1. Finally, it’s game week. I’ve written just about everything I can think of over the past eight months, so I’m glad the games are here.
Mizzou will host South Dakota on Thursday, and I wonder how much of a leash the players involved in a position battle get.
What I mean is everyone knows multiple quarterbacks are playing.
I expect other position battles will be going on as well with multiple players getting chances to play at some point in the game.
But what if South Dakota makes a game out of this?
Missouri can’t afford to lose this game.
How close does it have to be before the Tigers make changes and try to put their best players on the field?
For example, what if Mizzou enters the fourth quarter up 21 and then South Dakota narrows the lead to seven with a few minutes to go? If it’s Sam Horn’s quarter to play, does head coach Eli Drinkwitz let him stay in the game and see if he can get the win or does he put someone else in the game?
I don’t think the game will be close enough that Mizzou will have to worry about it.
However, anything is possible. That’s why the games are played.
I also wonder what the quarterbacks’ approaches will be.
They will be following the same game plan, but will one of them try to be a little more aggressive with their decision-making or will they try to be a little conservative so it’s less likely they mess up?
Who tries to ad-lib plays and who decides to do things like throw the ball away and live for another down?
Obviously, a lot of this is determined in the moment. Every play and situation is different, but it will be interesting to see who does what and how they approach their time in the game.
2. On Friday, I covered Williams Nwaneri's first game of his senior season as his team, Lee’s Summit North defeated Liberty North 27-20.
At 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds, he was easily the biggest person in the entire stadium not just on the field.
He has bend to get around the edge, a quick swim move and he’s versatile. I saw him line up at both defensive end spots and line up on the inside.
All characteristics of the future hall of fame that Nwaneri's coach, Jamar Mozee, compared him to pregame. (You can read the story about who he compared Nwaneri to here.)
Prior to the game, Mozee told me the thing he felt Nwaneri needed to work on the most was his motor and just giving it 100%. After the game, he said Nwaneri showed the motor he was looking for.
“Yeah, he played hard tonight, and I could tell he was tired at the end but he was able to snap it, keep going and be physical,” Mozee said.
Even though he recorded five tackles and a sack, I think his best play was a quarterback pressure when he bulldozed the opposing left tackle and forced the quarterback to throw an incompletion in the final two minutes while looking completely gassed.
That reminded me of Madden, the video game for those unfamiliar. In Madden, there’s an X-factor ability called "fearmonger" and when activated the player can still force pressure while engaged in a block.
At the high school level, that’s precisely what Nwaneri is. He’s a fearmonger.
He creates pressure and opportunities for other players to make plays. That's what he did all night on Friday.
All in all, it was a pretty polarizing game. That’s what my main takeaway from the game was.
However, the story of Friday night, at least on social media, had nothing to do with how he played, but what he wore.
Nwaneri was wearing Oklahoma gloves again.
At first, I didn’t notice the gloves standing on the Broncos sideline. I thought they were team issued gloves from Lee’s Summit North, but it wasn’t until I approached him for the post-game interview that I saw they were Oklahoma gloves. The Broncos and Sooners’ colors are pretty much the same so it was hard to tell.
When I asked him about the gloves I could tell by his demeanor how he felt versus what he said.
This is what he said:
"That's really all it is (the gloves matching the jersey)," Nwaneri said. "I just put it on. When we wear white (jerseys), I've got white Mizzou gloves. So, I'm going to throw them on. I have all types of gloves. I just like to wear what matches my uniform, that's all it is. Nothing more to it."
This is the vibe I felt:
“It’s just gloves. I don’t know why people are tripping over this. When we wear white jerseys I will throw on Mizzou stuff but I just want to look nice on the field that’s all.”
Again, he did not say this last quote but that’s how I interpreted his body language, tone, and what he actually said all into one.
Now, he's still being recruited every day by Mizzou and Oklahoma, and he will be until whenever he signs. I am well aware of that.
This is part of the reason why he told me he's been off of social media. He committed early on purpose and just wants to focus on the season.
A lot of people on Twitter (I’m not calling it X) made a lot about this situation so here’s how I see it.
Oklahoma fans are holding on to the fact he keeps wearing the gloves and will probably continue to do so. Mizzou fans are holding on to the fact that he’s committed to their team.
I get why each side has optimism. I do want to point out that if the roles were reversed and he was a Sooners commit and wore Missouri gloves then I believe plenty of Tigers fans (not all fans) would be doing what some Sooners fans are doing.
However, at the end of the day, we are talking about what high school players are wearing. It’s never that serious.
I will say the team that holds the commitment and happens to have the new NIL law that just went official yesterday is in a little better shape than the team whose gloves Nwaneri is wearing.
