Mizzou Football recruiting reset: Jack Lange? More like Jack Large

Eli Drinkwitz continued his unprecedented streak of signing top-tier high school recruits to start the 2025 recruiting class with the verbal commitment of offensive tackle Jack Lange on Wednesday night. Lange is more of an example of what we've come to expect from Drinks' recruiting efforts: a highly ranked local kid who turns down outside offers and stays in state to play for his hometown school.

However, this is only the second offensive lineman the Drinkwitz regime has signed in their time at Columbia, with Logan Reichert being the first in the class of 2023. You need elite line play on both ends to compete consistently in the SEC and it appears that, thanks to time, opportunity or the development efforts of OL coach Brandon Jones, elite offensive linemen are starting to trickle in from high school to bolster the offensive line.

And while the o-line is the most telling feature of college football teams that win games by double digits and threaten for championships, it is also the most difficult position to project thanks to the nature of offensive line play (five guys working as one unit) and the fact that high school-aged boys are not yet finished with their development and that a lot can happen in the four to five years they are in college. Still, we can evaluate what our newly committed lineman can do based on his junior film and see what he's done so far.

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Where it fits: First of all, I don't know if Lange weighs exactly 68 or exactly 275 pounds, but he is noticeably large. Not like Joshua Lewis, the previous BAFTEE candidate from this class, but certainly bigger than his teammates or the guys he lines up against at Missouri's Class 5 football level. And you can tell even when he spends most of his time hunched over and addressing his defender low.

Watching highlights of offensive linemen is a surprisingly tedious task: sure, you get a few moments where the prospect destroys his defender, but mostly it's watching the same guy punch a guy for four seconds in the span of 5-6 minutes. I mean…that's all they really do, and a highlight for an offensive lineman is to slam his man into the ground, so that's pretty much what you expect.

Lange's tape has its moments, however. During the six minutes and whatever seconds of highlights, I only counted fifteen instances where he it didn't fell to his beaten defender, and six of them were because he was in pass protection.

But until then, if you watch the Jack Lange highlight film, you might think that the Eureka high school football team never passes the ball because: againfor more than six minutes you only see him in pass protection six times. Is that because running blocking is more likely to smother a hapless 15-year-old in the grass? Possibly. The pass protection seemed fine, as my untrained eye (and heightened vision) showed what appeared to be good balance and hands when taking on pass rushers. But you make your success and money in pass protection and I just haven't seen much of it. I saw him cross the line and wipe out linebackers and safeties (very fun to watch btw) so I know he can move, I wish we could see more of the other stuff too.

When hell plays: The offensive line is a difficult position for freshmen, but it can be done. Texas A&M had success starting freshmen in 2012, and LSU Freshmen famously started on the offensive line for the first time ever in 2022 with Will Campbell and Emery Jones, Jr.

Without knowing his diet and training regimen, I definitely believe Lange is ready for the SEC. And we know that there may be some losses at the end of the 24th season. But as we know at this point with Drink, freshmen usually don't play, so while I say it could happen, it most likely won't.

What it all means: Lange is a local product highly valued and coveted by all, and he chose to stay in the state. The story may not have the same impact as it did at the start of Drinkwitz's enlightened recruiting campaign, but it's one that Missouri fans have been craving since the 1990s and it's finally happening on a regular basis. The fact that it's down the stretch is even better, as Mizzou has rarely acquired the services of top-quality offensive linemen in the modern recruiting era. Stack a few recruits like Lange in back-to-back classes and you could see Missouri consistently fielding elite offensive lines down the road.