Missouri's wide receiver room was among the program's most depleted position groups heading into the 2026 offseason. Kevin Coleman Jr., Xavier Loyd and Logan Muckey all exhausted their eligibility. Josh Manning, Marquis Johnson and James Madison II hit the portal. 

Missouri's receiver room was returning just three players — all of which were freshman, and only two of which had a catch. 

But help is on the way.

The Tigers landed the commitment of former Auburn wideout Horatio Fields Jan. 7, bringing a top transfer receiver to the program and giving fellow transfer quarterback Austin Simmons a new weapon to utilize.

Fields was a four-star transfer who logged 12 catches for 106 yards and a touchdown during his first season at Auburn in just four games — he  suffered a broken foot in practice, cutting his season short after just four games. 

"The leader of that receiver room who knew every position and gave us flexibility to do a lot of things," Former Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said on Fields. "And it's a difficult loss."

His season being cut short may end up as a blessing in disguise for Missouri, as Fields was granted a medical redshirt and extra season of eligibility. He will begin his sixth season of college football in 2026, and his second in the Southeastern Conference. 

Before his time at Auburn, Fields was at Wake Forest for four seasons, the last of which being his most impactful, logging 39 catches for 463 yards and four touchdowns. 

He's played 67.2% of his career offensive snaps at wide, meaning he can help fill a gap left by either Josh Manning and Marquis Johnson. Let's assume Fields is more of a Manning replacement rather than a Johnson replacement — the latter will be addressed by another transfer. Keep up with MizzouRoundtable to read that future piece soon. 

But back to it — Fields' physical attributes and history of usage line him more up with Manning, as he stands at 6-foot-2, 201 pounds while Manning is 6-foot-3, 213 pounds and Johnson is 5-foot-11, 185 pounds.

Fields uses that size to maximize his contested catch ability – hauling in 15 of his 27 contested catch targets between the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Missouri now has two wideouts teams can't leave in one-on-one coverage: Donovan Olugbode and Fields. 

Along with the frame for explosive plays, Fields also possesses steady hands, which have likely developed with time over his five seasons. He's dropped just four of his 94 career targets, making the veteran a presumably reliable option for Simmons when the pair take Faurot Field in the fall. 

Fields' frame also helps make him a capable blocker in the run game, which Missouri's run-first scheme heavily values. His last full season, 2024, saw the former Wake Forest wideout post a 69.8 run-blocking grade in 265 snaps of the play type per PFF, which would have been 0.1 grade below Manning and DaMarion Fowlkes, who tied to lead Missouri's receivers in the department in 2025. 

Missouri rotated between four receivers — Coleman, Olugbode, Manning and Johnson — for the first half of 2025. Coleman was the clear top target and was based in the slot while the other three worked the boundary. Johnson was eventually phased out as his production decreased throughout the season. 

Assuming Olugbode steps up into a larger role in 2026, that leaves three more moderate-to-high-usage receivers to support him. Fields will likely fill one of those roles along the boundary, while a fellow transfer takes the other. Missouri's slot role is still fairly open barring a  major leap from Fowlkes, who played primarily as a return specialist in his freshman 2025 season. Should the slot role stay vacant, Fields could help pitch in slot snaps on a committee basis, but he hasn't been a true slot before. 

Injury history — a 2022 ACL tear and 2025 broken foot — indicate that Fields isn't a guarantee to play the entire season. When on the field, however, he's as good as any, and will likely be a top-four. member of Missouri's receiver rotation.