If Eli Drinkwitz has any plans to leave Mizzou at the end of the year for another program, his recruiting momentum certainly isn’t giving anything away.
After much hand-wringing this fall about Drink’s
2026 class, the staff has been on a heater over the past few weeks, adding half a dozen new commitments since the beginning of October. One of the earlier commits – yeah, we’re behind on these Resets, relax – gives Drinkwitz another victory in his home state of Arkansas.
I’ll say it again, recruiting feels better when you’re taking players out from under your rivals’ noses.
Brody Jones is a three-star “safety,” though most of his tape shows him playing outside corner. His commitment is pretty typical of Mizzou Football, which has always succeeded in identifying and securing rising talents before more Power Four programs move in. Apart from his Mizzou offer, Jones sports a handful of P4 offers, as well as some from high-end Group of 5 schools.
How He Fits
You don’t need to watch far into Jones’ highlight reel to learn what type of defensive back he is: a hard-hitting one.
Jones is an aggressive, instinctual defender who uses his athletic ability – which appears to be abundant – to read and react, leading to quite a few punishing hits. He’s especially effective as a run defender, as he’s able to track down opposing backs before they can fully hit the edge. From there, he’s strong enough to take them down.
One question I’ll have for Jones coming into the program is his strength as a coverage man. There’s not a lot of coverage plays in this tape, and one of the only ones I can remember features him dropping a defender seconds before the ball reaches him, drawing a flag and cancelling out the entire highlight. Yes, Jones reads plays well enough to grab quite a few tipped balls, but I’d expect someone of his height to feature more pass breakups than he does in this tape. He can also over-rely on his strength and speed, leading to penalties.
When He Plays
Players of Jones natural ability don’t come around every day, but his football ability still needs a bit of work. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him get some special teams reps early on because of how fast and strong he can be, but he’ll need to fine tune his ability as a coverage corner if he wants to see defensive snaps earlier than his second season.
What It Means
Eli Drinkwitz and Corey Batoon seem to love players like Brody Jones, guys with astronomical ceilings and in need of quite a bit of refinement. Batoon has done a good job of identifying young corners in his short time with Mizzou, which gives me hope that Jones could be the sort of diamond-in-the-rough commitment that Mizzou fans used to fall in love with back in the Gary Pinkel days. At worst, Mizzou is injecting some size and athletic ability onto the roster, which will play well in practice and sharpen those around him.
