri coach Barry Odom's solution against the Commodores? Play another talented freshman.

Simi Bakare, who had been in on special teams duty, took his first career carry for 12 yards Saturday.

"Simi went over the (new NCAA redshirt) four-game mark this last week," Odom said Tuesday. "He did an admirable job on stepping in, and the one carry he had, he looked pretty good doing it. I think he's earned his ability and his right to go get some more. And he will. He's starting on every special team, and really for three games he had played a lot of special team action."

Bakare, even on his one carry, was the continuation of a common thread for this season's Tigers. Freshmen at skill positions have made significant contributions all season, and it doesn't look like it will slow down in the final two games.

Missouri players have won SEC freshman of the week three times - twice for wide receiver Jalen Knox and once for converted tight end Daniel Parker Jr. - which is tied with Florida for the most in the conference this season.

Albert Okwuegbunam, who will miss Saturday's game against Tennessee with a shoulder injury that does not require surgery, and Rountree were breakout stars on the offense a year ago as true freshmen. Knox, Kam Scott and Dominic Gicinto headline this year's freshman group of wideouts that seem to make big plays on a rotating basis.

"When we recruited that group, just because of the sheer speed in the class, we felt like we hit on some guys," said A.J. Ofodile, former director of recruiting and current wide receivers coach, of this year's group of freshman receivers. "We felt like we got some guys that had a chance to contribute early, because speed is the great equalizer. For all the inexperience, for everything else a guy's missing, if you can flat out run, if you can get behind some people, than that's obviously going to help the football team."

Knox has caught 26 passes for 413 yards and three touchdowns this season, Scott has caught five passes for 163 yards and two scores, and Gicinto has 11 catches for 125 yards. Parker Jr. has four catches for 45 yards and a score and Barrett Bannister, another true freshman, has two catches for 30 yards.

Knox and Scott came in as 4-star players, but everyone from Missouri's 2016 and '17 classes that enrolled were 3-star recruits, as were all of its 2018 commits outside of Scott and Knox. Quarterback Drew Lock and Richaud Floyd are the only other players rated better than a 3-star recruit out of high school, which is not to say the players Missouri has aren't talented, but rather to show that, these days, nearly every player recruited to play D-I football has the talent and athleticism to do so.

The Tigers, thinking more about the latter than the former, have built one of the country's best offenses almost entirely on 3-star talent, which is not a bad system if you can't get Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa or Oklahoma's Kyler Murray.

"I think everybody will recognize that we've brought in quality players over the last three years," Ofodile said. "Guys who have contributed as freshmen, guys who have vastly out-performed their recruiting rankings. It all comes down to player evaluation and knowing the right kind of guy is going to fit your program.

"And you can't take it short on the talent side of it. I think sometimes people here that and say, 'Hey, you're going to find the guys that fit your program,' and they think you're saying 'We're going to find this untalented guy, this trooper who is going to come in.' No. These guys are talented guys.

"I think only several years down the road will people start re-evaluating and saying, 'Hey, that class was a whole lot better than we thought.' That's historically been true of this program," Ofodile continued. "During the Big 12 run, the early SEC run, same thing.

"People weren't super excited about the class when they were signed, and then you go back and re-evaluate and re-rank it and you see there were a ton of really good players, and particularly the in-state players, guys who fit the profile of Dom Gicinto, have often been guys who are huge successes at the University of Missouri. Obviously we're happy about that, but we have to go prove it on the field."