Mizzou football lands commitment from local four-star DT Marquis Gracial

Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz and the Missouri Tigers had a successful Friday as they picked up a commitment from four-star defensive tackle prospect Marquis Gracial. Gracial chose the Tigers over the likes of Oregon, Alabama, Iowa State, and Arizona State.

Gracial, a 6’4″, 280 lbs prospect out of Saint Charles, MO, just outside of Saint Louis, is Missouri’s  eighth commitment of the 2022 recruiting class and becomes the sixth in-state commitment of the 2022 recruiting class.

Gracial is a very athletic defensive tackle with great feel for the game as he racked up 29 total tackles, 8 TFL, 3 sacks, and a fumble recovery in ten games over the 2020-2021 season for Saint Charles High School according to STLtoday’s database. Gracial will need to add some more weight and get in the weight room once he’s on campus like most prospects coming out of high school, but there’s no doubt that Gracial has SEC-level talent.

The addition of Gracial to Missouri’s recruiting class now puts the Tigers at No. 15 in the national team recruiting rankings according to 247sports.com. Gracial would also be Missouri’s fourth four-star recruit in this year’s class, joining the likes of quarterback commit Sam Horn, safety commit Isaac Thompson, and wide receiver commit Ja’Marion Wayne.

There’s no doubt that Eliah Drinkwitz is building momentum with in-state recruiting and he’s also on pace to finish with back-to-back top-25 recruiting classes which would be a first for a Mizzou head coach in the program’s history. Gracial’s commitment is a big step in ensuring that it happens and in making sure Mizzou closes the talent gap in the SEC.

While there’s certainly still a lot of time left until National Signing Day and a lot of things can change, it also works in favor of the Tigers as they work to close on more of their top uncommitted targets and you can definitely feel the momentum swinging the right way for Missouri.