We're in the final week of our countdown. The No. 1 player of the last 25 years will be revealed on Wednesday, the day before Mizzou opens the season against Murray State.

Number 6: Chase Coffman, tight end, 2005-08


Coffman was one of Gary Pinkel's major recruiting coups as he got things rolling in Columbia. The Ray-Pec three-star chose Mizzou over Iowa, Nebraska and his dad's alma mater, Kansas State. He made an impact immediately.

In 2005, as Missouri returned to a bowl game, Coffman caught 47 passes for 503 yards and 4 touchdowns. It would be the worst season of his career.

Coffman followed it up with 58 catches for 638 yards and 9 touchdowns as a sophomore and then 52 for 531 and 7 despite missing a game in Mizzou's breakout 2007 season. All of this while splitting time with Martin Rucker.

Rucker was gone in 2008 and Coffman took center stage. He posted career highs in catches (90), yards (987) and touchdowns (10) and won the Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end. He was also a consensus all-American that season. His name still litters the Mizzou record books. His 247 catches are 44 more than any other Tiger for a career. His 2659 yards are third overall and far and away the most by a tight end. His 30 touchdown receptions are the school record by seven.

Coffman's best trait was his hands. If the ball was close, he almost always pulled it in. His signature move was the hurdle, which he unveiled early in his career and used often. He was drafted in the third round (98th overall) by the Cincinnati Bengals. Over the next seven years, he would have stints in Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Seattle, Tennessee and Atlanta. His final NFL resume was 39 games played, 18 catches, 177 yards and 2 touchdowns. Basically what he did on a good Saturday in Columbia. Had he come along five or ten years later he could have been an NFL star. Instead, he was simply one of the best to ever do it in college.

Up Next: No. 5

Previously

7 Danario Alexander
8 Markus Golden
9 Shane Ray
10 Justin Gage
11 Martin Rucker
12 Henry Josey
13 Aldon Smith
14 Nick Bolton
15 William Moore
16 Cody Schrader
17 Justin Britt
18 James Franklin
19 Jeff Wolfert
20 Michael Sam
21 Ziggy Hood
22 Drew Lock
23 Tyler Badie
24 Mitch Morse
25 Michael Egnew
Five that just missed the cut

SMC1 Row 8 Seats 5-8
Lot M parking pass

350

Anyone else still unable to transfer tickets in the app? I’ve been communicating with my ticket rep for over a week and keep getting ‘it should be fixed in a couple of days…’

How every 2024 NFL draft pick performed in the preseason

Good stuff about draft picks (not UFAs) Darius (Arizona), Kris (Denver), Jaylon (Indy), Javon (Jacksonville), Ennis (Detroit), Ty'Ron (Green Bay),

The article also has good things to say about Mekhi Wingo (Detroit) for those that may be interested.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a schedule!

Login to view embedded media
I love it when the “TBA” slots get filled in. It felt like it took forever for it to finally come out but in reality, last year’s non-conference slate didn’t come out till Aug. 25 and the SEC slate didn’t come out until Sept. 7, so they’re actually a little early this year. In fact, according to The D1 Docket on Twitter (by far my favorite account when it comes men’s basketball schedules), Mizzou is the 121st team in the country to drop their 2024-25 schedule, meaning there are still two-thirds of the NCAA who have still yet to do so with school about to start — seriously, what have they been doing all summer?

To be fair to all schedule-makers out there, these things are ridiculously difficult to assemble. Staffs start trying to put it together as soon as their season’s over, or earlier in some cases, and most of them still don’t get finished until the start of the next season is two months out. As one coach told me back when I covered Texas State, “Nobody wants to play.” Everyone is trying to get over on each other because everyone wants to win. Coaches put a lot of research into every potential opponent they might add. They have to think about both the short- and long-term ramifications of any kind of series — “We’re better than this team now, but what about the return trip when our star players graduate?” A truckload of money’s involved, which never makes things less complicated.

But that much effort goes into scheduling because it’s that important in building up a program. Dennis Gates has it 1A-1B with recruiting and he is far from the only head coach to think that way.

