Missouri football has done it again. 

On Monday afternoon, five-star class of 2024 defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri committed to the Tigers. He’s the sixth five-star recruit to commit to the Tigers since the modern recruiting rankings era came to be 20 years ago.

According to Rivals.com, Nwaneri is the top-ranked defensive lineman in the country and the third-ranked prospect overall. The Lee’s Summit, Missouri native chose the Tigers over Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon and Tennessee. This is MU’s 12th commitment of the 2024 class, which has now jumped inside of the Top 50 of Rivals.com’s recruiting rankings. 

Putting on a hat is usually an emotionless action. When top football and basketball recruits commit to a school, however, they make putting on a hat the most emotionally consequential moment in college sports for a moment. When Nwaneri pulled out a white hat with a gold “MU” inscribed across it, a baseball bat-wielding, cargo shorts-wearing and Crocs-stepping football head coach Eli Drinkwitz couldn’t contain his excitement, along with the other MU football staff in attendance.  

With Nwaneri’s commitment along with Luther Burden III’s in 2021, this is the first time in over half a decade that Missouri football has landed two five-star recruits in the span of three recruiting classes. You’d have to go back to when Blaine Gabbert and Sheldon Richardson committed to the Tigers in 2008 and 2009 respectively, to find the last five-star streak like this one. 
As a junior at Lee’s Summit North last season, Nwaneri registered 56 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 12 sacks. While a learning curve is inevitable going from high school to the SEC, the hope is that Nwaneri can continue dominating on the interior when he steps on campus in 2024. Literally and figuratively, the school known as “D-Line Zou” just picked up a huge W.

Copy edited by Sterling Sewell