Mizzou will host South Dakota on Thursday, and I wonder how much of a leash the players involved in a position battle get.
What I mean is everyone knows multiple quarterbacks are playing.
I expect other position battles will be going on as well with multiple players getting chances to play at some point in the game.
But what if South Dakota makes a game out of this?
Missouri can’t afford to lose this game.
How close does it have to be before the Tigers make changes and try to put their best players on the field?
For example, what if Mizzou enters the fourth quarter up 21 and then South Dakota narrows the lead to seven with a few minutes to go? If it’s Sam Horn’s quarter to play, does head coach Eli Drinkwitz let him stay in the game and see if he can get the win or does he put someone else in the game?
I don’t think the game will be close enough that Mizzou will have to worry about it.
However, anything is possible. That’s why the games are played.
I also wonder what the quarterbacks’ approaches will be.
They will be following the same game plan, but will one of them try to be a little more aggressive with their decision-making or will they try to be a little conservative so it’s less likely they mess up?
Who tries to ad-lib plays and who decides to do things like throw the ball away and live for another down?
Obviously, a lot of this is determined in the moment. Every play and situation is different, but it will be interesting to see who does what and how they approach their time in the game.
2. On Friday, I covered Williams Nwaneri's first game of his senior season as his team, Lee’s Summit North defeated Liberty North 27-20.
At 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds, he was easily the biggest person in the entire stadium not just on the field.
He has bend to get around the edge, a quick swim move and he’s versatile. I saw him line up at both defensive end spots and line up on the inside.
All characteristics of the future hall of fame that Nwaneri's coach, Jamar Mozee, compared him to pregame. (You can read the story about who he compared Nwaneri to here.)
Prior to the game, Mozee told me the thing he felt Nwaneri needed to work on the most was his motor and just giving it 100%. After the game, he said Nwaneri showed the motor he was looking for.
“Yeah, he played hard tonight, and I could tell he was tired at the end but he was able to snap it, keep going and be physical,” Mozee said.
Even though he recorded five tackles and a sack, I think his best play was a quarterback pressure when he bulldozed the opposing left tackle and forced the quarterback to throw an incompletion in the final two minutes while looking completely gassed.
That reminded me of Madden, the video game for those unfamiliar. In Madden, there’s an X-factor ability called "fearmonger" and when activated the player can still force pressure while engaged in a block.
At the high school level, that’s precisely what Nwaneri is. He’s a fearmonger.
He creates pressure and opportunities for other players to make plays. That's what he did all night on Friday.
All in all, it was a pretty polarizing game. That’s what my main takeaway from the game was.
However, the story of Friday night, at least on social media, had nothing to do with how he played, but what he wore.
Nwaneri was wearing Oklahoma gloves again.
At first, I didn’t notice the gloves standing on the Broncos sideline. I thought they were team issued gloves from Lee’s Summit North, but it wasn’t until I approached him for the post-game interview that I saw they were Oklahoma gloves. The Broncos and Sooners’ colors are pretty much the same so it was hard to tell.
When I asked him about the gloves I could tell by his demeanor how he felt versus what he said.
This is what he said:
"That's really all it is (the gloves matching the jersey)," Nwaneri said. "I just put it on. When we wear white (jerseys), I've got white Mizzou gloves. So, I'm going to throw them on. I have all types of gloves. I just like to wear what matches my uniform, that's all it is. Nothing more to it."
This is the vibe I felt:
“It’s just gloves. I don’t know why people are tripping over this. When we wear white jerseys I will throw on Mizzou stuff but I just want to look nice on the field that’s all.”
Again, he did not say this last quote but that’s how I interpreted his body language, tone, and what he actually said all into one.
Now, he's still being recruited every day by Mizzou and Oklahoma, and he will be until whenever he signs. I am well aware of that.
This is part of the reason why he told me he's been off of social media. He committed early on purpose and just wants to focus on the season.
A lot of people on Twitter (I’m not calling it X) made a lot about this situation so here’s how I see it.
Oklahoma fans are holding on to the fact he keeps wearing the gloves and will probably continue to do so. Mizzou fans are holding on to the fact that he’s committed to their team.
I get why each side has optimism. I do want to point out that if the roles were reversed and he was a Sooners commit and wore Missouri gloves then I believe plenty of Tigers fans (not all fans) would be doing what some Sooners fans are doing.
However, at the end of the day, we are talking about what high school players are wearing. It’s never that serious.
I will say the team that holds the commitment and happens to have the new NIL law that just went official yesterday is in a little better shape than the team whose gloves Nwaneri is wearing.
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