At one point Wednesday morning, Hillcrest High School senior Dorial Green-Beckham had much of the country in silence, gaping at his 6-foot-6-inch, 220-pound frame as it hovered over a podium on an ESPNU national broadcast.
But the humble and guarded No. 1 football recruit wasn’t looking for silence. He wanted to speak, to announce a decision he had pondered for the better part of four years.
With the flip of a hat bearing the name, “MIZZOU,” Green-Beckham flashed a wide smile that would instantly reflect itself onto the 13,000 members in attendance at the Springfield, Mo., press conference, as well as Missouri fans, players and coaches throughout the rest of the Show-Me State.
“Just having a good relationship with the coaches, the people, the players, the whole atmosphere has been outstanding for me, to be able to fulfill my dreams at the University of Missouri,” he said on ESPNU after the announcement.
About 165 miles north, an MU office also erupted in jubilation. Coach Gary Pinkel and the MU football staff rejoiced the victory over the top football prospect in program history on a day in which 18 other recruits from around the country would similarly etch Columbia, Mo., as their new home.
“I didn’t want to watch it,” Pinkel said of Green-Beckham’s announcement. “I was just hoping that someone would start screaming.”
And scream they did. Down the hall, safeties coach Alex Grinch’s office hosted members of the Tiger coaching staff as they erupted at the site of the black hat and the endless smile.
“You were either going to be at the top of the world or jumping off the Hearnes Center at 10 this morning,” wide receivers coach Andy Hill said.
The announcement was an exhilarating moment for both him and offensive coordinator David Yost. The two have been the lead recruiters of Green-Beckham ever since Missouri became the first school to make him a scholarship offer, before he even played a down of high school football.
“He’s one of the most talented guys we’ve seen on high school film — size-wise, athletics, speed, all that stuff,” Hill said of the nation’s all-time leading high school receiver.
In addition to the five-star Green-Beckham, the Tigers secured three players rated as four-stars by scouting service Scout.com. The class took national rankings of No. 35 from Scout and No. 33 from Rivals, which qualify it as the third-best class Pinkel has signed in his 11-year MU career.
“Most of these guys could have gone to good places,” Pinkel said. “It was a very, very good class overall.”
Complementing Green-Beckham in the passing game is four-star quarterback Maty Mauk from Kenton, Ohio. Mauk, who set his own national high school record for career passing yards, emerged as a recruiter himself. Following a Kenton High School basketball game Friday, he drove to Columbia to meet up with Green-Beckham for the recruit’s last official school visit.
“You’re taking the all-time leading thrower in high school history and you’re recruiting the all-time leading catcher in yardage in high school history and you’re thinking, ‘This might work,'” Hill said of landing both Mauk and Green-Beckham.
Another decorated member of the 2012 class is Lee’s Summit West four-star guard Evan Boehm, rated the No. 7 guard by Rivals and the No. 1 center by Scout.
“From my standpoint, it’s just as big as getting Dorial,” offensive line coach Josh Henson said.
Near the end of his press conference, Pinkel took a big sigh, displaying more emotion than typically seen out of the calm, serious coach. The recruiting trail had admittedly drained him.
But as Pinkel learned with the flip of a hat Wednesday morning, that grind yields rewards.
“The Mizzou stock market went up a bit today,” he said.