Missouri might not ever have a top 10 recruiting class and even top 25 would be tough to maintain year in and year out, but there are a lot of things that its staff has done right over the past few years to stay competitive.

Based on its location, Missouri is out of place in the SEC, many of its recruiting battles are still again Big 12 and Big Ten programs. But despite that, the coaches have done a good job with evaluations and found players who can compete and excel in the SEC.

New head coach Barry Odom has plenty of experience with the program and knows he and his staff will have to be very aggressive on the trail to stay competitive.

IN-STATE RECRUITING IS GOOD

Missouri has done a relatively good job in-state as it can usually grab a handful of the top 10 players in Missouri. This is great in years like 2012, when Dorial Green-Beckham is among that group but the misses can hurt, especially when you look at guys like former Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott and Florida State left tackle Rod Johnson, both of whom could have been program changers.

With highly-touted offensive lineman Evan Boehm off to the pros, Missouri will need another in-state prospect, four-star lineman Andy Bauer, to shake off his early injury woes and contribute. Another top in-state prospect, four-star quarterback Drew Lock, hopes to continue a nice run of quarterbacks to come through the program.

Overall Missouri has done well at home, but there isn’t enough talent in Missouri alone to compete with other rosters in the conference.

LOCATION HURTS OUT-OF-STATE RECRUITING

Being in the SEC East is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that the East is still weaker than the SEC West and it has allowed the Tigers to be very respectable on the field and win consecutive SEC East titles in two of their first three years in conference.

The bad news is that the East schools are located farthest from its campus and that distance makes it difficult to establish a recruiting foothold in important places like Georgia and South Carolina. The Tigers have done all right in Florida and Texas but not well enough.

In a perfect world, the SEC eventually expands to 16 and moves Missouri to the west where it can establish more of a recruiting presence in Texas and the Gulf Coast states that are closer to the campus.

SATELLITE CAMPS SHOULD HELP

Satellite camps would really help Missouri if it was allowed to do them in Texas, but assuming the SEC won’t allow programs to participate in camps in states with another SEC school makes that a moot point.

Missouri should be able to extend its recruiting arm into the rust belt states of Illinois, Ohio and Indiana as well as Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Again no one state will provide Missouri with the prospects they could get out of Florida, Texas or Georgia, but collectively these areas produce good talent and should be states that Missouri has some measure of success in.

ODOM UNDERSTANDS THE CHALLENGE

Overall Odom knows he has some big footsteps to follow because of the on-field success under Gary Pinkel. Luckily Odom has spent most of the past 13 years on staff and played at Missouri, so he understands the challenges of recruiting against the other SEC programs.

Missouri has to continue to be solid on its evaluations and recruit sleeper prospects who develop into game-changers like Shane Ray and Michael Sam did.

One of the biggest recent misses for Missouri was quarterback Maty Mauk. Mauk struggled to pan out on the field and his off-field antics brought embarassment to the program. Lock has to play up to his ability to put Missouri back in the mix for the SEC East and back on the minds of recruits outside of their home base.