Missouri still near the SEC football recruiting cellar

As his 2014 Missouri football team was preparing for a second consecutive appearance in the Southeastern Conference championship game, Tigers coach Gary Pinkel served as the utmost example of why recruiting rankings can be overrated.

"I've never, ever looked at a recruiting ranking since I've been coaching," Pinkel said. "We have an evaluation system that we use, and we've never talked about stars on any player ever. We have a thing called 'Mizzou Made' here, and we think we've developed players as good or better than anyone in the country. We have an infrastructure set to do that - athletically, personally, academically, player development - and it's a system I learned from Don James when I was with him at the University of Washington.

"We've tweaked it a little bit, because you always try to make it better, but we just do what we do, and I think it would be hard to say that we haven't had a little bit of success doing it our way."

Missouri would lose that SEC title game 42-13 to Alabama, the sport's preeminent recruiting powerhouse. Pinkel's Tigers then spun out this past season to a 1-7 league record behind a putrid offense that averaged six points in closing SEC setbacks against Florida (21-3), Georgia (9-6), Vanderbilt (10-3), Mississippi State (31-13), Tennessee (19-8) and Arkansas (28-3).

The Tigers have finished 11th, 14th, 12th and 12th among SEC teams in Rivals.com's recruiting rankings since joining the league, and they're not faring any better this winter amid the coaching transition from Pinkel to former defensive coordinator Barry Odom.

"You look at Missouri, and they've just had some tumultuous things happen on that campus," SEC recruiting analyst J.C. Shurburtt said. "They have a new head coach, and they had a lot of staff changes. On paper, it looks like a typical Missouri class, but you have to wonder if this new staff is going to evaluate and develop as well as Coach Pinkel's staff did.

"If I had a red flag to put on a program right now, it would be Missouri."

With Wednesday's national signing day quickly approaching, Missouri has a class of commitments that Rivals ranks 54th in the country and 13th in the SEC, ahead of only Vanderbilt. There are three four-star recruits among the Tigers' commitments - running back Damarea Crockett of Little Rock, Ark., running back Natereace Strong of Hinds (Miss.) Community College and defensive end Tre Williams of Columbia, Mo.

The Tigers rank 56th nationally and last in the league according to 247Sports.com, which rates Strong as their only four-star. The top prospect in Missouri, athlete A.J. Taylor of Kansas City, visited the Tigers last June but was a Wisconsin commitment by August.

Missouri's biggest recruiting catch since joining the SEC, five-star receiver Dorial Green-Beckham in 2012, played two seasons for the Tigers before being dismissed. They have been much better known for their recent development of three-star (defensive end Markus Golden and tailback Russell Hansbrough) and even two-star (defensive end Charles Harris and defensive tackle Harold Brantley) prospects, but only time will tell if "Mizzou Made" will thrive in the post-Pinkel era.

"They went 5-7 their first year in the SEC and didn't sign an impressive class, and I put a red flag on them then," Shurburtt said, "but they went out and won back-to-back East championships. I don't really want to throw dirt on them as a program right now, but I think this transition will be more difficult because Pinkel and (former defensive line coach Craig) Kuligowski were very entrenched in that program.

"Kentucky has a great offensive line class. Arkansas has its first big tailback (Devwah Whaley) since Alex Collins. Vanderbilt has some good local talent, and with South Carolina turning things around in recent weeks, I would say Missouri would be the team I would point to as far as having the roughest time in this recruiting cycle."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.