Another week is nearly in the books, which means you all are about to get that good, good. The Chamber has admittedly had to grind extra hard to bring you the nuggets of knowledge you are so ready to ingest, but that should change soon. The college football season is almost here. As such recruiting will pick up in addition to the normal ups and downs of the season. Next thing you know it'll be time for spring camp. Now, hold on to your phone, tablet or computer tight and enter The Chamber.
First up is Gabriel DeArmond. His dream has always been to sit in the halls of our country's great academic institutions. Luckily he chose a profession that offers him that opportunity frequently.
We put in our depth chart projection. It'll be off on a few things, but I think over all it'll be pretty close.
Guys who are going to play more than you think: Kobie Whiteside, Jordan Ulmer, Chris Turner.
I think Ulmer and Turner have a chance to be starters. Maybe not game one, but down the road.
Here are the freshmen I expect to play: Ulmer, Whiteside, Turner, Larry Rountree, Tyree Gillespie, Joshuah Bledsoe, Adam Sparks, Aubrey Miller, Jamal Brooks.
Juco newcomers Nate Anderson, Rashad Brandon, Walter Palmore and Yasir Durant will all see the field. I know everyone's immediate reaction to that is "Is that good or bad?" The truth is we don't know. It means the coaches think these guys are better than the other guys. Is that because these guys are really good and underrated or because the older guys are not very good? We'll see as the season progresses.
We made our season projections on the podcast. I went 7-5. I could see a game better and I could see a game worse. 9-3 wouldn't completely shock me and neither would 5-7. I'll be very surprised if they're below five or above nine. And if they're below five, I think it will be a legitimate question whether Odom gets year three. But I don't think we'll have to worry about that.
I'll be at the Curators meeting this morning about the South End Zone Project (might be right now depending on how lazy Brian is and when he posts this). It will get approved. They wouldn't take it to the board if it wouldn't. If it doesn't, I'll write a commentary saying Missouri should quit playing football and all the coaches and Jim Sterk should find jobs at schools that give a damn. But it won't happen. It will be approved. We're going to get to talk to Sterk after the meeting so I'll have some stuff on that this afternoon.
Not much more to tell you as of now. Would imagine there will be some visitors coming in for the South Carolina game and recruiting will start to pick up again. So we'll be on that. And next week's game week, so we'll probably talk a little football.
I'll close with a few reasons why Mizzou could be better than people think. And a few on why they could be worse.
Five Reasons Mizzou will be better than people think:
1. The running game. Damarea Crockett and Ish Witter had 1800 yards last year and Josh Heupel expects more this year. Larry Rountree looks like a great find. Thanks to an offensive line that returns intact (even though we expect two returning starters to be beaten out), the Tigers ought to be able to move the ball on the ground, which will open up the passing game. Leading to...
2. The quarterback. This is the year. Drew Lock shouldn't have been on the field two years ago. Last year, if you view it as his first as a starter, was pretty good. This is the year the leap has to occur. The 54% completion rate has to increase. The three and outs and bad mistakes have to decrease. This is the year we find out if Lock is what everyone thought he was coming out of high school.
3. The defense can't be worse. As Joe Walljasper said this morning, it almost has to be better. The worst case is that it simply isn't better. But it can't be worse. Missouri was awful last year in pretty much every regard at every position. And the off field stuff was a bigger problem than the on field stuff.
4. The schedule. Unless you traded Auburn for Ole Miss I don't know how this schedule gets a whole lot easier. Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina come here. Vandy and Kentucky aren't the most intimidating road venues. The non-con should be a layup for the most part. If you're not winning seven games with this schedule, I'm not sure when you are.
5. The coach. Year one was bad. Barry Odom would and has admitted it. He was in over his head, he tried to do too much and he compounded it with some tactical errors (I still blame the coaching and the approach in the last nine minutes for the UGA loss which torpedoed the season). He's more comfortable. He likes his team more. He's got a year under his belt. I'm not turning him into Nick Saban, but he's better than he was a year ago.
Five Reasons they won't be any better than most think:
1. The quarterback. As I said, this is the year we find out. If the answer is positive, Missouri improves. If it's not, you're staring at another losing season and Drew Lock isn't what we thought he was. I think he's going to be better. But nobody KNOWS that.
2. The kicking game. I have said, completely seriously, if Tucker McCann misses an extra point or a field goal under 35 yards in the first two weeks Josh Heupel should tell Barry Odom they aren't kicking again the rest of the year. They should just go Madden Style and never kick a field goal and always go for two. I think this was the biggest single factor last year. It changed every single thing Heupel did throughout the course of a game.
