Four-Star East St. Louis 2021 WR Dominic Lovett Commits to Mizzou
Today a big development took place for Missouri's 2021 football class as four-star wide receiver Dominic Lovett flipped his commitment from Arizona State to Missouri. Lovett is the 21st commitment in the 2021 class and he is also the first wide receiver. Lovett is a 5'10", 175lbs athlete from East St. Louis. Lovett may be a little undersized for a receiver, but he makes up for it with blazing speed and acceleration off the line of scrimmage. He also has tremendous speed out of his breaks. Couple that with his ball tracking skills and he could end up being a great player for the Tigers down the road.
This is big because throughout the 2020 season Missouri's wide receiver depth has slowly eroded. Wide receivers Cjay Boone, Dominic Gicinto and Maurice Massey have all left the program before or during the season and the moves were leaving the Tigers with some questions going into next year. Damon Hazelton and Keke Chism are both graduate students and this is most likely their last year unless they decide to come back due to the NCAA rule about this year not counting toward eligibility. If those guys don't come back then Missouri is left with some uncertainty at the position as guys like Jalen Knox are left who have shown a lot of flashes but have also struggled with drops and Knox in particular goes on long cold stretches where he doesn't contribute. Barret Banister is another guy who has been very consistent but you don't want him as a top receiver on an SEC team. Other than them it is mostly freshman and sophomores who haven't seen the field much and lack experience. The addition of a big time player like Lovett might help with the transition to the younger receivers on the roster as he has the talent to contribute immediately.
Lovett is the 7th player from the St. Louis area joining his high school teammate quarterback Tyler Macon, safety Tyler Hibbler, defensive end Travion Ford, running back Taj Butts, tight end Ryan Hoerstkamp and defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo. This signing shows just how big of an impact Drinkwitz is having in St. Louis which has been lacking for a long time at Mizzou. Odom had some success but not like Drinkwitz, he will hope to use the momentum from the commitments in the recent weeks to finish up the class before signing day next week.