Mizzou football: Jalen Knox will sign with Tigers

The Mizzou football program finally got some good news for their offense as four-star recruit Jalen Knox has shut down his recruiting and announced he’ll be playing for the Tigers.

With their future offensive coaching staff now in flux, the Mizzou football program needed some good news. They go it in the form of four-star wide receiver recruit Jalen Knox. The Arlington, Texas native has shut down his recruitment and announced he will make things official with the Missouri Tigers during the early signing period beginning December 20th.

Jalen Knox is a quality signing for the Tigers. Ranked by ESPN as the 28th best wide receiver, and 39th best athlete by 247sports, Knox should be a dynamic playmaker for Mizzou. Both ESPN and 247sports consider Knox to be a top-five recruit for Missouri right now. ESPN has the receiver as the top recruit for the program right now.

This is very good news for Mizzou as the program has just lost their offensive coordinator and offensive line coach during the past week. The Tigers have the Texas Bowl coming up at the end of the month, and were hoping for a good performance there to help boost their recruiting. Without those key coaches, that was going to be much tougher.

https://twitter.com/JalenKnox9_/status/939978727580200961

Still Not A Top Recruiting Class

One of the biggest problems that Mizzou football has is that they don’t have a strong recruiting footprint. The Missouri Tigers are one of just three teams in the SEC not currently ranked in the ESPN Top-40 recruiting classes. That leaves them in a position where they can still be buried by the rest of the conference.

Recruiting is the life blood of college football, and that is especially true in the SEC where every school makes an impact. Mizzou needs a strong offseason to help reload an offense that will be losing key players Ish Whitter and J’Mon Moore.

Related Story: Mizzou Football Loses Josh Heupel To Central Florida

There is still going to be pressure on Barry Odom to add a new offensive coordinator as quickly as possible though. A lot of players sign on with a school based on the system they will be playing in. Without an offensive coordinator on the staff, Odom will have a hard time selling that to his potential recruits.

Major Signing Deadline Coming Up

The Mizzou football program is putting the new early signing period to use for them. The traditional National Signing Day is held in February. However, a new rule allows for some football recruits to sign their scholarships in December. For 2017, that will begin on December 20th. Jalen Knox has made it clear that’s when he intends to sign.

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It remains to be seen if anyone else will be making their future with Mizzou official at that early signing period. The Tigers offensive uncertainty probably won’t be resolved by then, and their Texas Bowl appearance won’t be until the 27th. That would make it likely that many offensive recruits decide to hold off on signing anything.

Barry Odom and his staff need to be putting in some recruiting overtime in the next week and a half to make a solid recruiting impact. The Tigers finished the regular season strong and have a good bit of interest from some top prospects. They need to focus on getting some of these young men locked up with the program as soon as possible.

Barry Odom may have saved Mizzou football this past season. A strong finish to what looked like a lost year should give him some momentum heading into the offseason. However, the Tigers still have a lot of work to do. They need a solid performance in the Texas Bowl, and some big recruiting scores, if this program is going to take the next step.