Well it's a sad day here at PowerMizzou.com. It's The Chamber's first post-Schiffer edition. That lanky lad from northern New Jersey was a real straight shooter and The Chamber is gonna miss him. He brought the inside scoop and the hot takes and all the other clichés. The Chamber is nothing if not professional though, so we'll pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get back at it.
The Chamber will start this week off with Brian Austin.
Could Mizzou football have a silent commit in the 2018 class? It sure sounds like it after talking to a current commit about his recent official visit. The current commit didn't want to give any additional info (specifically a name) other than that the silent commit visited officially for the Auburn game also. There were only three official visitors for that game and just one is not committed to a team currently. I'll leave it to you to connect those dots. Hard to say why the silent commit hasn't gone public yet. Maybe the prospect in question was set to tell Odom on his visit and told others he was going to, but in the end didn't. Those guys aren't together every minute of their visits. Maybe he's waiting on a special date. Regardless of the reason, it's not out there so we can't report it publicly. We will continue to track the situation closely and provide more details whenever possible.
In talking with the 2018 commits it sounds like only Tyrone Collins and Harry Ballard III are certain they'll enroll early and arrive at Mizzou in January. And Da'Ron Davis will get there in January too, but that's not early obviously. A few guys are considering it still. Tyrus Wheat, Kam Scott and Daniel Parker Jr. all said they are talking it over with their family and/or coaches. The rest either said no or didn't respond to our inquiries.
The decommitment of Le'Dedric Jackson leaves the Tigers looking for another linebacker, maybe. They could add another to take his spot. Jay Person was a player they had some interest in before landing Jackson. Cam Jones is versatile enough to play linebacker or wide receiver or maybe even grow into a defensive end. A new name is Gerald Nathan Jr. The North Carolina prospect picked up a Missouri offer on October 4. Mizzou could also look to add another safety too though. Wheat fits the mold of the hybrid linebacker/safety Odom's defense uses. If that's the case perhaps Dallas Craddieth could get that official offer. Derek Turner and Dorian Camel were other safety targets that Mizzou was high on before.
Over the bye week the Mizzou coaches hit the road a little bit. They saw Trinity Catholic (Isaiah Williams, Marcus Washington, Ira Henry, Teriyon Cooper, James Frenchie) play in Columbia. And Rock Bridge (Nathaniel Peat). Also heard they made it to see Michael Thompson. Other than that it sounds like commitments were the main focus.
Next up is The Grandfather, Gabriel DeArmond.
On the recruiting front, had someone tell me that Missouri is all but out of it for Kamryn Babb. The struggles--offensively and overall--just aren't going to land a kid with that many options. Not saying it's completely over, but it's going to take a heck of a turnaround I think.
The same really is true for a number of targets right now. You aren't really seeing commitments at this point because Missouri has to show SOMETHING. They don't have to win out or anything, but they absolutely have to show something. And coaches, parents and players all know the reality of the uncertainty with the coaching staff. It's a really, really difficult position in which to recruit. And the only way to fix it is to go show progress and win games. If Missouri can do that, they'll have a decent shot with some of the kids we've been talking about. If not, they won't.
On the Jackson decommitment, he still hasn't responded to us on why it went down. The on field product obviously plays into it. The most concerning part of the change is that he's teammates with James Foster. If his thinking is reflective of Foster's thinking, that's bad news for the Tigers. We don't have any indication that Foster is publicly looking around, but he'll listen to taking some visits. However, what plays in Missouri's favor here is that it's getting late in the recruiting process. Most schools aren't going to take more than one quarterback and a lot of schools already have theirs. At this point, Foster still doesn't have a committable offer from Auburn or Alabama. If that changes, yeah, it's a scary situation for Missouri. But it might not. The closer it gets to the signing period without that offer happening, the better off Missouri is. We're not going to tell you that Foster is definitely signing with Mizzou, but it's not like you should cross him off the list at this time either.
