The Chamber is back today with its final edition before preseason football starts -- seems strange, doesn't it? Today, we're taking a look at football and hoops recruiting, with a smattering of team news, too.
-- Let's first start with the mumps. We began hearing that there was a small outbreak on the team last Saturday, but couldn't get any confirmation at the time. Now, obviously, the mumps outbreak involving Missouri students has been reported, and we've had more sources (and a subscriber, obviously) confirm that it involves football players. Mumps usually runs its course in a few days, but the danger is that it is highly contagious, so that's something to watch going forward. Either way, there's enough chatter on the message board, and we've had enough independent sources confirm it, to not mention it here.
Like we posted yesterday, though, a team's spokesperson said they couldn't comment on it because it's a health matter.
-- On to some football recruiting news ...
If it seems like it's been a bit slow on the recruiting front this July, it's not just you. Coaches have been in and out of Columbia, and after Missouri hit 12 commitments in the class, the brakes were pumped a bit for those final 8-9 spots. In the next few days, however, things will begin to pick back.
First up, Missouri welcomes Normal (Ill.) offensive lineman Garrett Hirsch. Hirsch -- 6-3, 285-pounds -- has offers from Illinois State and Western Illinois, but he camped with Missouri in June and impressed the staff. He does not have an offer yet from Missouri, but he is very much on the radar.
One of the issues with a possible offer is that Missouri has two guards/centers committed (Mackenzie Nworah and Trystan Castillo).
"I don't think they're sure if they want to take another one," Hirsch said. "But if they ever did offer, I would jump at that opportunity immediately."
Missouri is strictly recruiting Hirsch as a center, so perhaps that's something to watch. He'll visit on Sunday, and we'll have more from him after the trip.
-- Hirsch won't be the only visitor next week. Also making the trip is Greenwood (Ind.) Center grove three-star defensive tackle Jovan Swann. The news was reported by Josh Helmholdt earlier this week. We don't have much to add about Swann at this point, but we'll have a full article after his trip.
-- Wanted to expand on a couple of tidbits we posted earlier in the week.
2017 quarterback Davis Mills, currently the No. 52 prospect in the country for that class, plans to visit Mizzou and Arkansas as we posted earlier in the week. Mills already has 18 offers and that list is likely to grow. Thus the immediate reaction from many Missouri fans might be, "Well, good to get him on campus for a visit, but no reason to be optimistic."
But that might not be the case.
Sources have told us that Mills and his family are very high on Missouri. A source from Mills' side of the recruitment said that the QB has heard good things about Mizzou's facilities and that "it looks like a great situation." Mills is planning a visit to Mizzou some time before the start of the season.
One school to watch here is South Carolina. His older sister plays soccer there. Mills doesn't currently have a Gamecock offer. If he gets one, that could potentially be a game-changer. But as of now, Missouri is in a very good position for one of the elite QBs in 2017.
*Speaking of potential elite recruits, how about 2018 offensive lineman Will Lawrence. Just about to start his sophomore season, Lawrence already claims more than 30 Division One offers.
As we posted earlier in the week, Lawrence has some ties to Missouri. His maternal grandparents and one of his uncles went to school at Mizzou. His family is very familiar with Barry Odom from Odom's days as the Memphis defensive coordinator and Lawrence spoke highly of his lead recruiter. Lawrence also said his high school QB "went to Mizzou for a camp and loved it." (That quarterback is fellow 2018 product Zac Montgomery, who already claims an offer from Florida Atlantic and lists SEC interest from Ole Miss and Tennessee).
Lawrence said he is going to come to a game in Columbia this fall. Perhaps the most notable thing about this: Lawrence reached out to us. Things like that are sometimes telling. This kid is going out of his way to find our staff on Twitter and update them and message them about his recruiting, etc. Generally, kids don't probably do that with schools they don't have real legitimate interest in. Obviously there's a long way before we know much about Lawrence trimming that crazy long offer list, but it should at least be seen as a good sign for the Tigers at this point.
-- With some offensive targets (Jordan Wilson, Jarrion Street, D'Vaughn Pennamon) off the board it doesn't sound like many new offers will go out yet. There are still enough targets available at this point that Mizzou feels they have a good shot with. One prospect that we've been hearing could get an offer for a while is Jeremy Lewis. He is committed to Arkansas State currently, but you'd have to think a Mizzou offer would change some things.