We now have the third iteration of Missouri’s schedule since he took over and, in many ways, it looks similar to the one from Gates’ first year. There are 20 home games this season. TWENTY. I went on KenPom to check to see who had the easiest non-conference strength of schedule last season. Minnesota took the title. Do you know how many home games the Golden Gophers played last year? TWENTY. It is a notable feat that Memphis is the lone true road game before SEC play starts. That’s what long-term planning gets you and it's a reason I think the second game of Mizzou’s home-and-home with Minnesota got pushed down the line — they’ll play it down the line in a year that the Tigers needs more opponents at home.

A hat tip to @MIZDSP for grabbing Bart Torvik’s preseason ratings of all of the team’s non-conference opponents so that I didn’t have to:

Memphis - 25
Howard - 224
Eastern Washington - 311
Mississippi Valley State - 363
Pacific - 321
Arkansas-Pine Bluff - 360
Lindenwood - 322
Cal - 108
Kansas - 4
LIU - 349
Jacksonville State - 192
Illinois - 20
Alabama State - 271

I understand if fans are a little upset that there aren’t more big games on the slate. But there are two points I want to make here.

1) Coaches do not care what fans think about the schedule. Their job is to win games and they’re going to do what it takes to put themselves in the best position to do that. Now, folks in the athletic department who have to sell tickets might care and might nudge the staff in that direction. But unless the program’s tight on cash, the coaches are usually given the freedom to schedule how they see fit.

2) After last season’s record, can you really blame Mizzou for wanting to take it a little easier this year? If the Tigers merely beat all the blood donors and just one of the high majors, they’ll already have a better record than they did a year ago. (And yes, I’m counting Memphis as a high major because, while the team doesn’t play in a high-major conference, it’s got high-major money being bankrolled by FedEx and annually brings in high-major talent. Three of the six players who transferred out of Memphis went to high-major schools and three of the six players who transferred into Memphis came from high-major schools. Don’t argue with me on this, please.)

The goal of every high-major school every single year is to make the NCAA tournament. That’s especially true for a team not only trying to rebound from a 19-game losing streak, but trying to keep fans (and recruits) excited about the program. Gates generated a lot of goodwill after his first season. That’s gone now. He’s starting from square one again.

And so, I think the path to get to the Big Dance is pretty straightforward. Getting to 20 wins is usually the bar to clear. MU has to beat one or two of its high-major opponents and all of the mid- and low-majors in non-conference. And then it’s gotta be no lower than .500 in the SEC. That’ll at least put it on the bubble.

It doesn’t have to reach the same heights as the 2022-23 team. It just needs a season like TCU had last year. The Horned Frogs had the sixth-easiest non-con slate according to KenPom. The team lost to Clemson and Nevada in neutral site games, beat Georgetown on the road and Arizona State in a semi-home game and defeated all its blood donors. It went 9-9 in the Big 12 to finish the regular season at 20-11, defeated Oklahoma in its first game of the conference tournament, lost to Houston in the next round, was selected to the NCAA tournament as a 9 seed and lost to 8-seed Utah State. If Mizzou can produce that kind of season, I’d call it a success.

But winning that conference tournament game was crucial for TCU because Oklahoma was right there on the bubble with them. The Sooners had the 43rd-weakest non-conference schedule per KenPom, defeated Iowa, USC, Providence and Arkansas and lost to just North Carolina to head into the 2024 calendar year at 12-1. OU went 8-10 in the Big 12 though and its loss to the Horned Frogs in the postseason left it as one of the first four teams out.

That’s the margin for error here and so, because of that, I don’t fault teams for leaning toward a “cupcake” schedule. I don’t think a weak non-conference schedule would keep a team out of the tournament as long as you beat the teams you’re supposed to, especially because the conference schedule is grueling — Minnesota, TCU and Oklahoma were all in the top 80 in overall strength of schedule because they play in some of the toughest leagues in the country. I do think, however, it puts a cap on how high of a seed you can get — unless you dominate, you’re most likely going to end up in the middle on the 7, 8, 9, 10 lines. But again, if the goal is just to make it there, who cares what your seed is?

