Last Chamber of 2016, so we'll try to end on a worthwhile note. We'll start out with a few football recruiting notes. It's still a pretty quiet time, but here's what we've got:
*Zion Debose yesterday tweeted out that he needed someone to make him a commitment video. I retweeted it and he then deleted it and said "I need someone to make me a commitment video of my top schools." So IDK if he plans to announce something soon or if he really did just make an honest mistake the first time.
Debose told me earlier this week he will probably cancel visits to Rutgers and Western Michigan in favor of Illinois and Virginia Tech. He'll also trip to Pitt. A decision will come after the visits. Virginia Tech is thought to be the biggest threat for Missouri here.
*Jaylen Twyman is visiting South Carolina on January 14th, the week before he visits Missouri. No feel for this one. I still think Pitt is the biggest competitor here for right now, but that's more of a guess than anything.
*Caleb Sampson will visit Kansas State, I believe on January 27th. If he waits that long, there's a chance his spot is filled at Mizzou.
*Jordan Ulmer is going to visit Arizona, Michigan State and Iowa this month. Not sure where he stands as far as offers from any of those schools. Missouri is in very good shape here, but if the Spartans offer, it is going to be very difficult to get him to leave the state. The Tigers also have Tyree Gillespie visiting on January 20th as far as safety prospects go, who I know they like quite a bit.
*The focus of this class is defensive tackle. I'd say they want at least two and probably three. Beyond that, there are up to five spots left in the class, but I don't think there's a spot they HAVE to have anyone. There could be another OL, a QB, maybe a WR (but I think that's less likely with Jeff Thomas officially now out of the picture), a CB, a DE, a safety. But they don't HAVE to have anyone at any of those spots. It's more of a best available player to fill those five spots outside of defensive tackle.
*We have confirmed nine official visitors in January. There will be more. I'm thinking that number could double by the end of the month. We'll do our best in the next 2-3 weeks to track down more of them.
We're going to really dig into not only January but 2018 when Sean Williams, Brian Austin and Paul Maharry start working with us on Sunday. We'll have tons of recruiting stuff going forward.
*Now we'll deal a little more with basketball because that's what everyone wants to know about. I was most likely asked 60 times last night "Is he going to get fired before the end of the season?" It's a perfectly legitimate question.
The first answer is obviously, I don't know. Before yesterday, I would have said almost certainly not. But yesterday--not only the loss, but the transfer(s) (will have more on that in a bit)--made me think maybe.
I have done some checking. Nobody really has a feel right now for if it will happen. A big part of that is that nobody knows Jim Sterk. We don't know how he operates. We haven't talked to him much. We don't see him at games. I'm not saying he's not there (it was posted on the board that he was, but I'm just saying we don't generally see him). I don't mean any of this to be an insult or whining. It's simple fact. I don't know him very well and I don't know anyone who does at this point. The people that have met him more than I have seem to like him and think he will do well.
I have requested to a comment from Sterk on Anderson's situation and if he will finish the season. I believe he owes you guys that. He needs to make a statement to relieve the rumors or to end this. One way or another he has to say something because the simple fact is every day that he doesn't is simply going to be filled with "Is he going to get fired today?"
The other fact to realize is that campus isn't even open right now and nobody is here. You can't just decide to fire someone and have it done that day. There are steps to be taken. So it's not happening today and it's not happening Monday. Could it happen during the season? I think it could. I have no idea if it will. Neither does anybody else right now.
*So, on the transfers, I don't really know why Willie Jackson is leaving. Yes, I know that they said there's a family illness. And I suppose it's possible that is true. But it seems to me they would have had some idea about that prior to two days ago if that was the case. I don't know. I will say if that is the case, I hope things work out for the best and wish good health to Willie and his family. But I haven't at this point heard any reason that he is leaving other than that.
With Frankie Hughes, he didn't come back to Columbia until some time on Wednesday (Kim indicated that Jackson and his mom "came to me a couple days ago" so I don't know if that was on the phone or Willie was back on campus). Anderson after the game termed it a "travel issue." I suppose that is true in that the issue is he chose not to get on a plane to come back to Columbia from break until four days after everyone else. He was leaving, there's no question about that according to what I've been told. I don't know exactly why and I don't know if it can be changed. Maybe if you do certain things, you can keep him. Maybe he'll wait till the end of the year and reevaluate. Or maybe he's on a flight back to Cleveland right now. I'm not sure. But it isn't gonna surprise anyone if he leaves. And the same goes for KJ Walton at some point down the road.
The truth is, it's smarter for all of them to wait. Everyone knows at by the end of the year at the latest, there's going to be a coaching change. Everyone knows that. So if you play out the string for a couple months, if your coach gets fired, you get released and they can't restrict where you can transfer. If you do it before then, they can not only put restrictions on it, but you also run the risk of ending up having to sit out a year and a half if you don't hurry up and make the move. But I don't know how any of that will go.
The bottom line is, it's complete chaos and a rudderless ship right now. We wait to see what will happen. If I get a statement or an interview with Sterk, I will pass that on immediately. If news develops on this front, you guys will be the first to know. Until then, we simply wait. We know the destination, but we don't know how long it will take.