-- At defensive tackle a name to watch is Buford (Ga.) DT Ben Frazier. He holds a bunch of big offers already, but it sounds like Mizzou could throw their hat in the mix fairly soon. At one point last year there was an erroneous report that Frazier had committed to Mizzou.
-- Mizzou coaches are back from some time away on Sunday and official visits will start getting scheduled anytime after that.
*On the hoops side, we'd love to tell you there is more to report. The facts simply are these: Basketball recruits are virtually impossible to talk to most of the year. In July, they're completely impossible to talk to unless you're there in person. We've updated you guys throughout on some of the players the coaches have been watching and will continue to do so during the July evaluation periods.
Mizzou's staff is spending some time in Las Vegas this week at the adidas Uprising Summer Championships.
Three prime targets whom the Tiger coaches watched closely were Gorjak Gak, De'Riante Jenkins and Romello White, all of whom we've posted about on here as prime Mizzou targets in the last couple of weeks. Gak is a kid whose stock is really rising. He had 20 and 6 against a UCLA commit earlier this week. White is a former Tennessee commit who is looking around after Donnie Tyndall was let go. Missouri is just really starting to get involved with him, so it's tough to gauge interest level there. I've got messages in to all three of these kids and if I hear anything back, certainly will pass it on, but right now, we're identifying the targets for you guys and hoping to get more info. I think those three, along with Tyler Cook, would probably form the A list of 2016 recruits for the Tigers right now based on the intel I can gather.
Mizzou has also checked out some of the young kids this week, and will be watching 2018 offer Jordan McCabe as well as some other 2017/2018 prospects. We'll update you as we can verify what's going on.
As of today Missouri has two scholarships available. We've told you all along they've been recruiting as if they had at least two and probably more like three scholarships. And that's what we continue to expect in terms of numbers. But as far as specific players, other than what we already know, we can't really pass a whole lot on at this point in time.
Through the grapevine...
-- After talking to a few people, we believe it will be either Mizzou or Iowa for 2016 St. Louis 4-star power forward Tyler Cook.
-- Let's first start with the mumps. We began hearing that there was a small outbreak on the team last Saturday, but couldn't get any confirmation at the time. Now, obviously, the mumps outbreak involving Missouri students has been reported, and we've had more sources (and a subscriber, obviously) confirm that it involves football players. Mumps usually runs its course in a few days, but the danger is that it is highly contagious, so that's something to watch going forward. Either way, there's enough chatter on the message board, and we've had enough independent sources confirm it, to not mention it here.
Like we posted yesterday, though, a team's spokesperson said they couldn't comment on it because it's a health matter.
-- On to some football recruiting news ...
If it seems like it's been a bit slow on the recruiting front this July, it's not just you. Coaches have been in and out of Columbia, and after Missouri hit 12 commitments in the class, the brakes were pumped a bit for those final 8-9 spots. In the next few days, however, things will begin to pick back.
First up, Missouri welcomes Normal (Ill.) offensive lineman Garrett Hirsch. Hirsch -- 6-3, 285-pounds -- has offers from Illinois State and Western Illinois, but he camped with Missouri in June and impressed the staff. He does not have an offer yet from Missouri, but he is very much on the radar.
One of the issues with a possible offer is that Missouri has two guards/centers committed (Mackenzie Nworah and Trystan Castillo).
"I don't think they're sure if they want to take another one," Hirsch said. "But if they ever did offer, I would jump at that opportunity immediately."
Missouri is strictly recruiting Hirsch as a center, so perhaps that's something to watch. He'll visit on Sunday, and we'll have more from him after the trip.
-- Hirsch won't be the only visitor next week. Also making the trip is Greenwood (Ind.) Center grove three-star defensive tackle Jovan Swann. The news was reported by Josh Helmholdt earlier this week. We don't have much to add about Swann at this point, but we'll have a full article after his trip.
-- Wanted to expand on a couple of tidbits we posted earlier in the week.