I recognize I haven’t said a whole lot about the conference schedule to this point. And don’t get me wrong, conference play is important. Ole Miss, for instance, went a flawless 13-0 against its non-conference slate with wins over NC State, Memphis, UCF and Cal. And then it got off to a solid start in the SEC, going 5-3. And then … the Rebels lost eight of their last 10 games in the regular season, both victories coming against Missouri, got bounced by Texas A&M in their first game of the conference tournament and didn’t earn an invite to the Big Dance. A 7-12 conference record is tough to overcome.

But the thing is, we have no idea who’s going to be good or bad. Like, the home-and-homes the Tigers have this year are with Arkansas, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. And on paper, that seems decently favorable. The Razorbacks got some big names out of the portal, but it’s John Calipari’s first year there and that doesn’t always equal success (see: Arkansas last year). I think Porter Moser is a good coach and that incoming freshman Jeremiah Fears could be really good right away, but the Sooners lost their two leading scorers and their leader in assists. And while Commodores new head coach Mark Byington rebuilt his team’s roster, headlined by Michigan State transfer guard A.J. Hoggard … it’s still Vandy.

But just as Mizzou fans could look at those three and be glad to play them multiple times, fans of those teams are probably looking at the Tigers like “Oh, they went 0-19 last year. I’m glad we get to play them twice.” South Carolina was predicted to finish in last place in last year’s preseason poll and finished in a four-way tie for second place. Arkansas was predicted to finish third and instead ended in a two-way tie for third-worst. Again, nobody knows anything right now.

I will say, though, that a big positive of the SEC schedule for Missouri is that it only has to play Mississippi State and Texas A&M once. I don’t know if those teams will be any good this season, I just know that they’ll be super physical and dominate the glass and make every game a rock fight and that style tends to work well against Mizzou. Gates is 1-6 against those two teams combined and it took the biggest shot of Nick Honor’s career to get the one win against MSU in overtime. The Tigers literally held Texas A&M to 28.8% from the field in a game this year and lost (I just shuddered reminding myself of it).

There are 74 days left till the season tips off. I’ll have a more concrete prediction on Mizzou’s wins and losses closer to the start of the year.

Whose grand idea to open a promising season was it to not open the lots until 3pm? I was already planning on taking off at noon and now I got an insane amount of dead time! I can’t imagine how pissed some people are who took the whole day off from outside Columbia to come in.


Real Ass hat, who ever made that call!

I'm going to count down the top 25 Mizzou football players of the last 25 years (so No. 1 will be posted the day before Mizzou vs Murray State).

This was my cutoff of no brainers. The rest of the list, you can argue a guy should have been higher or lower, this guy should have been on the list, this guy shouldn't have. From here to the end, in my opinion, there's absolutely zero room for debate these are the top seven players at Mizzou in the last quarter century. You might have a minor squabble with the order, but I really don't see any way you can make an argument any of these should be replaced by someone else in the top seven.

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

WR Luther Burden made the first team.

RG Cam’Ron Johnson and RT Armand Membou made the third team.

Week 11: at Mizzou (W)​

In the Theo Wease Bowl, Oklahoma shows that it has plenty of pass-catchers who can play at the SEC level. That turns into another frustrating day at the office for Mizzou’s secondary, which looks overmatched for the third time in as many games. Anderson makes a pair of jump-ball grabs downfield that deflate the home crowd. Brady Cook tries to put on his cape, but he ends up suffering a leg injury while trying to extend a play. He shows grit by staying in, but ultimately, Oklahoma dials up too much pressure for him to mount a comeback. The Sooners hand Mizzou a devastating home loss.

Sounds like they see our Secondary as a Liability.

Was just thinking about this. Since the end of last season we have broken down this season a million ways. Dozens of podcasts and interviews, hundreds of articles and thousands of posts. Four months from today the first round of the playoff will be over. Point being it’s crazy how quick the season goes after how long the buildup and anticipation lasts.

We are proud to welcome Will Garrett, Agency Sales Manager of Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance as our partner and sponsor. When you’re looking for in-depth analysis of everything happening at Mizzou, Monday Morning Thoughts is the place to go. When you’re looking for an in-depth review of your insurance policies, Will Garrett is who you need. Born and raised a Tiger fan, Will is proud of his hometown and takes pride in protecting his community, and the people in it. The time to prepare for tomorrow is today. Find Will in his office just south of Faurot Field! Click here to get in touch with Will and start the process.


