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COLUMBIA, Mo. — High school football recruiting feels less important than ever before, but that doesn’t mean Missouri feels great about its summer on the recruiting trail.

Last we checked in with the Tigers’ 2026 recruiting class on June 28, Mizzou had seven verbal commitments, good for No. 83 in the nation, per 247ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ. The glib takeaway at that point was Idaho landing one spot ahead in those rankings.

Since then, the recruiting picture has improved mildly. MU is up to 10 commits and No. 74 on 247ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ’ national recruiting leaderboard — sandwiched between Memphis and Tulane. Not exactly the kind of company a Southeastern Conference program wants.

And within the SEC, Missouri’s sitting second-to-last. It could be worse: At Auburn, which is bringing up the rear, recruiting dismay has reached a din loud enough to require .

Still, it’s getting late early in the 2026 recruiting cycle, and barring a late tear of flips, Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz is likely to turn in his worst freshman signing class since the abbreviated 2020 cycle that came right after his hire. He’s had some success in that regard, so it’s reasonable to assume the Tigers will make up some ground in the recruiting rankings. For now, though, there’s still a little bit of peril.

Missouri’s 2025 recruiting class, which will make its debut this fall, ranked 14th on 247ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ. The 2024 group came in 21st, the 2023 class 32nd, the 2022 class 18th, the 2021 class 23rd and the 2020 signing group that comes with an asterisk landed 50th. All of those are significantly higher up the ladder than the 2026 class’ present standing of 74th.

As a refresher, the 10 rising high school seniors in MU’s 2026 class are: quarterback Gavin Sidwar (Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania); linebacker Keenan Harris (SLUH); wide receiver Jabari Brady (Pompano Beach, Florida); tight end Isaac Jensen (Omaha, Nebraska); running back Maxwell Warner (Chicago); offensive lineman Khalief Canty (Detroit); offensive lineman Brandon Anderson (Kennesaw, Georgia); wide receiver Devyon Hill-Lomax (Edwardsville); offensive lineman Braylon Ellison (Boonville) and safety Tony Forney (Marietta, Georgia).

All 10 are considered three-star prospects by 247ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ, which affects the class ranking — there’s no clear top recruit raising the level of the class, like there was with edge rusher Williams Nwaneri in the 2024 cycle or wideout Luther Burden III in the 2022 cycle.

There’s nothing wrong with signing three-star prospects who can come in and develop, but it should be no surprise that the six SEC schools with a commitment from a five-star prospect are the top six in the conference when it comes to recruiting.

It’s possible some Mizzou commits add a star to their rankings between now and signing day in December. They all still have a season of high school football to play, after all, and another year of production can change evaluations.

In the meantime, though, it’s not particularly clear when or where the Tigers’ next commit will come from. The well of prospects who took official visits to MU is just about dry.

Missouri hosted 33 official visitors across a few weekends this summer. Of that group, 10 have committed to the program — a couple had done so before taking their official visit to Columbia.

Of the other 23 to visit, only four are still uncommitted. Kirkwood star Jacob Eberhart is predicted by recruiting experts to land at Oklahoma. Junior college defensive lineman Demarcus Johnson is undecided, but Mizzou is competing against the likes of Louisiana State for his signature. Running back Terry Hodges hails from Arkansas and also visited the Razorbacks. Tight end Evan Jacobsen also took visits to Texas A&M and Notre Dame.

Could one or two of them pick MU? Of course, and that happening would buoy the recruiting ranking a little bit.

The next window to watch, though, is the fall and weeks leading up to signing day. That’s when Drinkwitz can go to work on flipping commits from other schools.

Last November, for example, Missouri brought in seven players for visits, and four wound up committing to and signing with the Tigers late in the recruiting cycle. In 2024, MU went 4 for 5 on visits held in November or later.

Given that Mizzou’s 2026 class isn’t likely to include much more than 15 players, getting one more from this summer’s batch of visitors and four from a fall wave would bring the Tigers to that threshold. The names might not be clear, but those numbers seem like a reasonable possibility.

Though MU’s 2025 football schedule is favorable in many regards, it does have a key limitation when it comes to recruiting: The Tigers have home games in six of the first seven weeks, then just two home games after that point: against Texas A&M and Mississippi State on Nov. 8 and Nov. 15, respectively. The last two weeks of the regular season are both on the road.

That means Mizzou’s last on-campus word will likely come before other programs’. It might not matter in the end, but it’s a little bit of an incline just before the finish line.