Mizzou goes far and wide to fill 2017 class

Missouri's head football coach Barry Odom walks the sidelines during the second quarter against Vanderbilt at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri on November 12, 2016. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPICOLUMBIA, MO. • When Missouri coach Barry Odom unveils his second recruiting class in a few weeks, the casual fan might have trouble distinguishing most of the prospects. A thin pool of in-state recruits pushed Odom’s staff beyond the state border to fill the 2017 class, a strategy Odom planned before the bulk of area prospects committed elsewhere.

Odom continues to assign assistant coaches to recruit regions of the country, but his staff also recruits for their specific position group. That’s led to…