It’s getting closer. We are 17 days from opening day. Next Monday’s Ten Thoughts will be the final installment before game week. So let’s get to it

1) I know I tell you all the time not to read into press conferences and the words coaches say. And as a general rule, I stand by that. That said, I’m now going to read into Eli Drinkwitz’s Saturday press conference a little bit. You can see the main things that he said HERE.

My take: Drinkwitz is very comfortable with his team. He has appeared to be quite relaxed this camp (and by relaxed, I mean that in terms relative to college football coaches in August). He isn’t making a bunch of grandiose statements or stirring the pot, but he also isn’t shying away from expectation at all. He came into the press conference Saturday and in response to my very general, got to ask something to start the press conference question, he basically told us everything that happened in Missouri’s scrimmage and apologized to us for not letting us watch it and write about it. I don’t really know what prompted that part of it, but whatever it was, I hope there’s more of it.

In a profession that guards everything like a state secret—and, yes, there’s still some of that going on at Mizzou—Drinkwitz opened up and didn’t have a problem telling us about his team. I hypothesized a couple weeks ago that Drink talked so much and said some outrageous things in his first two seasons to take the spotlight off his players. There were a lot of them that weren’t good enough and he knew it. And honestly, I think there were quite a few of them he didn’t particularly like (to be fair, I think the feeling was mutual). That’s changed. I’m a big believer that winning causes culture more than culture causes winning, but when you have both it can be a very good thing. And I think Missouri has both.

That was most evident to me in Corey Flagg talking about why he came to Missouri.

Login to view embedded media
He’s not coming to a place he has to build anything. He’s not coming to a place he’s going to be a star. Honestly, he might not even be coming to a place he’s going to start. But he paid respect to the guys who have been here throughout the entire process who have made this program a place where a Power Five player with one year left to play who could have chosen a lot of places to do it wanted to do it here.

Look, this can all come apart. Every team loves each other and says all the right things before the season. We don’t really find out the truth until the bullets start flying and often not until one of them actually hits something. So, yeah, still keep in mind that there’s only so much we can read into words in August. But I really do think Drinkwitz likes his team. A lot. Even if it doesn’t reach the heights everyone wants it to, I think he’s comfortable with the guys he’s taking to the fight.

2) Here’s the main reason I think he likes it: Depth.

Competitive depth is a phrase Drink has used over and over the last two years. Even in the spring he told us he thought this team had more competitive depth than any he’d coached at Missouri. Missouri has had stars since joining the SEC. It’s had positions or even sides of the ball that were good enough to compete with basically anyone in the country. But it hasn’t had the full deck. The difference between the elite teams and everybody else isn’t just 1-22, but 23-44. Missouri hasn’t had many teams (maybe any) that could compete on that 23-44 level. And I’m not saying for sure it does this year. But I think it might. And Drink seems to think it might.

“Football is different just because of the rotational amount of players. You know, really besides quarterback and offensive line, everybody else is playing snap counts, you know, and so I feel pretty confident that we're two deep at just about every position,” he said on Saturday. “I feel really confident. You know, for us, it's about continuing to establish that competitive special teams and making sure that you know 35 through 50 are able and ready to help win in the SEC.”

Here are examples: Marcus Carroll was the 7th leading rusher in the country last year and I don’t think he’s going to start. Either Darris Smith or Zion Young is going to come off the bench. Missouri has four linebackers who have started major college football games, three in Power Five conferences. Two of them won’t start. Sidney Williams and TreVez Johnson were at Florida and Florida State. Neither is probably going to start. Jayven Richardson is a gigantic offensive lineman who’s probably Missouri’s swing tackle. The backup quarterback won games at Notre Dame. There are third-string receivers who were four-star prospects.

You need 40 guys to win at this level. At least. You’re playing 2-3 running backs, 5-7 receivers, three tight ends, 4-5 defensive tackles, 4-5 defensive ends, 4-5 corners, 3-4 linebackers and 4-6 safeties (if you include the STAR as a safety). And most teams need a backup quarterback and a couple of backup offensive linemen somewhere along the way. You don’t really know if you have all that until you’re forced to find out, but Missouri thinks it does. And I’m not sure Missouri has ever really thought that. I know it hasn’t since Drinkwitz has been here.

