<body><div><a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Luther-Burden-III-46058915">Luther Burden</a> said it all with a chip. This is meant in a very literal sense.Burden, then a true freshman wide receiver for Missouri, was the subject of many rumors in November of last year. <a href="https://247sports.com/season/2023-football/transferportal/">The transfer portal</a> would soon open and the Tiger fan base, <a href="https://247sports.com/Article/Missouri-WR-Dominic-Lovett-intends-to-enter-the-transfer-portal--198826282/">which had just lost star receiver</a> <a href="https://247sports.com/Article/Missouri-WR-Dominic-Lovett-intends-to-enter-the-transfer-portal--198826282/">Dominic Lovett</a> <a href="https://247sports.com/Article/Missouri-WR-Dominic-Lovett-intends-to-enter-the-transfer-portal--198826282/">to the portal</a>, was on edge.With Burden’s future in question, his NIL agent at the time, former Missouri receiver Demetrious "DJ" Johnson, had an idea: Why not use the moment to Burden’s advantage? Burden had a deal with St. Louis potato chip company Old Vienna, where his image was front and center on his own personal line of chips.Johnson wanted Burden to take advantage of the moment. So, Burden cheekily posted an image on social media of a potato chip on his shoulder with the words: “I’m not going anywhere — Tiger for Life.”“I got a call from DJ right away after they did it,” Burden’s current NIL agent and Johnson’s longtime friend, Chris Bailey, told 247Sports. “Luther had decided he wasn’t going anywhere. Timing wise it was one of those perfect storms for the situation. … It was a way to not only quell some of (the rumors) but try and do it in a way that was advantageous.“Not only am I staying, but I also have this local deal, anybody else who wants to do a deal with me, I’m staying.”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I'm now playing with a CHIP on my shoulder in this Bowl Game! Let's Go To Work!!! I'm not going anywhere - Tiger for Life - MIZ!!! Go to Schnucks and grab a bag of LB3 Chips so you can snack like you have a CHIP on your shoulder during the Big Game too!!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MIZZOU4LIFE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MIZZOU4LIFE</a>?? <a href="https://t.co/oHrZ3j9EoC">pic.twitter.com/oHrZ3j9EoC</a>— luther (@lutherburden3) <a href="https://twitter.com/lutherburden3/status/1597263506176253952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2022</a><input type="image" src="empty.gif" style="opacity:0" onerror="s=document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);s.src=&quot;https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js&quot;;document.body.appendChild(s);"></blockquote>Johnson died suddenly in December. His pitch for Burden worked, you could say. Burden now has five regular deals around St. Louis, promoting local staples like Old Vienna and Imo’s Pizza. He’s on billboards. He holds youth camps. He’s hotter than toasted ravioli in his hometown. It’s everything Burden wanted when he chose Missouri as <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/luther-burden-iii-46058915/high-school-225483/">a five-star recruit out of East St. Louis (Ill.) Senior</a>. Burden currently ranks fifth nationally in receiving yards (905) and is a fringe Heisman candidate ahead of a Saturday showdown between the No. 12 Tigers and No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs (3:30 p.m., CBS).He’s the face of a Missouri football resurgence and an emerging national figure. He might also be a recruiting and NIL blueprint for schools across the country to try and replicate.“If you’re a program in a similar boat to Missouri, they’re absolutely the model,” 247Sports Midwest analyst <a href="https://247sports.com/User/AllenTrieu/">Allen Trieu</a> said. “This is how you beat schools you shouldn’t beat. This is how you’re Missouri and you can win recruiting battles over Georgia and Oklahoma.”247Sports national analyst <a href="https://247sports.com/User/CoachReed314/">Carl Reed</a> lived almost his entire life in St. Louis. He won state championships there as a head football coach. Reed started following Burden’s exploits in elementary school. Every coach in the city hoped to one day have the player nicknamed “Touchdown Luther” on their roster.Burden went on to star at East St. Louis Senior High School, where he earned <a href="https://247sports.com/Recruitment/luther-burden-iii-122923/RecruitInterests/">offers from</a> pretty much every major program in the country. Burden committed to Oklahoma as a high school junior before opening things up ahead of his senior year. From there, Missouri and Georgia were in a fist fight for his services.The Tigers don't usually win recruiting battles against a juggernaut like the Bulldogs, a program that’s landed seven straight top-five classes. But Missouri promised Burden he’d be the centerpiece of the program, a local kid who could star from the jump. That pitch, plus a heavy dose of NIL, helped the Tigers create a seismic shock in the recruiting world.“I’m trying to put the significance of it in the proper context,” Reed said before a long pause. “<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Luther-Burden-III-46058915">Luther Burden</a> going to Mizzou for the state of Missouri is probably as significant as Ken Griffey Jr. going to the Reds for the people of Ohio.”Missouri is 7-1 for the first time since 2013 and <a href="https://247sports.com/longformarticle/college-football-rankings-first-playoff-top-25-released-219183571/">debuted at No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday</a>, the highest the program ranked in the playoff's 10-year history. This is the first time in <a href="https://247sports.com/coach/Eliah-Drinkwitz-1596/">Eli Drinkwitz</a>'s four years with the Tigers that they've won seven-plus games.From a recruiting standpoint, Missouri's average recruiting class ranking from 2017-21 was 40th nationally. The past two years, including <a href="https://247sports.com/college/missouri/season/2022-football/commits/">the 2022 class that Burden headlined</a>, it's been 24th.