[duncan_idaho]

Rhodes is a tremendous athlete with great size. He reminds me a lot of Reilly Reiff, the Iowa tackle, in terms of where he was as a high school player. (Huge, athletic, tons of room for improvement).

He's going to be a nice addition to this class.

As for recruiting in KC... Missouri has become the big dog of the local schools in terms of football recruiting. It's going to take something extra (family connections, lifelong allegiance, positional fit, etc) for Mizzou to lose out to KU or KSU on a KC kid the Tigers really want.

The only really high-profile kid they've "lost" to KU/KSU in recent years was Keeston Terry, and that was because Missouri didn't have room for him. He was begging to be allowed to commit, but Marcus Lucas took the last spot for a WR in that class.

Something like 90 percent of kids with offers from both Kansas and Missouri have chosen Mizzou over the past decade. That's only going to continue. Being able to sell the exclusivity of the SEC to Missouri kids is a pretty awesome weapon.

1) It instantly makes Mizzou more "big-time" in the eyes of many kids. See Nick Ramirez's comments in the Terez Paylor article. That is a huge, huge factor. Guys like Ronnie Wingo, Aron White, the DT from Rockbridge a few years back, Ondre Pipkins have gone elsewhere because it was more "big-time."

2) It takes away the main weapon a school like Arkansas can use against Mizzou: "Come play in the SEC, with the big boys" and gives Mizzou the same weapon when recruiting kids from Iowa, Kansas and Illinois. "Come play close to home, in the SEC, with the big boys!" It's working with Rhodes. They're trying it out on Iowa kids.

I'd really like to see them make a bigger push for a lot of Illinois kids. There's quite a bit of talent in that state, and I think they can get a few kids a year from this pitch. They have much better chances to snag high profile kids from those states than they do of landing a 4-star from Tampa, IMO.

If Franklin is healthy for the 2012 season and Missouri reaches its potential, it really can be a catapaulting step for the Tigers.