Eli Drinkwitz shares importance of signing homegrown players in the trenches

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz mostly stayed in-state when it comes to adding depth up front in his 2024 recruiting class. The Tigers added eight freshmen on the offensive and defensive line combined, with three of them coming from in-state.

The included edge rusher Williams Nwaneri, who is up there among some of the most talented players that Drinkwitz has ever signed at Missouri. Not only is he a local player who attended Lee’s Summit North High School in Missouri, but he ranks up there with the nation’s best.

Nwaneri is the No. 1 edge rusher and No. 2 overall prospect in the 2024 cycle according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Speaking with On3‘s Andy Staples on National Signing Day, Drinkwitz opened up on what adding local talent means, especially up front.

“I think there’s a development course to the line of scrimmage,” he said. “You can’t constantly be in this portal cycle. You want to be developing the guys that have the ability. You always, in our opinion, want to start with the recruiting within a 300-mile radius of your home campus. So that’s what we really started with. I think Williams is gonna be a key component to that.”

This isn’t the first time that Drinkwitz has managed to land a highly touted prospect from Missouri. He signed receiver Luther Burden, then a five-star recruit from St. Louis, in 2022. Burden went on to make an immediate impact as a true freshman and this past year broke out for his first 1,000-yard season to lead the team.

The Tigers are hopeful the transition with Nwaneri will be the same.

It wasn’t just the defensive line where Missouri added talent in its 2024 recruiting class, however. The Tigers also got a pair of offensive lineman in Talan Chandler and Ryan Jostes. Both players ranks as three-star recruits and the No. 11 and No. 16 players from the state, respectively.

Drinkwitz is proud of not only landing them, but three other talented offensive linemen, including JUCO prospect Jayven Richardson.

But when you look at our five offensive lineman signees in this class, all five of them are gonna be early enrollees. They’ll all be here in January. So that’s gonna be a really big addition for us to have that extra six months of player development and six months of scheme development.”

Overall, it was a solid class from the Tigers that ranks 24th in the country according On3’s Team Recruiting Rankings. Coming off of a 10-2 season and berth in the Cotton Bowl, they’ll aim to use this to build moving forward as they attempt to make an expanded College Football Playoff in 2024.