3. The pass rush. Is Marcel Frazier Batman or a pretty good Robin? He was good last year when he was on the field, but teams were also paying far more attention to Charles Harris. Now they're paying attention to Frazier. Can he--and whoever Missouri puts on the other side of him--put pressure on the quarterback?
4. The secondary. I don't think losing Christian Holmes is like losing Deion Sanders, but when the position was already a major question, it hurts. I've made my feelings on safety known. Maybe Jordan Ulmer is the next Ed Reed. Until he is, I don't have any idea what Missouri has at that position.
5. September 9th. We all know it's the biggest game of the season. It could change everything about Missouri depending on how it goes. So the problem is, what if you lose? If the Tigers lose to South Carolina and can't make up for it with an upset of Auburn, most Missouri fans are going to be counting down the days until Iowa State faces the Flying Porters on November 10th (many already are). It's dangerous to put so much weight in a week two game. But that's the facts. A win sets Missouri up nicely. A loss means they absolutely have to beat Auburn to have momentum headed into the final two months. By hook or by crook, Missouri has to be 3-1 coming out of September. If it isn't, I think six wins is the ceiling and we enter the offseason in limbo.
Next up is Brian Austin. A man so cool he's been tweeted at twice by people who have confused him with Brian Austin Green.
Despite how it seems, football recruiting is still happening. It's just been on the back burner for most Mizzou coaches since August 1. The graphics department is still hustling however. We've seen good luck graphics go out to a few players including Michael Thompson Jr., Daniel Parker Jr., Donte Burton, Cam Jones, Jerome Carvin, Kavosiey Smoke and Madison Norris that we've seen. There have undoubtedly been some players that have not shared their graphic on social media.
September 1 is the beginning of the evaluation period and also when coaches can start calling 2019 prospects. The evaluation period runs until the contact period starts the last week of November.
From what we've been able to gather Mizzou has become pretty focused on a smallish group of targets to finish out the 2017 class. For now at least. Senior evaluations will expand the group. How many targets the Tigers miss on will obviously determine how wide of a net the Tiger coaches cast.
Here are the remaining top targets for the 2018 class that we've been told Mizzou is in at worst good shape with. They're in order by position:
Kavosiey Smoke
Kamryn Babb
Cam Jones
Messiah Swinson
Tank Jenkins
Nick Lewis
Joshua Ezeudu
Michael Thompson Jr.
Trevor Trout
Alfred Thomas
Ronnie Perkins
Madison Norris
Najee Stevens-McKenzie
Trajan Jeffcoat
JaKorey Hawkins
Donte Burton
First up is Gabriel DeArmond. His dream has always been to sit in the halls of our country's great academic institutions. Luckily he chose a profession that offers him that opportunity frequently.
We put in our depth chart projection. It'll be off on a few things, but I think over all it'll be pretty close.
Guys who are going to play more than you think: Kobie Whiteside, Jordan Ulmer, Chris Turner.
I think Ulmer and Turner have a chance to be starters. Maybe not game one, but down the road.
Here are the freshmen I expect to play: Ulmer, Whiteside, Turner, Larry Rountree, Tyree Gillespie, Joshuah Bledsoe, Adam Sparks, Aubrey Miller, Jamal Brooks.
Juco newcomers Nate Anderson, Rashad Brandon, Walter Palmore and Yasir Durant will all see the field. I know everyone's immediate reaction to that is "Is that good or bad?" The truth is we don't know. It means the coaches think these guys are better than the other guys. Is that because these guys are really good and underrated or because the older guys are not very good? We'll see as the season progresses.
We made our season projections on the podcast. I went 7-5. I could see a game better and I could see a game worse. 9-3 wouldn't completely shock me and neither would 5-7. I'll be very surprised if they're below five or above nine. And if they're below five, I think it will be a legitimate question whether Odom gets year three. But I don't think we'll have to worry about that.
I'll be at the Curators meeting this morning about the South End Zone Project (might be right now depending on how lazy Brian is and when he posts this). It will get approved. They wouldn't take it to the board if it wouldn't. If it doesn't, I'll write a commentary saying Missouri should quit playing football and all the coaches and Jim Sterk should find jobs at schools that give a damn. But it won't happen. It will be approved. We're going to get to talk to Sterk after the meeting so I'll have some stuff on that this afternoon.
Not much more to tell you as of now. Would imagine there will be some visitors coming in for the South Carolina game and recruiting will start to pick up again. So we'll be on that. And next week's game week, so we'll probably talk a little football.
I'll close with a few reasons why Mizzou could be better than people think. And a few on why they could be worse.
