Mekhi Wingo entering NCAA transfer portal, leaving Missouri

Posted: Jan 6, 2022 / 09:50 AM CST

Updated: Jan 6, 2022 / 12:50 PM CST

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — The University of Missouri football program added a defensive lineman from the transfer portal on Sunday and are losing one to the portal within the same week.

FOX2 confirmed earlier reports from Elite Sports and PowerMizzou that Mekhi Wingo, a De Smet Jesuit graduate who just completed his freshman year for the Tigers, is entering the portal.

Missouri added Oklahoma State defensive lineman Jayden Jernigan on Sunday.

Blessed with the life I lived…On to the Next!!🐯 pic.twitter.com/neNmfXQ2AV
— Jayden Jernigan #42 (@42_reborn) January 3, 2022

Wingo played in 12 games for Missouri in 2021 and was named to the SEC All-Freshman team, standing out on a defensive line that was under fire from the start of the season. His position coach, Jethro Franklin, was fired early in the year and replaced by analyst Al Davis, who is expected to get the full time job in 2022.

The assistant coaches who recruited Wingo to Missouri, Brick Haley and Ryan Walters, are no longer with the program. Haley was not retained by Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz after the 2020 season and Walters left to become defensive coordinator at Illinois.

Once he enters the portal, Wingo will be the eighth Mizzou player to enter since the end of the regular season, but the first from the 2021 recruiting class.
— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) January 6, 2022

Wingo will be eligible to play without sitting out a year, under new NCAA rules.

A possible destination to keep an eye on? LSU. The Tigers in Baton Rouge hired Robert Steeples last week, Wingo’s high school coach, to join the defensive staff under new head coach Brian Kelly.