Carlise, Jones happy with Missouri’s hire

Jaylon Carlise and Tyler Jones started to feel as if they were cursed.

After going through three different head coaches in the past eight months at West Orange High, they thought relief was on the horizon after their recent commitments to the University of Missouri.

Then came news Nov. 30 that Missouri had fired head coach Barry Odom. Just 18 days after committing to play for the Tigers, once again Carlise and Jones were without a head coach.

“Just another wave of adversity,” Carlise said. “It was kind of a moment where we just felt stuck in the middle again. Me and Tyler had just committed, so it was a moment where we were both like, ‘Man, another tough time we’re about to go through.’ ”

Missouri officials reportedly secured at least the short-term future of Missouri football with the hiring of former Appalachian State coach Eli Drinkwitz.

“I’m glad that found its way to be over with quickly,” Carlise said.

Carlise and Jones will take their second official visits to Missouri this weekend, trips that are allowed by the NCAA due to the school’s coaching change.

Jones said he was happy to learn Drinkwitz was poised to be introduced as the Tigers’ new coach.

“I think he sounds like a good coach and obviously I got to meet him,” Jones said, “What I’ve seen from App State this season while he was there, they upset a few teams … they’ve been known for upsetting teams, and some teams are even afraid to play them.

“So yeah, I think he’ll fit good with the program and I’m just going off what I saw of him at App State.”

Carlise said most of the Missouri commits were happy with the choice of Drinkwitz.

“It all looks good so far,” Carlise said. “We have a group chat with all the commits, and we were all talking about it and we feel pretty confident with who they brought in.”

The urgency Missouri placed on completing the hiring process was also reassuring to Jones, who received a strong recruiting push from Wake Forest after the Odom firing.

“I still obviously got to go up and meet him,” Jones said. “Wake Forest is coming to the school with the head coach [Dave Clawson] to talk to me just in case I get up there and I don’t like everything. … But yeah, that just made it a little easier, them getting this done so quickly.”

Assuming all goes well during their visits this weekend, Carlise, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound receiver, and Jones, a 6-1, 180-pound defensive back, will sign national letters of intent during the early signing period Dec. 18. Neither plans to enroll early, having decided to remain at West Orange until graduation in May.