2017 quarterback Davis Mills, currently the No. 52 prospect in the country for that class, plans to visit Mizzou and Arkansas as we posted earlier in the week. Mills already has 18 offers and that list is likely to grow. Thus the immediate reaction from many Missouri fans might be, "Well, good to get him on campus for a visit, but no reason to be optimistic."
But that might not be the case.
Sources have told us that Mills and his family are very high on Missouri. A source from Mills' side of the recruitment said that the QB has heard good things about Mizzou's facilities and that "it looks like a great situation." Mills is planning a visit to Mizzou some time before the start of the season.
One school to watch here is South Carolina. His older sister plays soccer there. Mills doesn't currently have a Gamecock offer. If he gets one, that could potentially be a game-changer. But as of now, Missouri is in a very good position for one of the elite QBs in 2017.
*Speaking of potential elite recruits, how about 2018 offensive lineman Will Lawrence. Just about to start his sophomore season, Lawrence already claims more than 30 Division One offers.
As we posted earlier in the week, Lawrence has some ties to Missouri. His maternal grandparents and one of his uncles went to school at Mizzou. His family is very familiar with Barry Odom from Odom's days as the Memphis defensive coordinator and Lawrence spoke highly of his lead recruiter. Lawrence also said his high school QB "went to Mizzou for a camp and loved it." (That quarterback is fellow 2018 product Zac Montgomery, who already claims an offer from Florida Atlantic and lists SEC interest from Ole Miss and Tennessee).
Lawrence said he is going to come to a game in Columbia this fall. Perhaps the most notable thing about this: Lawrence reached out to us. Things like that are sometimes telling. This kid is going out of his way to find our staff on Twitter and update them and message them about his recruiting, etc. Generally, kids don't probably do that with schools they don't have real legitimate interest in. Obviously there's a long way before we know much about Lawrence trimming that crazy long offer list, but it should at least be seen as a good sign for the Tigers at this point.
-- With some offensive targets (Jordan Wilson, Jarrion Street, D'Vaughn Pennamon) off the board it doesn't sound like many new offers will go out yet. There are still enough targets available at this point that Mizzou feels they have a good shot with. One prospect that we've been hearing could get an offer for a while is Jeremy Lewis. He is committed to Arkansas State currently, but you'd have to think a Mizzou offer would change some things.
-- At defensive tackle a name to watch is Buford (Ga.) DT Ben Frazier. He holds a bunch of big offers already, but it sounds like Mizzou could throw their hat in the mix fairly soon. At one point last year there was an erroneous report that Frazier had committed to Mizzou.
-- Mizzou coaches are back from some time away on Sunday and official visits will start getting scheduled anytime after that.
*On the hoops side, we'd love to tell you there is more to report. The facts simply are these: Basketball recruits are virtually impossible to talk to most of the year. In July, they're completely impossible to talk to unless you're there in person. We've updated you guys throughout on some of the players the coaches have been watching and will continue to do so during the July evaluation periods.
Mizzou's staff is spending some time in Las Vegas this week at the adidas Uprising Summer Championships.
Three prime targets whom the Tiger coaches watched closely were Gorjak Gak, De'Riante Jenkins and Romello White, all of whom we've posted about on here as prime Mizzou targets in the last couple of weeks. Gak is a kid whose stock is really rising. He had 20 and 6 against a UCLA commit earlier this week. White is a former Tennessee commit who is looking around after Donnie Tyndall was let go. Missouri is just really starting to get involved with him, so it's tough to gauge interest level there. I've got messages in to all three of these kids and if I hear anything back, certainly will pass it on, but right now, we're identifying the targets for you guys and hoping to get more info. I think those three, along with Tyler Cook, would probably form the A list of 2016 recruits for the Tigers right now based on the intel I can gather.
Mizzou has also checked out some of the young kids this week, and will be watching 2018 offer Jordan McCabe as well as some other 2017/2018 prospects. We'll update you as we can verify what's going on.
As of today Missouri has two scholarships available. We've told you all along they've been recruiting as if they had at least two and probably more like three scholarships. And that's what we continue to expect in terms of numbers. But as far as specific players, other than what we already know, we can't really pass a whole lot on at this point in time.
Through the grapevine...
-- After talking to a few people, we believe it will be either Mizzou or Iowa for 2016 St. Louis 4-star power forward Tyler Cook.
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