Midway through his football career at Missouri, former Tiger Marcus James had a sit-down with assistant coach Andy Hill, a conversation James still recalls vividly.

“I don’t feel like I was a wide receiver when I came there,” said James, who lettered at MU from 2000-03. “I helped out with the return game. And I played half a season on defense. But after Coach Hill really sat me down and said, ‘Do you want to play wide receiver at the Division I level?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ he taught me how to be a receiver, taught me things I didn’t even know. I just wanted to catch the ball and run away from people. There’s only so much of that you can get away with at that level, especially in the Big 12.”

Hill’s talk left such a strong impact on James that years later he finds himself relaying the same challenge to his star pupil, Hickman’s Wesley Leftwich, who on Tuesday night called Hill to pledge a verbal commitment to join MU’s 2011 recruiting class.

For James, the wide receivers coach at Hickman, it was a chance to pay it forward.

“Obviously I had a very, very good experience at Mizzou,” James said. “So, if I can pass that along and help someone else have a great college football experience, that’s what I’m here for.”

So far at Hickman, Leftwich, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior, has produced more meaningful measurables than he has statistics, catching only 17 passes and four touchdowns last season. But his straight-line speed, chiseled physique and commanding performances at various camps and combines caught the eyes of recruiters.

“His all-out speed is world-class. It’s speed that you can’t coach,” said James, who teaches at Oakland Junior High. “If you stumble upon it, it’s once in a blue moon, especially with him being so young.

“But I told him, too, that at that level, everybody’s fast. What’s going to give him an advantage is, can you learn to play your position? Can you learn the ins and outs of getting yourself open and off jams? Can you understand the game and learn how to run routes?”

HOMEBODY: If Leftwich indeed signs with Missouri next February — his verbal commitment is nonbinding until he signs a national letter of intent — he’ll officially end MU’s backyard recruiting drought. The last four Columbia players to receive scholarship offers from Missouri fled the state border. All four were from Rock Bridge: quarterback Logan Gray (Georgia) and tight end Aron White (Georgia) in 2007 and defensive lineman Chase Rome (Nebraska) and tight end Trey Millard (Oklahoma) this year.

“Growing up, I used to go to the games when I was little, and I’ve been saying to myself I want to be on that field playing with all the Tigers and being part of the Mizzou alumni,” Leftwich said. “I just know this town so good and know I’d get lost somewhere like Arkansas or Chicago or something like that. I know everybody here, so I wouldn’t have to start new and start fresh.

“It came down to the fact that I talked to people who wanted to leave town but decided to stay here and said it was the best decision they ever made. That’s the same for me.”

For the record, Missouri stands as the only school that’s offered Leftwich a scholarship, but he had plans to visit Arkansas and Northwestern, among others, this summer.

ARMS RACE: No offensive position group was replenished on signing day quite like Missouri’s quarterbacks. The addition of James Franklin and Tyler Gabbert gives the Tigers five scholarship quarterbacks for this season, two more than they had a year ago. With both Franklin and Gabbert already enrolled in classes, the challenge becomes finding enough practice snaps for all five.

Behind entrenched starter Blaine Gabbert, MU returns junior backup Jimmy Costello and redshirt freshman Ashton Glaser.

“Those are our five guys, and we’re going to rep them and get them as much work as we can,” offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach David Yost said last week. “We have to see if” the freshmen “can move up the chart and how far they can move up the chart. But also, we need to see where Ashton’s at. We need to see where Jimmy’s at. Jimmy’s improved every year since he’s been in the program. So, there’s good competition.

“And Blaine’s got to keep getting better. It’s not like he’s arrived in any way where we can say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t have to practice.’ That happened to a point with Chase Daniel, but it wasn’t this early in his career.”

Franklin and Tyler Gabbert will take their first snaps when spring workouts begin March 9. The Black and Gold scrimmage is April 17.

Reach Dave Matter at 573-815-1781 or e-mail dmatter@columbiatribune.com.

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