Four-star DT Marquis Gracial announces a Top 8
Saint Charles, Mo., four-star defensive tackle Marquis Gracial may not get the same number of headlines as fellow St. Louis-area 2022 standouts Luther Burden, Kevin Coleman and Tyson Ford, but he is pulling in the same type of national offers as those prospects. On Monday, Gracial winnowed his list of 20 scholarship offers down to a top eight schools.
THE LATEST
The eight schools that made the cut are Alabama, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Penn State. Gracial saw his offer list climb to 20 schools after a few more additions since his junior season ended, so this cut eliminates just over half of those options. The four-star defensive tackle was just starting to get his recruitment going when the COVID pandemic eliminated college visits, and the only school he has visited in-person from his top eight is Iowa State. Gracial does not plan to make his final decision until the NCAA loosens visit restrictions and the four-star can meet with coaching staffs in-person.
IN HIS WORDS
“Every school was a really good school, I just had better relationships with these schools. You can’t go to every school so you have to narrow down at some point and these were the schools I had the best relationships with.
“(Kentucky) is a new relationship. When I first talked to them I felt something. Everybody was really nice and it seemed like they cared, just off the one phone call. So, I am kind of excited to see what they have moving forward.”
RIVALS’ REACTION
Upon initial perusal of this list, two teams stand out that I expect to be among the strongest contenders, and they are Alabama and Missouri. Alabama is always a school you have to watch in recruitments where they are actively involved, and the Crimson Tide are putting a strong effort into the St. Louis area for this 2022 class. Missouri, meanwhile, has been a strong contender for almost every top in-state prospect since Eli Drinkwitz took over the program more than a year ago. Gracial also told me Alabama and Missouri were the two schools he was most excited to visit once the dead period ended. Although his name is not as familiar on the national recruiting scene as Burden’s, Coleman’s and Ford’s, Gracial is a big-time talent at a position the Midwest does not usually produce with much depth.