11/28/2022 football Edit

Colorado beats out Michigan State to land commitment from Morgan Pearson

Matt Moreno • CUSportsReport

Recruiting Analyst

Matt began his career at Rivals in 2011 as recruiting editor and then publisher for Arizona affiliate, GOAZCATS.com. In 2022, he moved into an expanded role covering Pac-12 recruiting for Rivals.

Colorado won a head-to-head battle with former head coach Mel Tucker's program Monday when the Buffs secured an important commitment for the 2023 class. High three-star athlete Morgan Pearson (Ardmore (Okla.) Plainview High School) was offered by both CU and Michigan State earlier in the month.

He took visits to both schools on consecutive weekends as the regular season came to a close. However, the Buffs proved to him enough that Boulder is where he needs to be pushing the versatile 6-foot-1 recruit to announce his pledge Monday after visiting CU over the weekend for the final game of the year.

Pearson is now one of the highest-rated prospects in the 2023 class marking continued success for interim head coach Mike Sanford and the rest of the current Buffs coaches. Since former head coach Karl Dorrell was fired by CU, the program has added four commitments to the group.

The latest one is the highest-rated of the bunch, according to Rivals, with Pearson being ranked as the eighth-best recruit in the Oklahoma this cycle. He grabbed early offers from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Pittsburgh and Iowa State but ultimately it came down to whether or not he'd end up playing in East Lansing or Boulder.

While his future home is now decided, exactly where Pearson will play on the field is still to be determined. Interim offensive coordinator Clay Patterson guided the recruitment for the Buffs, but Pearson has the ability to play on either side of the ball at the next level.

A true athlete, who also has been recruited by colleges to play baseball, the 2023 prospect could play in the secondary or linebacker on defense, or Pearson could line up at receiver or tight end.

Pearson only started playing defense recently but shows plenty of promise as a player on that side of the ball.

Colorado now has the 36th-ranked recruiting class in the Rivals overall team recruiting rankings for 2023, and that is good enough to put the Buffs fourth among teams in the Pac-12 thanks to the recent bump it has received after the string of fall commitments. Plus, CU is just over 100 points away from moving into the third spot on that list and jumping over Washington.