Missouri Signing Day news and notes

The biggest news in the state of Missouri surrounding Signing Day on Wednesday came the day before when St. Louis University High wide receiver <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="99449" first="Chris" last="Brooks Jr"].</strong> flipped his commitment from Yale to Wisconsin. Brooks, a 6-foot-2, 200-pounder whose father played wide receiver at Nebraska, had committed to Yale back in mid July when his double-digit offer list included several Ivy League schools, Miami-Ohio, Ball State, Buffalo, Eastern Illinois, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State and more. He received an offer from Wisconsin on December 28, visited the school in late January and obviously liked what he saw. Brooks is big and strong and fast and he capped off his high school career with an outstanding senior season that saw him garner first-team All-Metro and all-state honors as well as co-offensive player of the year in the Metro Catholic Conference. He caught 49 passes for 959 yards and nine touchdowns and added 176 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground as a wildcat quarterback. He racked up 1,135 total yards and 21 touchdowns. <strong>FOUR HEAD TO WESTERN ILLINOIS </strong> New Western Illinois coach Myers Hendrickson hasn’t been on the job long, after being named the coach of his alma mater on December 17, but he was able to piece together a strong recruiting class that includes four good players from Missouri. WIU received commitments from running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37448" first="Wentric" last="Williams III"]</strong> (Liberty), linebacker <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="171842" first="Kendall" last="Huston"]</strong> (CBC) and offensive linemen <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="96202" first="Caden" last="Selle"]</strong> (Hannibal) and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="172643" first="Wyatt" last="Newcomer"]</strong> (Liberty North). Williams, who also won a wrestling state title as a junior, finished his outstanding high school football career with 3,910 rushing yards and 50 total touchdowns. Huston finished his high school career leading CBC to its second state title in four years. He led the Cadets in sacks (7) and interceptions (6) and scored four defensive touchdowns. Newcomer, a center, was a three-year starter for Liberty North, which finished second in Class 6 this season. Selle’s Hannibal squad went 13-1 in 2021. <strong>WESTMINSTER’S WEBB MAKES HIS PICK</strong> Westminster Christian Academy defensive lineman <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="103091" first="Sterling" last="Webb"]</strong> was a late-rising prospect who earned offers from Missouri Western, Austin Peay and New Mexico State in the final few weeks before Signing Day. Webb, a 6-3, 260-pounder, committed to New Mexico State on Monday. He recorded 55 tackles, 28 tackles for loss, seven sacks and one fumble recovery in 10 games during his senior season. <strong>BUTLER BONANZA</strong> The Butler Bulldogs nabbed a trio of Missouri standouts in MICDS quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="96126" first="Reagan" last="Andrew"]</strong>, Lafayette tight end <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37555" first="Owen" last="Butler"]</strong> and CBC defensive lineman <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="103094" first="Collin" last="Bell"]</strong>. Butler pledged to Butler on December 13. Andrew made his commitment on January 23. Bell joined the trio on Monday, January 31. Andrew is a dual-threat quarterback who had an outstanding career at MICDS. As a senior last fall he threw for 2,556 yards and 29 touchdowns (against just six interceptions) and ran for 759 yards and 12 touchdowns. <strong>LINDENWOOD ADDS LOCAL TALENT</strong> The Lindenwood University football program has made some smart hires in recent years with successful St. Louis area high school head coaches in Mark Goldenberg and Corey Bethany. It looks like those connections are paying off in recruiting. The recruiting class the Lions announced on Wednesday includes five local standouts coming off strong senior seasons: DB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="172194" first="Tre" last="Bell"]</strong> (Parkway West), QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="172272" first="Mason" last="Brown"]</strong> (Rockwood Summit), WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="99928" first="Drew" last="Krobath"]</strong> (Rockwood Summit), RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37577" first="Jared" last="Rhodes"]</strong> (Ladue) and DB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="179081" first="Khalid" last="Stewart"]</strong> (De Smet). Rhodes was a surprise on Wednesday as he never announced his decision on his Twitter account. He had previously announced offers from Indiana State, Navy, Lindenwood and Valparaiso along with a preferred walk-on opportunity at Missouri. He’s a strong 6-0, 200-pounder who racked up 1,384 total yards (1,191 rushing, 193 receiving) and 19 touchdowns in 10 games this fall. <strong>BACKFIELD BLITZ</strong> Truman State bolstered its backfield on Wednesday by signing three (or four) of the best running backs in the Show Me State: Harrisonville’s <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="96149" first="Jace" last="Reynolds"]</strong>, Battle’s <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="96147" first="Gerry" last="Marteen"]</strong> and Holt’s <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37579" first="Kyle" last="Wuebbeling"]</strong>. The Bulldogs also signed Highland RB-LB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="258106" first="Robert" last="Goehl"]</strong>, but listed him as a linebacker. Reynolds rushed for more than 7,000 yards and scored 63 touchdowns during his record-setting career at Harrisonville. Martin rushed for 2,327 yards and 28 touchdowns as a junior before suffering an injury his senior year. Wuebbeling rushed for 3,632 yards and 25 touchdowns in his career at Holt. <strong>HOLT TEAMMATES STAY TOGETHER</strong> Holt had a season it will never forget in 2021 with a second-place finish in Class 5 and a 13-1 record. Now, three of the standouts who led the Indians will continue on together in college. Quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37580" first="Cooper" last="Brown"]</strong>, wide receiver <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="96181" first="Colin" last="Bunner"]</strong> and linebacker <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="96295" first="Zakhi" last="Johnson"]</strong> all signed with Missouri Baptist on Wednesday. Brown threw for 2,978 yards and 37 touchdowns (against five interceptions) and rushed for 399 yards and eight touchdowns as a senior. Bunner caught 23 passes for 455 yards and five touchdowns. Johnson led Holt with 155 tackles. &nbsp;