Five Reasons Mizzou will be better than people think:
1. The running game. Damarea Crockett and Ish Witter had 1800 yards last year and Josh Heupel expects more this year. Larry Rountree looks like a great find. Thanks to an offensive line that returns intact (even though we expect two returning starters to be beaten out), the Tigers ought to be able to move the ball on the ground, which will open up the passing game. Leading to...
2. The quarterback. This is the year. Drew Lock shouldn't have been on the field two years ago. Last year, if you view it as his first as a starter, was pretty good. This is the year the leap has to occur. The 54% completion rate has to increase. The three and outs and bad mistakes have to decrease. This is the year we find out if Lock is what everyone thought he was coming out of high school.
3. The defense can't be worse. As Joe Walljasper said this morning, it almost has to be better. The worst case is that it simply isn't better. But it can't be worse. Missouri was awful last year in pretty much every regard at every position. And the off field stuff was a bigger problem than the on field stuff.
4. The schedule. Unless you traded Auburn for Ole Miss I don't know how this schedule gets a whole lot easier. Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina come here. Vandy and Kentucky aren't the most intimidating road venues. The non-con should be a layup for the most part. If you're not winning seven games with this schedule, I'm not sure when you are.
5. The coach. Year one was bad. Barry Odom would and has admitted it. He was in over his head, he tried to do too much and he compounded it with some tactical errors (I still blame the coaching and the approach in the last nine minutes for the UGA loss which torpedoed the season). He's more comfortable. He likes his team more. He's got a year under his belt. I'm not turning him into Nick Saban, but he's better than he was a year ago.
Five Reasons they won't be any better than most think:
1. The quarterback. As I said, this is the year we find out. If the answer is positive, Missouri improves. If it's not, you're staring at another losing season and Drew Lock isn't what we thought he was. I think he's going to be better. But nobody KNOWS that.
2. The kicking game. I have said, completely seriously, if Tucker McCann misses an extra point or a field goal under 35 yards in the first two weeks Josh Heupel should tell Barry Odom they aren't kicking again the rest of the year. They should just go Madden Style and never kick a field goal and always go for two. I think this was the biggest single factor last year. It changed every single thing Heupel did throughout the course of a game.
3. The pass rush. Is Marcel Frazier Batman or a pretty good Robin? He was good last year when he was on the field, but teams were also paying far more attention to Charles Harris. Now they're paying attention to Frazier. Can he--and whoever Missouri puts on the other side of him--put pressure on the quarterback?
4. The secondary. I don't think losing Christian Holmes is like losing Deion Sanders, but when the position was already a major question, it hurts. I've made my feelings on safety known. Maybe Jordan Ulmer is the next Ed Reed. Until he is, I don't have any idea what Missouri has at that position.
5. September 9th. We all know it's the biggest game of the season. It could change everything about Missouri depending on how it goes. So the problem is, what if you lose? If the Tigers lose to South Carolina and can't make up for it with an upset of Auburn, most Missouri fans are going to be counting down the days until Iowa State faces the Flying Porters on November 10th (many already are). It's dangerous to put so much weight in a week two game. But that's the facts. A win sets Missouri up nicely. A loss means they absolutely have to beat Auburn to have momentum headed into the final two months. By hook or by crook, Missouri has to be 3-1 coming out of September. If it isn't, I think six wins is the ceiling and we enter the offseason in limbo.
Next up is Brian Austin. A man so cool he's been tweeted at twice by people who have confused him with Brian Austin Green.
Despite how it seems, football recruiting is still happening. It's just been on the back burner for most Mizzou coaches since August 1. The graphics department is still hustling however. We've seen good luck graphics go out to a few players including Michael Thompson Jr., Daniel Parker Jr., Donte Burton, Cam Jones, Jerome Carvin, Kavosiey Smoke and Madison Norris that we've seen. There have undoubtedly been some players that have not shared their graphic on social media.
September 1 is the beginning of the evaluation period and also when coaches can start calling 2019 prospects. The evaluation period runs until the contact period starts the last week of November.
From what we've been able to gather Mizzou has become pretty focused on a smallish group of targets to finish out the 2017 class. For now at least. Senior evaluations will expand the group. How many targets the Tigers miss on will obviously determine how wide of a net the Tiger coaches cast.
Here are the remaining top targets for the 2018 class that we've been told Mizzou is in at worst good shape with. They're in order by position:
Kavosiey Smoke
Kamryn Babb
Cam Jones
Messiah Swinson
Tank Jenkins
Nick Lewis
Joshua Ezeudu
Michael Thompson Jr.
Trevor Trout
Alfred Thomas
Ronnie Perkins
Madison Norris
Najee Stevens-McKenzie
Trajan Jeffcoat
JaKorey Hawkins
Donte Burton
Last edited by a moderator:
