Missouri football recruiting picking up

A month ago, Missouri football's 2018 recruiting class had four players to its name. Once the high of Cuonzo Martin's hire and first recruiting class ebbed somewhat, attention turned to how thin it looked. And any concerns about that list have been steadily beaten back this month.

Headed by MU grad and former Rock Bridge head coach A.J. Ofodile, the Tigers have added nine recruits since July 4, when Danny Gray committed, and eight in the past six days, which includes three Wednesday additions.

La'Dedric Johnson, a 6-2, 210-pound outside linebacker who is teammates with quarterback commit James Foster II at Lanier High School in Montgomery, Ala., became the third recruit from the state to commit to Missouri's 2018 class. A three-star recruit, Johnson held offers from LSU, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisville, Kentucky, Cincinnati and Purdue, among others, and 247Sports gave Ed Orgeron a 100 percent chance of landing him.

Their metric clearly did not account for the pitch made by Barry Odom, and perhaps more importantly, Foster, who has taken it upon himself to add 'recruiter' to his resume. Foster is active in promoting Missouri on Twitter to any high school athlete considering the Tigers, and in Johnson's case he had the opportunity to make a face-to-face pitch.

Texas still dominates Missouri's 2018 class, and offensive tackle Mike Ruth (Coppell, Texas) made six Wednesday afternoon. Given a three-star rating, Ruth is 6-7, 300 pounds and his game film on Hudl shows him playing mostly right tackle, with a little guard mixed in.

Ruth's offer sheet is lengthy and includes teams like Miami, Memphis, Vanderbilt, Houston, Army, Kansas State, Pennsylvania and Harvard.

Tyrus Wheat made it three Wednesday afternoon, and Missouri's first from Louisiana. Wheat, out of Amite, La., is a three-star athlete, and at 6-2 and 194 pounds, he could play either linebacker or defensive back. He's the same height and weight as sophomore DB DeMarkus Acy, who is the Tigers' largest defensive back, and 20 or 30 pounds shy of the listed weight of Missouri's linebackers. He was offered in early May, and the Tigers were his only Power 5 offer when he committed.