3) Along those lines, Marcus Bryant said something really interesting. He said Missouri’s pitch to him was basically “We need one more piece to the puzzle. Come be that piece.”

Cayden Green played left tackle all spring. Missouri was perfectly happy going that route and having a competition at left guard this summer. But then Bryant went to the portal from SMU.

“We wanted to be delicate because, you know, we felt like Cayden could also play left tackle, played it all spring,” Drinkwitz said. “But when he came in, it was like, ‘Look, I'll do whatever for the team to help us win.’ That really provided us the flexibility to go get the best player. And just hats off to his unselfishness. (That shows) what kind of teammate and player Cayden is.”

To me, it also was the number one signal that Missouri was going all in this year. I tried to get Drinkwitz to say that when I asked him about the pitch to Bryant, but he didn’t. He said “we’re always trying to win right now” and obviously that’s true. But there are times when you know the iron is hot and you need to strike when it is. Because there are just naturally going to be times it’s a little less hot. Look at the transfers Missouri brought in:

One year left: Nate Noel, Marcus Carroll, Marcus Bryant, Corey Flagg Jr.

Two years: Sterling Webb, Chris McClellan, Zion Young, Eddie Kelly, Darris Smith, Khalil Jacobs, Toriano Pride

Three years: Cayden Green, Drew Pyne (pending a waiver), Orion Phillips

Four years: Jeremiah Beasley

That’s 11 of 15 that have one or two years left to play. Which means they aren’t going somewhere to wait. Of the four that have more than those two years left, you have a full-time starter as a true freshman at a Power Four program, a quarterback who should compete for the starting job next year, a punter and a four-star recruit you nearly landed out of high school.

If that doesn’t say “We understand the opportunity and we’re doing everything we can to maximize it” I don’t know what does.

@JHamilton23 did...again 😔

BUT I WAS SO CLOSE

since there's been a lot of talk about Mizzou's chances if they go 10-2 (dependent partly on which ones are the two), here are the teams that would have missed a 12-team playoff with the current format while winning 10 games in a major conference the last few years:

2023: Oklahoma, Iowa
2022: Washington
2021: BYU, Oregon, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wake Forest
2020: N/A Covid season
2019: Alabama, Oregon, Notre Dame, Minnesota
2018: Washington State
2017: TCU
2016: West Virginia
2015: Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Florida
2014: Wisconsin, Mizzou

It's happened to at least one team every year. It's happened to more than two teams 1/3 of the time. It's probably happening to somebody.

I know its another site, but the composite roster talent is out, and Mizzou ranks 19th overall (last year was 25th) and ranks 10th in the SEC. Just shows Drink has done an incredible job building this team through recruiting and transfer portal.

Top 25 Breakdown
SEC: 13
Big 10: 6
ACC: 5 and Notre Dame

Big 12: 0, highest is TCU at 28

ku is 49, while Vandy is 50 which is the lowest SEC team

Fantastic watch w Chance Daniels Login to view embedded media

I'm going to count down the top 25 Mizzou football players of the last 25 years (so No. 1 will be posted the day before Mizzou vs Murray State).

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...ayoff-2024-preseason-bubble-watch-predictions

They seem to really be high on Bama and Ole Miss to get at-large spots. Hmmmm. Not sure I agree with them. Really hammer us on the SOS.

The first PowerMizzou recruiting trip of the season will be taking place Thursday and Friday of this week.

I’ll be staying in the Chesterfield area of St. Louis, so drop some food suggestions in this thread

Maybe I’ll take you up on your suggestions, or maybe I’ll just go to Applebee’s depending on my mood 😉

As most know, the parking permit transfer is quite easy. Thanks Jason 417-839-7441

"Matrix Midwest, launched by Gray Media in tandem with Channel 4 (KMOV-TV) will be freely available locally as channel 32 — channel 186 on Spectrum/Charter — and include a new pre- and post-game show for Mizzou football games this season."