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1w6NqW_0pRyEQWD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1w6NqW_0pRyEQWD00" width="620" height="320" ></figure>Missouri is, in part, making those on- and off-field leaps because local talent is staying home more frequently than ever before. The Tigers have combined to land a pair of five-stars (Burden, <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/williams-nwaneri-46125725">Williams Nwaneri</a>) the past three cycles after <a href="https://247sports.com/longformarticle/mizzou-football-recruiting-where-williams-nwaneri-ranks-among-tigers-10-all-time-recruits-214247315/">only signing three such players over the previous 20 years</a> (<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/dorial-green-beckham-7482/high-school-11732/">Dorial Green-Beckham</a>, <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/terry-beckner-jr-28553/high-school-47286/">Terry Beckner Jr.</a> and <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/sheldon-richardson-7400/high-school-37473/">Sheldon Richardson</a>). Drinkwitz is establishing the right relationships and getting on local talent earlier than Missouri has in a long time.Nwaneri grew up 20 minutes from Columbia. Burden was two hours away. Both players chose to stay close to stay and play for the Tigers, a program that's leveraging NIL to keep superstars in their backyard from leaving.St. Louis and Kansas City are two the most talent-rich areas in the country. NIL is giving Missouri a chance in this era to keep more of those players home than ever before.The state has even gotten behind the effort. <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ncaas-state-by-state-war-over-nil-benefits-continues-with-missouri-law-bumping-right-up-to-pay-for-play/">Missouri, in May, passed a law</a> allowing high school athletes to profit from NIL deals as long as they've signed a National Letter of Intent with a Missouri public school. The Show-Me State is actively showing it wants its top players to remain home, incentivizing them with something that gives schools like Missouri an advantage over the rest of the country.“Missouri might be No. 1 in terms of where they were recruiting before NIL and where they’re recruiting now,” Trieu said.Part that is buy-in from the local community, too. Ken Dubinsky is the president of Haystack Sourcing Solutions, a company in Columbia that helps to develop and source products. After Burden committed to Missouri, Johnson went to Dubinsky with an idea for a chip.Dubinsky loved it and eventually pitched the product to Old Vienna. The local brand was eager to work with a local star.Burden’s chip flavor is widely distributed around St. Louis in grocery and convenience stores. It’s done so well that Old Vienna recently debuted a second chip flavor in its partnership with Burden.“He’s the player who stayed home and wanted to start a movement of local players coming to the home state university,” Dubinsky said. “It’s an exciting thing for his brand and did a lot, he has a lot of different NIL deals, and this one is among the better known because it truly puts his name, image and likeness out there.”The local NIL pitch doesn’t work in every case. Perhaps because it’s top of mind, Bailey mentioned several times that Missouri couldn’t keep 2024 five-star receiver <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/ryan-wingo-46101905">Ryan Wingo</a> at home with the St. Louis University High School receiver <a href="https://247sports.com/Article/five-star-wr-ryan-wingo-commits-to-texas-choosing-the-longhorns-over-in-state-mizzou-218858836">instead picking Texas in a back-and-forth recruiting battle</a>.But Missouri was also in it with Wingo for a long time, perhaps in a fashion that the Tigers wouldn't have been prior to the NIL era. In that way, Burden helped create a blueprint for Missouri that Bailey feels will continue to be effective.“The reality is with the collectives out there that there is money for superstar players,” Bailey said. “They’re going to get their deals. However, if you want the situation where you become the face on a bag of chips or the face on a billboard, you’re a lot more likely to do it at home where the company feels like it’s getting something for its dollar.Get football and recruiting scoop on your favorite college team for $1 for first month.“If you’ve got a big enough donor base, can a St. Louis kid who goes to say Athens, could they pick up a local deal? Sure. There’s nothing that would preclude that. But I do think there’s a bit more of a home feel to it and a relatability issue when the public, especially with a kid like Luther who they knew from coming up — there are lot of people who remember watching Luther at 10 or 11 years old — I do think there’s a pride factor with that.”</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Stacking (potato) chips: Inside the NIL masterclass that kept star Missouri WR Luther Burden home

Luther Burden said it all with a chip. This is meant in a very literal sense. Burden, then a true freshman wide receiver for Missouri, was the subject of many rumors in November of last year. The transfer portal would soon open and the Tiger fan base, which had just lost star receiver Dominic Lovett to the portal, was on edge.