Marquis Johnson, WR recruit out of Texas, announces SEC commitment
Marquis Johnson, a wide receiver out of Dickinson, Texas, has committed to play in the SEC.
Johnson, who is not yet rated by the 247Sports Composite and has a reported 23 offers, committed to Missouri after he was recruited by Blake Baker. The 6-foot, 175-pound athlete is a Missouri legacy. His father, Domonique Johnson, played 2 years at cornerback for the Tigers during the 2005 and 2006 seasons before transferring to Jackson State, according to Power Mizzou.
Johnson reportedly received recent offers from Arkansas, Colorado, Washington State and SMU.
Johnson is the fifth overall commitment for Missouri in the 2023 class and first wide receiver pledge.
Rock M Nation offered some analysis about the commitment:
While he’s unranked by many of the major recruiting services, it’s easy to see why Johnson has racked up a number of Division I offers in the past few weeks. His speed is the first thing that stands out in his reel, speed which he pairs with some elusiveness in the open field. He’s not the biggest wideout in the world and his route-running could use some work, but he’s able to operate in open space.
This feels like an upside play, especially once Johnson gets into a college weight room. If he’s able to fine tune his skill set, his natural athleticism should be a boon to Drinkwitz’s playmaking offense. Hopefully, Mizzou getting in early on a fast-riser pays dividends a few years down the road.
MIZZ!!!! #Miz #nWo pic.twitter.com/6MaAS1npIH
— ₃ (@_SpeedyQuis) June 13, 2022
Here are his highlights from Hudl:
Sounds like a lot of potential, but needs skill development that will depend on good position coaching.
Well our new receivers coach coached AJ Brown and DK Metcalf so bring on the raw talent
A 2 or 3 year project out of Texas, I’m sure Pinkel fans are drooling all over themselves.
Nothing wrong with developing players, we’ve got really good WRs for the next 2 or 3 years already so he can step in as a junior and pay well. He’s clearly got speed and athleticism.
Mizzou fans…An honest question for you. How’s the fan/supporter’s enthusiasm for Drinkwitz now ? The 2022 schedule looks a bit daunting. I’m merely wondering has that support faded after last year ?
2022 schedule for what? We drew Auburn this year, are you saying the Barners are a sleeping giant? Our big noncon is K state, which used to give Gary Pinkel fits when they had this old man coaching them, but that was then. Did you happen to notice Drinkz posted yet another top 20 recruiting class?
Mizzou fans are used to very average results, Drinkwitz is certainly capable of turning that in, even in the SEC.
I think Mizzou fans are excited about the future, to be honest. There’s been some hiccups, but a lot of progress too.
Here’s the bad:
Drink really dropped the ball by not hiring a QB coach and an OC.
He also hired a terrible DC who fielded the worst defense I’ve ever seen.
He failed the develop Bazelak, and he couldn’t get any of the backups ready to play for Baz when it was obvious we needed a new guy, thus we stuck with Bazelak far too long.
The So-So:
The offense is boring as heck, but it’s fairly effective. The running game somehow kept us in a lot of games and he made house-hold names out of Larry Rountree and Tyler Badie. While I wish the offense would be revamped, it’s effective enough to win some games.
The Fantastic:
Recruiting has been the best it’s ever been at Mizzou. Drink is a good recruiter and has fully embraced NIL from day 1. He’s working hard to keep some of Missouri’s best recruits in-state, and pulling Luther Burden from Oklahoma was an epic win.
In Summary:
I think there’s plenty of things for him to work on, but he’s building a program. It’s not like at Alabama where you just insert a new coach and instantly expect a playoff run. It’s really unfair to expect a coach to have completely changed a program in 2 years, especially when year 1 was during a pandemic and the last coach was horrible at recruiting.
As a realistic fan of an average team, I just want to see progress in year 3. The defense must be better, the offense needs to have a reasonable passing threat, and I’d like to see 7 wins. Year 4 will be the year that I expect big things from him, as his recruits will dominate the roster at that point and his system should be rolling.
Drink needs his DC to grow up fast and his special team coaches to be reliable.
His recruiting will get even better. He will contend. Of course Missouri’s alums have to join the money bags methods of all the used to be cheatin sneaks.
Missouri will win enough this year to dispell the doubters.