*Zion Debose yesterday tweeted out that he needed someone to make him a commitment video. I retweeted it and he then deleted it and said "I need someone to make me a commitment video of my top schools." So IDK if he plans to announce something soon or if he really did just make an honest mistake the first time.
Debose told me earlier this week he will probably cancel visits to Rutgers and Western Michigan in favor of Illinois and Virginia Tech. He'll also trip to Pitt. A decision will come after the visits. Virginia Tech is thought to be the biggest threat for Missouri here.
*Jaylen Twyman is visiting South Carolina on January 14th, the week before he visits Missouri. No feel for this one. I still think Pitt is the biggest competitor here for right now, but that's more of a guess than anything.
*Caleb Sampson will visit Kansas State, I believe on January 27th. If he waits that long, there's a chance his spot is filled at Mizzou.
*Jordan Ulmer is going to visit Arizona, Michigan State and Iowa this month. Not sure where he stands as far as offers from any of those schools. Missouri is in very good shape here, but if the Spartans offer, it is going to be very difficult to get him to leave the state. The Tigers also have Tyree Gillespie visiting on January 20th as far as safety prospects go, who I know they like quite a bit.
*The focus of this class is defensive tackle. I'd say they want at least two and probably three. Beyond that, there are up to five spots left in the class, but I don't think there's a spot they HAVE to have anyone. There could be another OL, a QB, maybe a WR (but I think that's less likely with Jeff Thomas officially now out of the picture), a CB, a DE, a safety. But they don't HAVE to have anyone at any of those spots. It's more of a best available player to fill those five spots outside of defensive tackle.
*We have confirmed nine official visitors in January. There will be more. I'm thinking that number could double by the end of the month. We'll do our best in the next 2-3 weeks to track down more of them.
We're going to really dig into not only January but 2018 when Sean Williams, Brian Austin and Paul Maharry start working with us on Sunday. We'll have tons of recruiting stuff going forward.
*Now we'll deal a little more with basketball because that's what everyone wants to know about. I was most likely asked 60 times last night "Is he going to get fired before the end of the season?" It's a perfectly legitimate question.
The first answer is obviously, I don't know. Before yesterday, I would have said almost certainly not. But yesterday--not only the loss, but the transfer(s) (will have more on that in a bit)--made me think maybe.
I have done some checking. Nobody really has a feel right now for if it will happen. A big part of that is that nobody knows Jim Sterk. We don't know how he operates. We haven't talked to him much. We don't see him at games. I'm not saying he's not there (it was posted on the board that he was, but I'm just saying we don't generally see him). I don't mean any of this to be an insult or whining. It's simple fact. I don't know him very well and I don't know anyone who does at this point. The people that have met him more than I have seem to like him and think he will do well.
I have requested to a comment from Sterk on Anderson's situation and if he will finish the season. I believe he owes you guys that. He needs to make a statement to relieve the rumors or to end this. One way or another he has to say something because the simple fact is every day that he doesn't is simply going to be filled with "Is he going to get fired today?"
The other fact to realize is that campus isn't even open right now and nobody is here. You can't just decide to fire someone and have it done that day. There are steps to be taken. So it's not happening today and it's not happening Monday. Could it happen during the season? I think it could. I have no idea if it will. Neither does anybody else right now.
*So, on the transfers, I don't really know why Willie Jackson is leaving. Yes, I know that they said there's a family illness. And I suppose it's possible that is true. But it seems to me they would have had some idea about that prior to two days ago if that was the case. I don't know. I will say if that is the case, I hope things work out for the best and wish good health to Willie and his family. But I haven't at this point heard any reason that he is leaving other than that.
With Frankie Hughes, he didn't come back to Columbia until some time on Wednesday (Kim indicated that Jackson and his mom "came to me a couple days ago" so I don't know if that was on the phone or Willie was back on campus). Anderson after the game termed it a "travel issue." I suppose that is true in that the issue is he chose not to get on a plane to come back to Columbia from break until four days after everyone else. He was leaving, there's no question about that according to what I've been told. I don't know exactly why and I don't know if it can be changed. Maybe if you do certain things, you can keep him. Maybe he'll wait till the end of the year and reevaluate. Or maybe he's on a flight back to Cleveland right now. I'm not sure. But it isn't gonna surprise anyone if he leaves. And the same goes for KJ Walton at some point down the road.
The truth is, it's smarter for all of them to wait. Everyone knows at by the end of the year at the latest, there's going to be a coaching change. Everyone knows that. So if you play out the string for a couple months, if your coach gets fired, you get released and they can't restrict where you can transfer. If you do it before then, they can not only put restrictions on it, but you also run the risk of ending up having to sit out a year and a half if you don't hurry up and make the move. But I don't know how any of that will go.
The bottom line is, it's complete chaos and a rudderless ship right now. We wait to see what will happen. If I get a statement or an interview with Sterk, I will pass that on immediately. If news develops on this front, you guys will be the first to know. Until then, we simply wait. We know the destination, but we don't know how long it will take.
