Williams Nwaneri explains decision to commit to Missouri over Oklahoma

TULSA — Sporting Oklahoma gloves and cleats, five-star defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri was all the buzz Thursday night in Tulsa.

Nwaneri, the No. 1 prospect in the country, committed to Missouri on Monday, choosing the Tigers over Oklahoma and Georgia. On Thursday, Nwaneri and Lee’s Summit North High School scrimmaged in Tulsa at Union High School. And despite picking Missouri, he was wearing Oklahoma gear.

“(I’ve had the cleats and gloves) since my OV, so sometime in June,” Nwaneri said. “I had to show love… They’re still recruiting me and all that, but I’m going to let everything play out, let the whole season play out, but I don’t know. I’m committed to Mizzou, though.

“I’m just having fun with it. Showing love and all that.”

Oklahoma was long thought as the favorite to land Nwaneri, after having built strong relationships with assistant coaches Miguel Chavis and Todd Bates.

“Mostly my relationships with coach Chavis and coach Bates,” Nwaneri said of Oklahoma. “I probably had another one of my best relationships with them. It was always love from the coaching staff. I like the scheme there and all that.”

Nwaneri has also been recruited to Oklahoma by some of his Lee’s Summit North teammates. That includes 20225 Oklahoma defensive line commit Ka’Mori Moore.

“That’s going to be hard. That’s my guy,” Moore said Thursday of Nwaneri. “Staying home — we’re going to be playing against each other soon. It’s going to be crazy.”

But Nwaneri told On3’s Chad Simmons on Monday he chose Missouri over Georgia, not Oklahoma. Though, Nwaneri said Thursday that Oklahoma was squarely in the race.

In the end, though, Missouri won out due to his relationship with the coaching staff and proximity to home, according to him.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made,” Nwaneri said. “But I had to do what was best for me.”Really, I felt like I was most comfortable with that coaching staff. It’s close to home and all that, so I felt like it was the right decision for me at the time.”

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