In hoops, it's kind of wait and see. The only 2018 guys I think they'd really take at this point in time would be Courtney Ramey and Carte'Are Gordon. Nothing has changed with Gordon. So far as we know he's committed to SLU. There are still people in STL that feel Gordon ends up at Mizzou however. The early signing period opens a month from Sunday. It will be interesting to see what Gordon does at that point in time.
On Ramey, as reported by Rivals and others, Cuonzo Martin and the entire Missouri staff were in to see his family this week. Our latest information is still that Ramey isn't going to come to Missouri, but it's got to be a positive sign that Martin and staff felt it was worth the time to make that visit and that the family didn't tell them not to waste their time. Again, if anything changes, we'll pass that on.
Obviously Alex Schiffer is no longer on staff here, but as I mentioned earlier this week we've hired Keegan Pope to help us out with hoops and hoops recruiting coverage and Brian and I will be pitching in to pick up the slack as well.
As far as team news goes, I'd look for young guys like Tyree Gillespie, Jordan Ulmer, Larry Rountree and Adam Sparks to get more run. How much more? I'm not sure on that. But they're going to play more. Not sure it will be a full on youth movement, but they're gonna take a much longer look at some of the young guys on this team.
But really, here's where we're at with this team: They've got to go play well and win some games. Nothing between Sunday and Friday matters. The changes don't matter, the words don't matter, nothing. They have to put something on the field that is better than what we've seen. If they don't, well, things are gonna get real interesting around here for the next few months.
One final note, and I hesitate to post it, but it's a topic of conversation around here a lot and has been hot again lately: I finally have talked to some people who have 100% verified what Gary Pinkel wrote in his book, which was that he informed the athletic director of his retirement prior to any word of the boycott or protests. He was absolutely leaving regardless. I've been skeptical of that in the past, but I was wrong. It was Gary's choice to step aside when he did. Based on where I heard it and the fact that these people have zero reason to lie about it two full years later, I say that with complete confidence. I don't post this to turn this into another thread about the boycott. And I know there will be some who refuse to believe it anyway. But I post it in hopes that maybe we can bury this as a daily topic of conversation and move on. Did the boycott impact the football program? Absolutely. You can't argue otherwise. Is it the reason Missouri is 1-3 and has been blown out by South Carolina, Auburn and Purdue. No effing way.
The Chamber will start this week off with Brian Austin.
Could Mizzou football have a silent commit in the 2018 class? It sure sounds like it after talking to a current commit about his recent official visit. The current commit didn't want to give any additional info (specifically a name) other than that the silent commit visited officially for the Auburn game also. There were only three official visitors for that game and just one is not committed to a team currently. I'll leave it to you to connect those dots. Hard to say why the silent commit hasn't gone public yet. Maybe the prospect in question was set to tell Odom on his visit and told others he was going to, but in the end didn't. Those guys aren't together every minute of their visits. Maybe he's waiting on a special date. Regardless of the reason, it's not out there so we can't report it publicly. We will continue to track the situation closely and provide more details whenever possible.
In talking with the 2018 commits it sounds like only Tyrone Collins and Harry Ballard III are certain they'll enroll early and arrive at Mizzou in January. And Da'Ron Davis will get there in January too, but that's not early obviously. A few guys are considering it still. Tyrus Wheat, Kam Scott and Daniel Parker Jr. all said they are talking it over with their family and/or coaches. The rest either said no or didn't respond to our inquiries.
The decommitment of Le'Dedric Jackson leaves the Tigers looking for another linebacker, maybe. They could add another to take his spot. Jay Person was a player they had some interest in before landing Jackson. Cam Jones is versatile enough to play linebacker or wide receiver or maybe even grow into a defensive end. A new name is Gerald Nathan Jr. The North Carolina prospect picked up a Missouri offer on October 4. Mizzou could also look to add another safety too though. Wheat fits the mold of the hybrid linebacker/safety Odom's defense uses. If that's the case perhaps Dallas Craddieth could get that official offer. Derek Turner and Dorian Camel were other safety targets that Mizzou was high on before.
