MSSU's Atiba Bradley reveals new football recruits
Feb. 7—On the heels of the Lions' most successful football season since 2013, Missouri Southern head coach Atiba Bradley revealed his new recruits to a packed room at Mercy Hospital on Wednesday.
Bradley gave MSSU fans plenty to be hopeful about after a 5-6 2023 season that ended with a storybook come-from-behind double overtime 47-41 upset of No. 19 Missouri Western.
This year's recruiting class is large — 44 athletes.
"This year's class is just another step in the right direction," Bradley said of his new signees. "This class represents a lot of talent. This class brings in a lot of the depth we need and the flexibility on both sides of the ball that we need to be competitive in the MIAA."
Bradley also said he hopes the large number of recruits results in increased competition between his players.
"Competition is healthy," Bradley said. "We are not looking for guys in the portal who make their decisions based on what the depth chart looks like. That's just foolish and guys being scared. If you are scared to compete, you're not going to be a good football player. We found some guys that are going to make us better, that are going to push us, that are going to come in and create the kind of competition we need to be successful."
Eleven of Bradley's new recruits come from Missouri and 11 from Texas. Area athletes in the new class include Seneca linebacker Morgan Vaughn and Mount Vernon wide receiver Braxton Horton.
Forty of Bradley's 44 signees live within six hours of campus. He said he hopes the recruits who live close can provide program stability over a number of years as they tend to stay at one school longer.
The competition for playing time will be especially tough in the defensive secondary, where 14 new recruits will join returning players to compete for starting nods.
The new class of recruits, which includes players from 12 states, also includes 11 defensive linemen, five offensive linemen, four running backs, four wide receivers, three tight ends, a linebacker, a quarterback and a long snapper.
Thirty of the recruits come from the high school ranks.
"I stick by the idea that we are going to build this thing with four- and five-year players," Bradley said.
While the lion's share of recruits hail from the high school ranks, Bradley also was able to obtain commitments from several veteran players, including defensive linemen David Va'a, who transferred from Colorado State-Pueblo, and junior Griffin Lampton, who played at Coffeyville Community College and Division I Vanderbilt.
"Those guys stick out because they played at their universities. It's not one of those situations where they were running away from competition," Bradley said. "They had success where they were at so we are excited about them."
Bradley talked about what Lampton brings to the MSSU program.
"He led his team in tackles from the defensive end position," Bradley said. "That's unheard of. That's usually a linebacker or a strong safety, so to do that at the defensive end position is really unheard of."
Bradley also noted that many of his transfers have multiple years of eligibilty left.
Bradley also commented on the status of the program.
"We've come a long way in three years, but none of us are satisfied," Bradley said. "We've done a lot, but we haven't done anything yet."
