Mizzou Recruiting: Evaluating Missouri’s chances with Luther Burden

As the NCAA recently lifted recruiting restrictions this past week for in-person recruiting, Missouri hosted their big “Night At The Zou” event on Wednesday that hosted a handful of blue-chip prospects. Of those blue-chip prospects that attended, one of the most notable names was that of five-star wide receiver prospect Luther Burden.

Burden is a 6’2″, 200 lb, prospect out of Saint Louis and a five-star prospect according to 247sports.com who is a consensus top ten player in the nation in the class of 2022.

The tricky thing with Burden is that he’s already committed to Oklahoma. However, he’s persistent on still wanting to take visits which is why he was at Mizzou this week and will also be visiting other schools.

Of course, it’s common that recruits still take their visits even when they commit to a school because it’s a free trip and teenagers get the red carpet treatment.

Despite that sediment, there is always a certain number of recruits that take visits thinking they’re just going to have a good time but have no real intentions of flipping their commitment but ultimately end up backing off of their commitment in favor of another school.

Heck, we’ve even seen it happen before with Mizzou when Jeremy Maclin visited Missouri and flipped from Oklahoma to MU following the visit and we all know how that worked out.

Well, according to Hayes Fawcett on Twitter, Luther Burden told him that his visit was a success shortly after it had concluded.

"“Me and my family enjoyed our time at Mizzou yesterday. Loved the environment and the coaches…Go Tigers.”"

Fawcett isn’t the only one who has ins on how the visit went either. Take it from Saint Louis KSDK’s Frank Cusumano.

Mizzou has a great chance at landing Luther Burden

It definitely seems like momentum is on Missouri’s side for Burden’s ongoing recruitment but it still won’t be easy. Burden will likely take all of his visits including another trip to Oklahoma and blueblood programs like Alabama are still vying for Burden’s services.

Missouri does have some advantages, though.

First of all, Burden has family and friends influencing him to stay home and play for Mizzou. It would make sense his family wants him to be closer to home and he grew up with players already on Mizzou’s roster such as newcomers Mookie Cooper and Dominic Lovett. Both of whom also hail from Saint Louis.

Secondly, the state of Missouri did just recently pass a bill that allows college athletes to profit off of name, image, or likeness. This is vital for Missouri as the pitch to highly-rated local kids will be easier as head coach Eliah Drinkwitz could tell them they will be celebrities at Missouri and rake in NIL dollars whereas they may not get that same treatment at other big time schools that just view them as another player.

All in all, Luther Burden’s recruitment is far from over and Missouri is certainly putting pressure on Burden and worrying those from other schools who want Burden on their team. Fans should feel confident now that Drinkwitz is able to recruit kids in person now, though. This recruitment will be a dogfight all the way up until signing day.