HUGE News for the Jayhawks on the recruiting front as the Jayhawkslant is reporting Anthony Pierson has made the call and will be a Jayhawk.
Pierson's recruitment has been a fairly quiet one due to his avoidance of the typical recruiting hoopla. Originally committed to Missouri during his junior year, Pierson reopened his recruitment to several teams including Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas State, Illinois and Minnesota. Word is that late in the process Missouri re-entered the picture but Turner Gill and Kansas managed to win out over the other options.
Pierson is the top player in the St. Louis area as named by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. That ranks higher than another name Jayhawk fans might be familiar to Kansas in Rodney Coe.
Anthony Pierson is the most explosive player in the St.Louis metro area.
Pierson is a homerun threat and a big time athlete with the one key ingredient that Gill seems to be going after and that's speed. Pierson rushed for 1408 yards on 120 carries during his senior year while adding 23 touchdowns. That's and 11.8 yard per carry average.
Pierson is being brought in as a running back, but many schools have considered him an equally impressive cornerback prospect should he switch to the defensive side of the ball.
H/T to Rockchalks for the fanshot, this is a big late addition to the Jayhawk football class of 2011, and don't be surprised if Pierson finds his way on the field next fall.
The Jayhawk recruiting class now ranks #35 nationally after the addition of Pierson. With three spots still to go, a surprise or two would probably give Kansas an outside shot at landing a top 25 class in Turner Gill's first full year on the job.