Three Predictions: Mississippi State, Luther Burden, Houston
Jeff McCulloch/Rivals.com
Rivals national recruiting analyst John Garcia Jr. has predictions on Mississippi State landing a top defensive target, former Missouri receiver Luther Burden and a big transfer for the Houston Cougars.
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1. MISSISSIPPI STATE WILL LAND MAURICE JONES JR.
A productive and emerging recruit from the Orlando area, Maurice Jones Jr. is still on the rise as a recruit yet Mississippi State has done the best job prioritizing him before his profile becomes more national. It already resulted in one visit in late March, where Jones was taken aback by his first impression of Starkville and the SEC pitch the defensive staff has him centered on. An official visit is also scheduled in June for the emerging favorite.
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Jones is likely going to pick up more extensions and set up more visits through spring football at his high school, which picks up next week and beyond, but MSU is entrenched in this recruitment. Part of the emergence for Jones, who was a Rivals Combine and Rivals Camp Series standout in Miami last month, is his positional versatility. He is a compact edge defender but has off-ball experience to project as a potential movable piece at the next level depending on down and distance.
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2. LUTHER BURDEN WILL OUT-PLAY HIS NFL DRAFT POSITION
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The former five-star wideout and Missouri great isn't as physically imposing as Tetairoa McMillan or speedy as Mathew Golden, but he has the complete package relative to what has been proven to excel at the NFL level. In 2024, 11 of the top 12 (and each of the top six) wide receivers in the league, from a production standpoint, fit the physical mold Burden brings to the table at 6-foot-2 or under, right around 200 pounds.
Part of the reason the 'smaller' wideout is dominating the game at the highest level is because of the spacing the game has evolved with. It's a catch-and-run league as much as it is a polish and separation league – two fronts where guys with more power and a lower center of gravity thrive. This is also Burden's floor coming into Sunday play, so why would we expect anything less? Falling out of the first round is borderline shocking, especially in a class that likely won't be known for the wide receiver position.
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3. JESUS MACHADO TO HOUSTON WILL BECOME MAJOR BIG 12 NEWS
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The versatile defender originally from Miami may not be a super splashy name relative to others in the spring transfer portal after missing the 2024 season due to a knee injury at Tulane, but the 2023 tape and plenty before it suggests that Houston may be on to something with Thursday's official announcement. Jesus Machado's floor is as a tackling machine who can fill it up from sideline to sideline.
Now healthy and stronger, Machado can expand his game in the pass-first Big 12, where pass-rushing and blitzing prowess we saw in his prep days at Miami (Fla.) Central could come together depending on the personnel and scheme in Houston under an ultra-aggressive defensive coordinator like Austin Armstrong. The former Florida assistant helped develop a similar downhill talent in Shemar James into a three-down NFL projection who should hear his name called this weekend.
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