Over the bye week the Mizzou coaches hit the road a little bit. They saw Trinity Catholic (Isaiah Williams, Marcus Washington, Ira Henry, Teriyon Cooper, James Frenchie) play in Columbia. And Rock Bridge (Nathaniel Peat). Also heard they made it to see Michael Thompson. Other than that it sounds like commitments were the main focus.
Next up is The Grandfather, Gabriel DeArmond.
On the recruiting front, had someone tell me that Missouri is all but out of it for Kamryn Babb. The struggles--offensively and overall--just aren't going to land a kid with that many options. Not saying it's completely over, but it's going to take a heck of a turnaround I think.
The same really is true for a number of targets right now. You aren't really seeing commitments at this point because Missouri has to show SOMETHING. They don't have to win out or anything, but they absolutely have to show something. And coaches, parents and players all know the reality of the uncertainty with the coaching staff. It's a really, really difficult position in which to recruit. And the only way to fix it is to go show progress and win games. If Missouri can do that, they'll have a decent shot with some of the kids we've been talking about. If not, they won't.
On the Jackson decommitment, he still hasn't responded to us on why it went down. The on field product obviously plays into it. The most concerning part of the change is that he's teammates with James Foster. If his thinking is reflective of Foster's thinking, that's bad news for the Tigers. We don't have any indication that Foster is publicly looking around, but he'll listen to taking some visits. However, what plays in Missouri's favor here is that it's getting late in the recruiting process. Most schools aren't going to take more than one quarterback and a lot of schools already have theirs. At this point, Foster still doesn't have a committable offer from Auburn or Alabama. If that changes, yeah, it's a scary situation for Missouri. But it might not. The closer it gets to the signing period without that offer happening, the better off Missouri is. We're not going to tell you that Foster is definitely signing with Mizzou, but it's not like you should cross him off the list at this time either.
In hoops, it's kind of wait and see. The only 2018 guys I think they'd really take at this point in time would be Courtney Ramey and Carte'Are Gordon. Nothing has changed with Gordon. So far as we know he's committed to SLU. There are still people in STL that feel Gordon ends up at Mizzou however. The early signing period opens a month from Sunday. It will be interesting to see what Gordon does at that point in time.
On Ramey, as reported by Rivals and others, Cuonzo Martin and the entire Missouri staff were in to see his family this week. Our latest information is still that Ramey isn't going to come to Missouri, but it's got to be a positive sign that Martin and staff felt it was worth the time to make that visit and that the family didn't tell them not to waste their time. Again, if anything changes, we'll pass that on.
Obviously Alex Schiffer is no longer on staff here, but as I mentioned earlier this week we've hired Keegan Pope to help us out with hoops and hoops recruiting coverage and Brian and I will be pitching in to pick up the slack as well.
As far as team news goes, I'd look for young guys like Tyree Gillespie, Jordan Ulmer, Larry Rountree and Adam Sparks to get more run. How much more? I'm not sure on that. But they're going to play more. Not sure it will be a full on youth movement, but they're gonna take a much longer look at some of the young guys on this team.
But really, here's where we're at with this team: They've got to go play well and win some games. Nothing between Sunday and Friday matters. The changes don't matter, the words don't matter, nothing. They have to put something on the field that is better than what we've seen. If they don't, well, things are gonna get real interesting around here for the next few months.
One final note, and I hesitate to post it, but it's a topic of conversation around here a lot and has been hot again lately: I finally have talked to some people who have 100% verified what Gary Pinkel wrote in his book, which was that he informed the athletic director of his retirement prior to any word of the boycott or protests. He was absolutely leaving regardless. I've been skeptical of that in the past, but I was wrong. It was Gary's choice to step aside when he did. Based on where I heard it and the fact that these people have zero reason to lie about it two full years later, I say that with complete confidence. I don't post this to turn this into another thread about the boycott. And I know there will be some who refuse to believe it anyway. But I post it in hopes that maybe we can bury this as a daily topic of conversation and move on. Did the boycott impact the football program? Absolutely. You can't argue otherwise. Is it the reason Missouri is 1-3 and has been blown out by South Carolina, Auburn and Purdue. No effing way.
